Pining for the Fjords

Want to read more of the story?  Start here:  Thursday , Friday Morning Eventually, our start time drew near, and we headed en masse back to the big white tent to send Matt off in style.  On the way, we stopped for a few team pictures with the official Ragnar FJ: Go Team Breaking Rag! And the goofy one... We happened to notice that Ragnar had already spotted the picture Ryan posted to Instagram of Jake and Kevin, and it was one of the first shots hanging in the race tent! Look, it’s us! We wished Matt well and sent him off to the big white transition tent to get ready to kick off our team’s actual running.  Here he comes! And there he goes! We knew Matt wouldn’t take very long, so Chris, as the next runner in rotation, was almost ready to go when we hiked back to camp.  Since I was third, and I knew Chris wouldn’t take long either, I also started collecting my gear for my first leg, around the red loop. A pic of Matt from the

Want to read more of the story?  Start here:  Thursday When last I blogged, Chris, Jake, and I retired for the night in Matt’s tent (a great tent – nice and roomy but super easy to assemble).  In 2014, Ragnar cut off folks coming into the site around 7pm, which left the evening nice and quiet after everyone fell asleep around 10pm.  This year, Ragnar let everyone keep coming in until 10, which lead to teams still setting up camp at midnight.  Nothing soothes you to sleep quite like the “ting” of a hammer trying to bully a metal stake into the hard Arizona ground.  Eventually, we all got some shut-eye, although some of the jerks in camp were still yammering at 2am or so (in an attempt to block out the sound, I had earplugs plus my knit cap plus my sleeping bag pulled over my head.  It helped, but it didn’t completely fix the issue). Needless to say, the next morning arrived and we were a bit worse for wear. Chris says “good morning!” We greeted the sunrise and sta

We had so much fun running the Ragnar Trail Relay at McDowell Mountain last year , we signed up to do it again in 2015!  It was the weekend of November 6-7, and we had a blast once more. After learning last year that camping on Thursday night was a good idea, we decided to do that again, to help us ensure a good campsite.  Jake joined us for the adventure, and we greatly appreciated his help, as the logistics of dropping off the gear and driving the car to the parking area make having at least three people a real necessity.  Plus, Jake’s fun, so we’re glad he came along. Backing up a bit, our morning started with the Ragnar tradition of the making of the GORP: Cool scoop assist by Toni In the past, I’ve had just a few big bags of GORP, but since Ragnar McDowell doesn’t give you a chance to wash your hands with actual soap for a few days straight, I figured folks might appreciate individual GORP bags this year.  After all, it’s not so gross when it’s your own dirty

Missing something?  Check out the start of this story:   Days 1 and 2 ,  Day 3 ,  Day 4 , Day 5 On Tuesday, 10/27, we awoke to a beautiful sunrise coming straight in the windows of the spare room in Sarah and Kevin’s place, lighting up the city: We also awoke to this little face, which is apparently what happens when you sleep inside a bedroom normally populated by small children: Good morning! We got ready to head out on the town, and we stopped for croissants at a great pastry shop near Sarah’s, Patisserie des Ambassades; we also grabbed caffeine to go at nearby Double Dutch.  Both were delicious!  We hopped on the very crowded subway train and headed downtown to our first stop, the 9/11 Memorial. The new Freedom Tower, near the site While we didn’t visit the museum itself (not enough time, and we weren’t sure if we could handle the emotional impact of it), we did stroll through the Memorial Park, which was lovely.  There are two giant water fea