Ragnar Florida Keys: Leg 2

After Murph “shaked and baked” her way around the Homestead NASCAR track, we handed the baton and the running to Van 1, and it was off to eat dinner.  

Lit by the everlasting wholesome glow of Beary Styles,

we are on a quest to find food!

We found a local pizza place called The Big Cheese and proceeded to have a lovely and rather filling meal.  The pizza was great, and the garlic bread had so much potency that we’re pretty sure we won’t have any vampire issues for the next few years.

He’s crying.

On the inside.

Murph is ready to eat!

After dinner, we started our drive south, into the Keys proper.  My brother Jim’s boss, Brian, has a fish camp trailer on Tavernier, which was only about 5 minutes from Exchange 18, where we would take the run back over from Van 1.  Since we had 4-5 hours until we were due at 18, we headed to the trailer for showers and naps.  Mom and Uncle Doug had done us the favor of scouting out the area ahead of time and calling with updated information; what we didn’t expect was the treats they also left for us:

Hey, I know that handwriting!

Snacks!

We made good use of these during the rest of our journey.

We expected the trailer to be rough, but it was a bit more so than expected.  Even so, a few of us were able to get clean (by the light of our headlamps, as the bathroom didn’t have electricity), and we all found space to grab a few zzz’s.  We truly appreciate Brian opening his Keys getaway spot to us to use during our down time.

Erin, starting the nap patrol and Murph, getting ready for her shower

Scott, ready to get his sleep on

After clearing out of the trailer (and un-taping all of the snacks from the railing, an arduous task), we headed over to Exchange 18 (a local high school), where Chris would once again start the running rotation for our van.  While waiting for Luis to run in and hand off the slap bracelet*, we saw a few ambulances and fire/rescue crews come into the exchange.  The heat and humidity were definitely getting to people, and I think some folks may have been forgetting to hydrate.  No bueno.

Luis flew into the exchange, and Chris was off!  This was his longest leg (9.9 miles), so we stopped a few times to support him; the first time, we parked the van exactly where it had been…right in front of the trailer park!  The trailer was not only convenient to the exchange – it was directly on Chris’ route!

We saw this multiple times

After Chris ran by, we moved down the road a few miles and waited for him to come by again.  It started to drizzle just a bit during this part of his run, but thankfully, this never blossomed into full rain.

Taira and I, just waiting in the wet

After supporting him here, we moved on to the next exchange, where I readied myself for my second leg, a 6.2 mile run.  I really enjoyed this run.  It was around 3-4am, so it was completely dark, and I had the opportunity to cross a few smaller bridges on my own; since the light pollution is kept to a minimum in the Keys, I could see hundreds (maybe thousands - no joke) of stars.  It was gorgeous.  Since the sun wasn’t beating down, the temperature wasn’t too bad, although it was still really muggy (this was south Florida, after all).  

Other than the sections across bridges, I was on a pedestrian running path separated from the vehicular traffic, so I felt safe (although my imagination was telling me to run through what to do, should a cougar come bounding out of the nearby brush) and I was able to stay pretty close to my predicted 9:00/mile pace.  I did end up hitting a few bigger puddles, so my shoes were pretty damp by the end of the run, but overall, it was good.  My team also stopped to support me a few times, and it was always encouraging to see them cheering me on.

I came into my exchange and handed off the baton to Scott, who had his longest leg, a 8.1 miler.  Added to this was that Scott crossed a major bridge, so most of his run was unsupported.  LAME.  We drove up ahead of him and parked around mile 6.5, where several other vans had congregated near a gas station.  He came past us, shared a delightful story about some GI troubles he experienced while around mile 3, took some water and a gu, then he was off again to finish out his leg.

We proceeded to the next exchange, where Taira readied herself for her second run.  Although it was light enough to see properly, since it was before 7:30am, Taira still had to wear all of her safety gear, which did not really excite her.  However, she had the advantage of seeing the sun rise over the water, which was stunning.

I think this was sunrise.  Not really sure.

Taira’s run was mainly unsupported here as well (lots of bridges in this area), so we zoomed ahead to the next exchange, where Erin would take over.

Chillin' like a villain in the Bear Force One!

Nice handoff, ladies!

Look at that slap bracelet action!

When Taira made it to us, she thanked us for the water we’d left out for her along the trail, since we couldn’t stop and give it to her ourselves.  We said she was welcome, but that wasn’t us.  Apparently, Taira jacked someone else’s water.  Oops! 

We moved directly to the next exchange (Erin’s leg was a short 3 miler) and Murph got ready to take the baton from Erin.  This exchange would be a “virtual exchange,” meaning that the runner coming in wouldn’t actually hand the bracelet to the next runner, but would instead virtually “high-five” across the road to signal to the next runner that it was time to go.  This exchange was at a Dolphin Research Center, and we made the most of the giant dolphin sculpture for some photo ops:

Check out those sweet Ragnar compression socks!

As Erin was coming in, Murph realized she wasn’t wearing a race number (this happened to multiple members of our team this Ragnar), so she did a quick interval sprint back to the van to snag one before starting her run.  Chris cheered her on:

Well, maybe in his dreams he did

It was getting close to 9am, and it was already warm.  We stopped a few times to support Murph, including one spot where we busted out our sidewalk chalk (again) and bubbles, and Scott took to high-fiving a few runners from other teams.

Everybody loves the bear coat!

Tiny bubbles…

Toasty Murph

We greeted Murph again at Exchange 24, the Marathon Airport, with the other Sarah, who would start Van 1 off on their last set of legs.  It was getting really hot, so we all hustled into the shade to rest for a bit before hopping back into the van. 

Coming up…our last set of legs!  Hooray!

Amy

* He swapped with Ryan this leg.  We're pretty sure it was to ensure he had more mileage than Chris.  He can feel free to debate this if he actually reads this blog AND goes all the way to read this footnote.  I mean, that's commitment, people.