Ragnar McDowell Mountain – Part the Last!
After seeing Chris pass our campsite on his way to conquer
the red trail,* I ate half a bagel and headed to Matt’s team campsite, figuring
if I was up to run in about an hour, he would be, too. Although he had a bit longer to wait (their
team seemed to be about 20-30 minutes behind us at this point), he graciously
accompanied me to the campfire to get warm and wait for our legs to start. At the proper time, I moved to watching the
tv screen, saw Chris’ number come across, stripped off all of my layers (well,
all but one - there's no nude running, even if it is Ragnar), and headed into the tent.
Chris came running in and after swapping the race bib for all of our
warm clothes,** I sprinted off to finish my run, this time on the green loop,
the shortest of the three.
The green loop was another fun trail – actually, all of the
trails were really well crafted and enjoyable – but it had a fair amount of
running through sandy washes, which can get tiring. Imagine running along the beach – sounds
good, right? Wrong. The sand shifts around underneath your feet,
and you have to work hard to move anywhere, not to mention avoid twisting an
ankle on the uneven footing.
Overall, though, it was fun.
I flew along, maintaining my expected pace of 10:30, climbed up the
stupid f’ing hill in the last half mile, and handed the bib off to Sara. I then hoofed it back to camp to change into
warm clothes and hop into Bryan’s still-warm sleeping bag.*** I recall chatting with the group for a little
bit, finishing a beer still hanging around from earlier, then pulling the
sleeping bag up over my head to keep warm.
See? This really did happen.
I must have dozed off, because when I woke some time
later,**** most of the team was gone.
The campsite was pretty much vacant, and I was staring straight into the
rising sun. Thankfully, Luis and Sara
were still there, so I could at least feel reassured I hadn’t been abandoned by
my entire team. Eventually, everyone
came back; the team had gone down to wish Bryan and Jake good luck on their
legs, as well as wander a bit now that the sun was up. That meant it was time to start packing a
bit, as well as eat more sandwiches and drink more beer – what? That left us less to take home later!
We’re missing Jake and Murph here, so they must be running or something
There’s Jake! He is running!
And there’s
Murph! She must have been changing.
As the sun continued to rise and the day moved along, Jen
started her final leg, her run through the 8.4 miles of the red loop. It was getting close to 9am by this point,
but the temperature was already started to rise. Since we knew we had a little bit of time, we
packed as much as we could, but we also enjoyed just sitting around, chatting,
and having some more snacks. Also, Luis’
wife Emily came to visit and watch us finish our run, bringing their daughter
Mila.
All the ladies love Bernard.
Mmmm…cookies.
No Ragnar is complete
without SunChips.
Bryan was tracking Jen on his phone, so as she got closer,
we put on our finishing line attire and headed down to the Village.
Here she comes!
Who wears short shorts?
Here we go!
Jen crossed the finish line to stop our time, so we grabbed
a team picture, and then headed back out to cross through the arch together.
Hooray, team!
We’re done!
Don’t worry,
everybody. Jake’s got Bernard.
Since Bernard is obviously the bomb, everyone wanted their
own picture with him:
Including our intrepid camerawoman! Selfie time!
We grabbed one last team shot…
Rag’Merica! Freak yeah!
…then headed back to the campsite to finish packing up and
heading home.
Well, now that the
beer cooler’s on its way out, better head home.
Overall, I had an awesome time at Ragnar McDowell, and I’d
highly recommend it to anyone looking for this type of trail running
experience. I still like cruising around
in the vans on the road, but the trail version is a ton of fun, too, and less
expensive (also, you get more sleep – big bonus). The loops were great runs, and no one ended
up crashing and burning; of the three giant first aid duffels we had, we only
used a few Ibuprofen and a Band Aid or two, which is great, especially given
our record at things like this.
As far as placement goes, we ended up 112th
overall out of around 350 teams, and 10th in our division (regular,
mixed, submasters) out of 20. Not too
shabby! A massive thanks to my entire
team of wonderful folks – you guys are great runners, better friends, and a
whole lot of fun to hang out with. What
are we doing next?
Later,
Amy
PS – A huge thank you to Keeli and Sara for their pictures!
* I initially waited
for him near the trailhead to say hello, but got too cold and headed back into
my sleeping bag. I tried to be a
supportive wife, but it was just too nippy.
I did keep an eye out for him, though, and saw him pass our site and
give me a nod with his headlamp.
** I was at least a
good enough wife to bring him his warm sweatshirt to wear after his run. At least there’s that.
*** We all brought our
own sleeping bags, but after spending at least 24 hours of quality time in each
other’s dust and dirt, a common, unspoken consensus was made that whatever
sleeping bag was open, you took. Most of
the time, the next runner on deck had recently vacated it, and it was still nice
and toasty with body warmth. This was
super important at this chilly hour of the morning – around 4:30am.
**** I say “some time,” as I really have no idea how long it may have been. It could have been 15 minutes or 2 hours. I now know how Rip Van Winkle felt.
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