Ragnar Los Coyotes: And So It Begins
This year, we pondered doing McDowell again, but given our move, we ended up picking Ragnar Los Coyotes instead, another trail relay. It's the first year of this race (it used to be Ragnar Vail Lake), and it's in Warner Springs, CA, just south of Indio, which is almost equidistant from us and our buddies who would be coming from Phoenix and Tucson. Intrigued, we said, let's do it! Since we got started a bit later than normal this year, we decided to keep our Breaking Rag name, since we already had all of the appropriate costumes and decorations.
Let the planning commence!
First, a note - since this is just the traditional "planning" post before the shananigans actually begin, it might be a bit disjointed and not very interesting. I promise future blogs about the event will be more enjoyable to read. However, if you're looking for ideas on prepping for something like this, this post might be helpful to you. Or maybe not. I don't know your life. Anywhoo...
The first project for me was to check out the sign we used last year. For sentimental reasons (I thought it might be a fun decoration in the garage), I kept the sign from last year's event, and overall, it held up pretty well. The LED wiring had dimmed a bit, particularly on the upper half of the sign, but given that it lived in a garage of Arizona through the first half of summer, then was moved to a non climate controlled POD, shipped across state lines to another garage, and then moved via car to a third garage, overall, it came through okay.
A quick redo of the wiring,
and we were ready to go!
Originally, our team this year didn't include our buddy Matt, but we were able to talk him into joining us about five weeks before the event (read: bully him into it, probably. One day, Chris was like, Matt's in! I didn't question it). We used his large tent last year, but since we didn't initially know he would be with us, the rest of us were on the lookout for another to use. We have a similarly sized tent at our house, but it's rather unwieldy and old, and Chris was looking forward to a reason to purchase another (he's still on that kick). As it turns out, Bryan and Jen sort of stumbled into owning a tent perfect for the occasion, due to some sort of retail snafu that resulted in a net benefit to them. Score!
This tent has been lab tested!
Their dogs, Bogey and Bronx.
Photo courtesy of Jen Spencer.
For Ragnar last year, Jen and Bryan also acquired a changing canopy/station; it's mounted on an umbrella and has large panels that hang down the side, and it's about seven feet tall. It's really nice at these events to have one area where everyone can sleep and store gear and another where you can easily change in and out of wet clothes without waking up your teammates (it gets really cold in the middle of the night, and you don't want to be wearing wet clothes for too long, if you can help it). The first year we did a trail Ragnar, we changed in a smaller, two person pop-up tent, and while it worked, it was quite the challenge, particularly for our taller folks.
For our part, we own the shade canopy our team uses, and we have the camp stove, as well as the table on which it sits at the site. In the weeks that passed, as I'd be doing something in the house, I'd randomly stumble across things we'd need for the event, and I'd sequester all of this in the spare bedroom. A Ragnar trail event is interesting, because it's half camping and half running, so you need a really random assortment of items. "Did you pack the bear repellent AND my foam roller?"
Lanterns and camp stoves and sleeping bags, oh my!
During each Ragnar, whether it's on the road or the trail, each person in a normal sized team (road = 12; trail = 8) runs three legs, and they're each 6-8 hours apart from one another. I learned at our very first relay that using a gallon zip-loc for each leg's clothes and gear was a great way to stay organized. In the fog of the relay (when you haven't slept properly for a while), you don't have to think about what to wear, as everything you need is in the bag; also, at the end of the leg, all of your gross clothes go back in the zip-loc to avoid contaminating everything around you. This year, I upped my game a bit further and added approximate running times and weather forecasts:
Chris' Loop 3 bag -
this will be his longest leg,
and it'll be cold and dark.
this will be his longest leg,
and it'll be cold and dark.
Our zip-locs, ready to go!
Piles of running clothes,
ready to be stuffed into each leg's zip-loc.
Those are mine, in case anyone is wondering
ready to be stuffed into each leg's zip-loc.
Those are mine, in case anyone is wondering
if Chris owns a hot pink running skirt.
Not that he couldn't work it.
How do we know the times, you might ask? Science! Actually, Excel! When we ran our first Ragnar, we attended a clinic at REI where someone offered up a copy of a leg time sheet he or she created in Excel; you put in the length of each leg, each team member's expected pace, and your team's start time, and it calculates how long it will take each person to complete each leg, as well as when they will start and finish. We print it out and keep it in a binder at our camp site, so everyone knows approximately when they next need to move down to the transition tent (that way, no one is waiting in the cold forever when they could catch a bit more sleep). As folks slow down or speed up (hardly anyone ever speeds up), we make a note in the binder, so we can recalibrate as we go.
She is a thing of beauty.
I also print out other info for the binder - the Trail Guide, which includes all of the rules and regulations you need to follow at the event - an emergency contact list for each team member (following the general premise of if you prepare for the worst, it'll never happen) - the gear and food list, so everyone knows what's available for eatin' (every Ragnar I've ever done ends with someone finding something in the food stash and being like, "I didn't know we had Oreos!" Personally, I know what food is available at all times and where it is located. It is my super power) - the event schedule and anything else we might need. My binder game is pretty on point. I mean, it's not this:
But it's not too far away.
This is the face of someone who
recognizes the strength of my binder game.
recognizes the strength of my binder game.
Although the clothes and gear have been laid out for a while, acquired just this week were the provisions that might spoil, like bagels and the makings for wraps (coldcuts, cheese, mayo, mustard, etc). The Olsen family is also in charge of the hot drink options for the team (instant chai and coffee packs, along with tea bags and sweetener/creamer) and of course...
THE GORP!
GORP firmly came into our lives almost thirteen years ago at my cousin Ryan's marriage to his lovely wife Jenni, which we attended in Atlanta. My Uncle Gene, former Air Force, put together snacks for everyone and one of the offerings on hand was GORP. Formally, GORP stands for Good Ole Raisins and Peanuts, and those two are its main components, although we flesh ours out with everything from M&Ms to pretzels as well. Essentially, it's trail mix but with better branding, and it's one of Chris' favorite things in the universe. Although I try to restrict it to important events like Ragnar, if he hasn't had GORP in awhile, we sometimes make up a batch, just so he can go on living his life.
The delicious ingredients
Although in the past, we've made a few large bags of GORP, last year, we switched to giving everyone their own little bag, and it seemed to work out well. This way, only your gross hands are in your GORP and no one dominates the entire bag (cough - Chris - cough). We followed this pattern again for this year.
Empty bags, ready to be filled!
Despite the prevalance of them in this post,
I swear we don't use single-use bags all the time.
It's just easier for things like this.
It's just easier for things like this.
I'll throw the pretzels in the bags individually,
as we have some gluten-free folks on our team.
They also don't scoop well.
Behold, GORP!
Okay, I think that's it for now! After I post this blog, we're heading for Los Coyotes, which allegedly doesn't have cell coverage anywhere, with the exception of the highest point on the longest loop. Future blogs will certainly have all sorts of pictures of our running and camping shenanigans, as well as the short trip Chris and I are taking to Palm Springs after the event to recover. Cheers to a great time with some great people!
Later!
Amy
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