Ragnar Los Coyotes: I'm Finished!

In the most recent blog, I'd just finished my final leg at the Ragnar Los Coyotes trail running event, and while my team was still out there logging miles, I was overjoyed to be done.  After my final loop, the yellow loop, was over, I handed the race bib to Chris, and he started his final leg, this time on red.  With his legs being pretty dead and having to hike up the fire road, he grabbed some shots of the scenery:







Chris had the benefit of running red
just as the sun was coming up.
What a gorgeous shot!


At around the proper time, Bryan, Kelly, and I went out to see Chris finish up his run and escort Jen into the transition tent.  Once again, we braved the smell of the Andy Gump's (it wasn't as bad as some folks were whining about, as they served the loo's at least 6-7 times over the course of the event) to cheer on our red loop warriors.


Here he comes!


He looks quite pleased to be done.


Keep running, honey!
There's the finish arch!

Jen headed out on her final run, which was a combo of the "bonus" green she was running plus her own yellow.  Standing where we were, we were in a great spot to see her come flying by as she started her legs.


Here comes Jen!


"Hi, Jen!"


There she goes!
Bottom two photos courtesy of Kelly.

With Jen gone for a good 1.5 hours or so, we headed back to the campsite with Chris for him to change into real clothes.  We then wandered over to the RV, where Joe and Janie were already preparing a hot breakfast for we famished, smelly, sleep-deprived maniacs.


Strolling through the village



Shots of the RV parking lot
under a gorgeous sky.
Photos courtesy of Kelly.


Bryan and Kelly's Dad, Joe,
cooking us an amazing breakfast - 
homemade breakfast sammy's
and blueberry pancakes.
Also, bacon and eggs!
Photo courtesy of Kelly.


Enjoying the great company!
Photo courtesy of Janie.


Chris says he will happily
double-fist cups of juice and coffee!
I will freely admit my pre-breakfast beverage
was a Four Peaks Pumpkin Porter,
brought to us courtesy of Jake.
There's a reason he's always in charge of beer.


My tights are so bright,
I have to wear shades!
Photo courtesy of Kelly.


Bryan with his boys.
Photo courtesy of Kelly.

Eventually, it was time for Jen to be done with her legs, and she came flying back through the transition tent to hand the race bib off to Jake.  It was Jake's turn to run around red, and I dare say that he found it just as enjoyable as the rest of us had to this point.  At least he got some great shots:


Personally, this is my favorite one.
I think this is how we all felt about red.



Passing the yellow turnoff,
and continuing further up the hill.



All photos here courtesy of Jake.

While Jake ran his red loop, we started packing up camp.  We deflated air mattresses, rolled up sleeping bags, and tried our best to sort out the random piles of belongings that had all become one large pile of etcetera in the wee small hours of the night.


Including these underpants.

Matt was next up on deck, so when Jake was about set to finish red, we wandered to the Andy Gump's again and waited to welcome him home (Jake, not Andy Gump.  Just checking to make sure you're with me here).  As we waited, we saw several red loop runners come streaming in carrying cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon or Coors Light.  At first, we figured another team was just emptying their coolers before they carried them home, but it seemed that this was a concentrated effort by someone to reward the folks taking down this hard run (personally, I wondered where these guys were at 8pm, but I consoled myself with the delicious Pumpkin Porter previously mentioned).  We knew that if the PBR was still on offer when Jake came by, we'd see him carrying a can.  We were not disappointed:


Photo courtesy of Jen.


Taking a quick sip.


Done!

Matt hopped up next to Jake, and they ran into the tent together, with Matt taking over the running duties for his last leg, the green.


There they go!

While Chris and I were heading to Palm Springs after this for a few days of relaxation, the Spencer contingent was headed to the San Diego area for some downtime as well.  However, Matt and Jake were traveling back to Phoenix after this; since they had a good 6 hour drive, and we were already pretty far behind schedule, they were planning on heading out directly after Matt's finish (well, after he changed clothes.  Driving home without changing would be really ripe).  To help, the rest of us finished packing things up at the campsite, so when Matt was ready to go, Jake's truck would be ready as well.  When Matt finished up, he handed the bib to Bryan, who was starting his final loop, this time around yellow.  After the gentlemen cleaned up a bit, Chris went with them to jump the XTerra, whose battery seemed to be having issues, and we wished them well on their journey home.

Bryan's loop was finished without incident, and he came storming back down the finish line to hand the bib off to Kelly, our final runner on her final leg!  


The family that runs together...
Photo courtesy of Jen.

The final leg for Ragnar trail is always red, and it always seems to take forever, both for the runner him/herself and for the rest of the team waiting for him/her.  It's generally sunny and warm again, and you're really feeling the effects of not sleeping properly and running hard loops for the past 24 hours.  During the time Kelly was out on red, she grabbed a few more great shots of the trails:










Again, seriously?
How damn photogenic is this thing?
All amazing photos courtesy of Kelly.

We completely finished our packing up of camp, including the tent and canopy, which resulted in Chris and Jen each getting a face full of dirt when the canopy was fully closed up.  Chris later commented that he felt dirt from that in one of his eyes for a good 6 hours afterward; for her part, Jen was wearing sunglasses, so while she got dirty, she may not have ended up half-blind from this.  Chris' comment: "Jen is much smarter than I am."  I'll let them figure that one out.

Anywhoo, we packed everything up and headed back to the RV to chill for awhile, visiting with Joe and Janie and eating all their Cheez-Its.  After a bit, Bryan, Chris, and I headed out to wander the village; Chris and I grabbed a pizza and some much needed caffeine from Freak Brothers (yes!  The folks who started out at Aravaipa Races!  They were here!  I read on their tent that they're opening a restaurant in Phoenix in 2017, so everyone must visit them there, okay?  Seriously, they're great) while Bryan spent some time in the Elevated Legs tent:


He seems to be enjoying himself.
He and Jen swear by these.

For her part, while the rest of us were eating junk food and relaxing, Kelly was still out there kicking butt on red.  She grabbed this great shot of the best sign on each loop of the course:


For my part, every time I saw this sign,
I almost screamed cuss words out loud
in sweet relief.

With around 20 minutes left on her loop, those of us at the RV donned our hazmat suits and headed to the end of the red loop, which ran right behind the RV and car parking lots.  We saw Kelly coming and swished our way (some of us slower than others) to the finish line.  She knew we were headed her way, so she stopped just before the finish, which gave us time to get her suited up and heading across the line together.  Here's a video from our epic finish line sprint, if I've figured out how to embed it properly.

Here we are, the three female members of Team Breaking Rag:


Photo courtesy of Joe and Janie.

The whole team, minus Matt and Jake:


Happy but exhausted!
Photo courtesy of Joe and Janie.

And one of the entire Spencer family in residence:


Since we registered as a team of 8,
we ended up with 8 medals for 7 runners.
Our 8th medal went to Joe and Janie,
who more than earned it for
their wonderful contributions to our team.

Overall, our final finish time was 31:27:32, which was 9 hours later than our expected time frame.  These trails were just so hard; our fastest overall runner was Chris, whose average pace was 14:27.  I was second at 14:33; for comparison, when I ran the Long Beach Marathon, my average pace was right around 9:00 flat.  While trails will almost always make you slower, Los Coyotes was insanely hard.  Comparing it to last year's McDowell Ragnar, our time there was just over 22 hours.  That's a huge margin, and it was solely due to the difficulty of this course.  

We always have a wonderful time being together at these events, and this one was even more special for Chris and I since we haven't seen these awesome folks for a good six months since our move out of AZ.  It was awesome to catch up with everyone, and it was equally lovely to get to know Kelly, Joe, and Janie.  I've long believed that the Spencers are some of the nicest people we know, as well as being the most entertaining, and meeting the extended family only further convinced me of this.  We can't wait to hopefully see everyone again soon, and we do plan to do another Ragnar in the future, albeit not this one.  That freaking fire road...

Later!

Amy

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