Ragnar McDowell 2015 – Friday Evening
When last we Rag’d, everyone finished their first set of
loops, and the sun had set, bringing us up to around 7pm or so on Friday
evening. As a side note, it’s crazy to
think that this point in time was only 7pm, as it felt like the middle of the
damn night.
Like I posted last year, this is the time of night when not
many pictures are taken, as it’s dark, but it’s when some of the funniest
moments happen. For example, I can’t
remember who was sitting around at the time, but several of us relaxing under
the canopy saw a young man (12-13 years old) attempt to ride a Razor scooter
down the path between campsites. We were
camped in a trailhead parking lot, which in Arizona, is made up of hardpack
with some loose rock, most of these being 1-2 inches around. The scooter would slide for a foot, catch on
a rock, almost dump the kid off, glide another foot, catch, lather, rinse,
repeat. It was highly amusing for those
of who had been up for the past day or so, and we immediately proclaimed it the
best thing to happen at Ragnar that year.
Ragnar after dark!
Jake says it’s time to rave!
After my initial spin around the red loop, I tried to nap,
but too many things were going on, so I ended up rejoining my teammates under
the canopy. After Matt and Chris ran
again, I headed out on the yellow loop, which was my least favorite this
year. Last year, I loved yellow, so
whatever changes the race made diminished it my eyes this year, and the general
consensus on our team seemed to be the same.
The loop was full of sharp climbs with equally sharp descents; descents
that even a somewhat veteran trail runner like me (yes, I do say this
seriously) didn’t feel comfortable moving down with any sort of speed. It was fun to run through the tunnel and back
over it again, and it was also enjoyable to run through part of our campsite
from last year, which was on the other side of the road. Overall, though, I was happy to have this one
done and hand the bib back to Ryan, as well as his lovely lady, Tara, who
joined him on the run.
Jake and Ryan,
modeling the latest in compression socks.
It’s called “fashion.”
Tara is a wonderful person anyway, but were particularly
endeared to her at this Ragnar, as she did us the solid of working all day,
going home, making us all breakfast burritos for the morning, then – and only
then - driving them out to us at McDowell.
She also ran with Ryan on the longest of his loops, to keep him
company. She’s seriously outstanding. After I changed into my dry clothes after
yellow, I collapsed in the tent, and when I awoke, Tara had already departed
camp for the warm, clean confines of her car and then her house. She’s far smarter than we are, obviously. I certainly can’t blame her, especially
because she also woke up before the crack of dawn on Sunday to volunteer for Girls
on the Run (a great charity) at the San Tan XTerra race. However, I felt bad missing her exit to say
thank you once again for her work on our behalf.
Thankfully, though, I was still able to spend some time
talking (read this as: shivering in a camp chair and attempting to put coherent
sentences together punctuated by bouts of staring and slow blinking) to Keeli,
Jake’s lovely wife, who drove out to McDowell TWO nights in a row to spend time
with us. On Thursday, she stopped on her
way home to bring Jake the camp chair he’d forgotten, and on Friday, she came
to hang out for a bit AND brought us hot pizza.
She and Tara are the best, obviously.
Eventually, the running order lapped itself again and it was
my turn to hit up green, the shortest and easiest of the loops this year. Green was fun – a gradual, moderate uphill
for the first two miles, then a sharp turn punctuated by a fast downhill finish
for the remaining two; while there was one section of trail that seemed washed
out by Wednesday night’s rains, the course was lovely, overall. This was the second year where I’d placed
myself as runner 3, and I was glad to be romping through the shortest, easiest
loop as my final stretch. It was around
4am by this point, so I also had the pleasure of seeing the crescent moon
setting over the mountains, and it was gorgeous.
I flew back into the tent, handed the barely functioning bib
back to Ryan, and scurried back to the campsite for warm clothes and food.
Up next, Saturday dawns clear and chilly but we finally
finish running! Hooray!
Later!
Amy
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