Here’s what we do: long distance, team, overnight running relays that take place in the most breathtaking places in the world. Teams come together to conquer a course over two days and one night, and push their limits (AMEN), on little amounts of sleep (AMEN), with friends and a community of runners by their side.
From Friday to Saturday, each teammate runs all three loops. Runner 1 runs the Green Loop (hard), then Runner 2 runs the Yellow Loop (harder), Runner 3 runs the Red Loop (really freakin' hard), Runner 4 runs the Green Loop, and so on until every runner has completed the three loops. The total mileage for each runner is close to a half marathon.
So now that I have told you a little info on what a Ragnar actually is let me know tell you about my adventure!
Thursday after work Kathy, Sara and I leave my office around 5:15 pm heading to Georgia.
We barely got on the interstate heading North and the bottom literally fell out! It was raining so hard we could not see anything in front of us. Cars were pulling over on the side of the interstate. Our driver, Kathy, just kept pressing on. We were barely going 25 mph! I was praying really hard. I couldn't see anything and I was praying for the good Lord to direct her driving. It was very tense for a good while before the rain stopped. This put us behind schedule. We finally made it to Georgia around 11 pm and we were so very tired. Luckily one of the guys on our team had a ton of hotel points so he had reserved the 8 of us 2 rooms for Thursday night. We didn't have to report to camp site to check in until Friday morning. And BOY was I glad to get that 1 night in a hotel even if we slept 4 to a room because the next night in the tent was something I'll never forget!
The other half of the team had left on Thursday at lunch heading for Georgia, so they set up our tent late Thursday to get us a good spot and we didn't have to do that early Friday before running. We had a great spot. We were close to the music, camp fire, and main event start line. We didn't realize however that we would have to lug all our camping stuff for what seemed like a mile from our car to the tent! We looked around and everyone had those wagons you see people with at the beach. We were so wishing we had a wagon.
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| IF YOU DO A RAGNAR TRAIL... GET ONE OF THESE! |
My shoulders were killing me by the time we unloaded everything and got it to the tent site. AND you had to get everything out of the car! There was no leaving anything thinking that if you needed it you could go back for it later! They made you move ALL vehicles after unloading like 2 miles down the road and shuttled the driver back to camp. No vehicles were allowed to stay parked at the site.
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| Our set up tent before we unloaded all our crap. :>) |
I'm so glad that they didn't really enforce the rules on camp size!!! We didn't think we would be able to use all 3 compartments of Kathy's tent until we saw everyone else setting up big tents. There is no way we could have made it with 8 people and just 1 section of the tent! The wind was too cold to sit outside or sleep out there!
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| After we unloaded |
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| Some had very nice camp sites! Notice the hammocks that zip up! |
Friday morning we were there early so we had time to walk around, check things out and shop at the Ragnar store. and YES, I bought some things. I own more run clothes than work clothes. Hee Hee They had some really nice jackets that several of us bought. It was a beautiful sunny day, but the wind was CRAZY! The wind was so bad that it made it very cold sitting out in our chairs at camp. Several of us sat with blankets wrapped around us. There were some really cool camp sites! Some of these people must camp ALL the time! They had hammocks that zipped up so you could lay in them and zip yourself up to sleep and get out of the wind. BOY I was wishing I had one of those late Friday night cause that ground was so HARD! Every bone in my body hurt! And since I'm getting a back shot this week I have to be off all types of pain medicine for 7 days so there was no Advil or Aleve for me.. booo booooo
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| Amie and Kathy sporting the new JACKETS. |
So our start time on Friday was 2:30 pm. We were all pumped and ready to get it started. We huddled up for Philip to give us instructions and I asked if we could say a prayer. Sara snapped this picture of us as we gathered around and prayed. I didn't even know she took the picture until later when I saw it on Facebook and I LOVE what she wrote because I firmly believe you must first seek God in ALL that you do! I must share her words....
"For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” (Matthew 18:20) ~~~ All good things start with the Man in charge!!! Ready or not, 120 miles, here we come!!
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| Tails from the SIPP ready to START!~ |
We had to go watch a safety video first and then we were able to pick up our packet with our team number, etc. During the video the guy said if we wanted to each runner could have 1 pacer go with them on their loop so of course all of us started planning who we would run with on each loop. You know us crazy RUNNERS..we love to get in extra MILES. Kelvin started us off followed by Kathy, Me, Kim, Sara, Amie, Philip & Stan. I had the 6.7 RED loop as my first loop. Kathy said she wanted to run it with me after doing her 4.6 loop (which ended up 5.1 on everyone's watches), however when she came in and I was standing there to start she gave me that "kbyrd" look and said NO. So then I'm like ... oh my... if she says no after doing 4.6 miles how bad is my 6.7 miles going to be... I mean she's a beast! She loves a challenge and she was telling me no. Stan was standing there and immediately said he would run the loop with me. He had previously asked and I had told him that Kathy planned to. He wanted to get extra miles himself.
Since the Red Loop was my first loop.. remember what the Ragnar website said...
Red Loop (
really freakin' hard). I'll give you my take on the red loop. The red loop starts out flat and in an open area for about 2.7 miles. It's a good time to get a really fast pace because after the initial 2.7 miles .... you will SLOW down. Stan was running with me and he had also ran the green loop with Kelvin to start off (yes, he's a beast too). He was saying as we were running that he sure did think the green loop was harder than the red... HOWEVER, after that initial 2.7 miles on the red loop he quickly changed his mind. LOL He then said the red loop was the hardest loop. After the 2.7 miles you turn into the woods. NARROW trail (like maybe 12 inches), tree stumps, and steady climb up the mountain. Soon it opens up to these granite slabs.
I can't imagine running them in the rain! The slabs are huge and the course goes right over them. They are uneven and tons of places where you could lose your footing. It's beautiful but tough. Not to mention you climb uphill on them and then come downhill on them. AND I'll be honest. I'm in the middle of this ironman training and do not want any broke bones, so I took every step very carefully. Some of the team ran as hard as they could each loop, but not me. I did my loops with precaution.
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| Stan took this of me starting out on the RED LOOP> |
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| They put colored bands on us as we started our loop so we wouldn't forget what loop we were on and go in the wrong direction. |
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| Grabbing a selfie while Stan took a picture of the river. |
So when I'm about to finish my red loop, I'm remembering that I told Kim I would run her loop with her directly after my loop and I realize that I am NOT going to do that. Now I know exactly why Kathy had said no to me. The loops were challenging and you were ready for a break after your own loop. We were all thinking initially how most of us are ultra marathoners so how hard could a 6.7, 4.6, or 3.8 mile loop be. Trust me we all discovered how hard after we did them. We all decided we really didn't want those extra miles. We would just stick with doing our own loops. I was so relieved that Philip was standing there and said he would run with Kim.
Oh and when we ran it was HOT. The wind did not seem to blow inside all those trees! I was a total sweaty mess after my 6.7 mile loop. And did I mention we are camping.. NO SHOWER. Nothing but Porta Potties. I was so glad I had stumbled across these awesome athlete wipes! I wiped down, changed clothes, zipped up my nasty clothes in a zip lock bag, and waited for my next loop which wasn't until midnight.
I had thought I might get some good shut eye until my next loop, but you could hear so many different conversations going on in the camp. Not to mention that even though I was laying on a really thick sleeping bag the ground was so HARD. I had to turn every 15-20 minutes because my body would be hurting so bad. It was HORRIBLE. We were also all keyed up and keeping watch on each runner and telling each other when it was time to get ready to do the next loop. In the beginning we were all out at the start line cheering each other off and watching each other come in, but that quickly faded as the day turned to night. Philip had us a plan where whoever was out running would text when they were 1 mile out so the next runner would know to head to the start gate. It worked great. He really did a great job planning everything. He knew all of our normal paces and had staggered us in the run order accordingly with a plan. He's goal was for us to finish in 24 hours. We ran slightly over that. We SLOWED down a lot during the night. It's tough running in the dark on those "technical" loops!
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| A look inside our tent. That's my feet... I was resting before my midnight loop. |
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| Sara, Kim & Amie in tent |
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| Me and Kelvin sitting at camp wrapped up in blankets and ear muffs :>) |
So my 2nd loop was the
yellow loop... Everyone called this loop the "
Technical" loop. I was kind of concerned since I had to run this in the DARK and at midnight! Let me just say that I didn't think 4.6 miles could be hard and I knew exactly why Kathy had told me no after she had ran it. LOL It was very tricky. Lots of climbing up with sharp turns on the mountain. It actually felt like there was NO downhill. I only thought the red loop had narrow paths, but this one took the cake. I only saw 2 other runners the whole time I was on this loop. I could see tons of headlamps in the distance which was really cool. It was EXTREMELY dark! I was so glad I carried my little flash light along with my headlamp because I used both! I was so happy again to see that sign
"1 more mile". I didn't realize that while I was running that it started to rain back at camp. When I arrived at the tent and unzipped to crawl in tons of bags were stacked up on my sleeping bag! I was like what the heck! Then I heard one of the group say that it started raining and they had to grab all the bags outside and throw them in the tent. It took me a little bit to move them around so that I could "kind of" stretch out on my sleeping bag. I was so uncomfortable! I wanted sleep so badly. I did doze off and on, but didn't get any REAL sleep before daylight. I heard each runner in our group and in the tents around us as they came in from their loop or went out on their loop. I hate I don't have any pictures from the Yellow Loop! It was just too dark for pictures. I'd love to show you some of the course on the yellow loop!
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| Saturday morning.. waiting to start my last loop.. the guys in the background having coffee by the fire. |
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| Some of Green Loop. |
I was glad my 3rd loop was fairly early in the morning on Saturday and it was the green loop which was only 3.8 miles. Yes, I made the mistake of thinking ONLY 3.8 miles. I mean how hard can 3.8 miles be when I've ran 31 miles straight on trails before. Well, after no sleep, no shower, and again all the challenges on the trail I realized 3.8 miles is freaking hard at a Ragnar. We all did actually. LOL We all started saying.. I'll pay someone to run my last loop. Hee Hee We were tired and ready to be done. I was dreading that 5 1/2 hour drive home also.
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| Kathy and I being silly after we were FINISHED at the REI booth! |
After Kathy and I got our last loop over we walked around, branded our very own sheath to store our medal in (so cool!) and chilled while waiting on the others to finish. As the day progressed it got HOT. When Stan finished our last loop for the team we were all so EXCITED. They handed us our medals and told us they would be mailing us 8 more. They made a typo mistake by putting Atlanta, VA instead of Atlanta, GA. But what's cool about the medals is if you put all 8 together they are a puzzle and the back of them form a Ragnar saying. We quickly took a picture and then begin to pack up. It was then again that we wished we had a WAGON! We had to lug all that crap forever to the parking lot! Kathy and Amie had went to get the vans, but they wouldn't let them stop and us load our stuff at the entrance. They had to drive down in the parking lot and park and then we had to carry our stuff all the way down there! I was burning up and so very TIRED. My shoulders were aching again so bad and I wanted to pop 3-4 Advils but couldn't!
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| My sheath |
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| The back of our medals put together. The puzzle complete. Absolutely LOVE this! |
We were finally loaded and on our way. The sun was beaming in through that windshield and as we drove my eyes got so very heavy! I wanted to sleep so badly, but Kathy was driving and I wanted to try to keep her awake also. I offered to drive some, but she drove the whole way there and back! I know she had to be wore out! Maybe that's why she said she slept all day Sunday. She deserved it! When I arrived home Saturday night late I didn't even unload my stuff which is HIGHLY UNUSUAL for me. I like to unload, unpack and put everything up as soon as I get home from travel. But I didn't this time. I let everything just sit in my car. All I wanted was a bath and my bed. :>)
So would I do it again??? Not anytime soon. ha They have a race series that has races in several different states, but I don't see it as a series that I'm jumping on board to do. LOL Maybe next year, but as for 2016 I'm done with Ragnar races. Would I recommended it? Certainly! If you want to do something to challenge yourself... it's a good one to do! We did have fun sitting around our tent site talking and I did love the challenge of the trails. We all accomplished something that most won't even try. I'm more tired today (Monday) than I've ever been after a marathon, ultra or sprint TRI (I didn't rest enough Sunday.. I cleaned house), but it's the good kind of tired where you know you did something worth wild. :>) I'm not sore like after running a marathon... I'm just TIRED... probably the lack of sleep & travel along with the challenge on the trails. And for those PEEPS that said, "You were ONLY required to run 15 miles each."
PLEASE GO DO IT. :>) BTW our total time was 24 hours & 46 minutes which averages 12:22 .. pretty good for TRAIL RUNNING!
I know I left out so many fun details, but if I told it all this post would be FOREVER long. I will say that I learned just how funny Sara is on the trip! She's hilarious! Glad she rode with me and Kathy. She's new to Team Run4TheKids this year so I'm so glad I got to know her better.
Here's also a video I made from some of the pictures I took on the trails.
HAVE A BLESS DAY AND REMEMBER IT'S GOOD TO TRY NEW THINGS!
LOVE, D
We barely got on the interstate heading North and the bottom literally fell out! It was raining so hard we could not see anything in front of us. Cars were pulling over on the side of the interstate. Our driver, Kathy, just kept pressing on. We were barely going 25 mph! I was praying really hard. I couldn't see anything and I was praying for the good Lord to direct her driving. It was very tense for a good while before the rain stopped. This put us behind schedule. We finally made it to Georgia around 11 pm and we were so very tired. Luckily one of the guys on our team had a ton of hotel points so he had reserved the 8 of us 2 rooms for Thursday night. We didn't have to report to camp site to check in until Friday morning. And BOY was I glad to get that 1 night in a hotel even if we slept 4 to a room because the next night in the tent was something I'll never forget!
Oh and when we ran it was HOT. The wind did not seem to blow inside all those trees! I was a total sweaty mess after my 6.7 mile loop. And did I mention we are camping.. NO SHOWER. Nothing but Porta Potties. I was so glad I had stumbled across these awesome athlete wipes! I wiped down, changed clothes, zipped up my nasty clothes in a zip lock bag, and waited for my next loop which wasn't until midnight. 
So my 2nd loop was the yellow loop... Everyone called this loop the "Technical" loop. I was kind of concerned since I had to run this in the DARK and at midnight! Let me just say that I didn't think 4.6 miles could be hard and I knew exactly why Kathy had told me no after she had ran it. LOL It was very tricky. Lots of climbing up with sharp turns on the mountain. It actually felt like there was NO downhill. I only thought the red loop had narrow paths, but this one took the cake. I only saw 2 other runners the whole time I was on this loop. I could see tons of headlamps in the distance which was really cool. It was EXTREMELY dark! I was so glad I carried my little flash light along with my headlamp because I used both! I was so happy again to see that sign "1 more mile". I didn't realize that while I was running that it started to rain back at camp. When I arrived at the tent and unzipped to crawl in tons of bags were stacked up on my sleeping bag! I was like what the heck! Then I heard one of the group say that it started raining and they had to grab all the bags outside and throw them in the tent. It took me a little bit to move them around so that I could "kind of" stretch out on my sleeping bag. I was so uncomfortable! I wanted sleep so badly. I did doze off and on, but didn't get any REAL sleep before daylight. I heard each runner in our group and in the tents around us as they came in from their loop or went out on their loop. I hate I don't have any pictures from the Yellow Loop! It was just too dark for pictures. I'd love to show you some of the course on the yellow loop!
After Kathy and I got our last loop over we walked around, branded our very own sheath to store our medal in (so cool!) and chilled while waiting on the others to finish. As the day progressed it got HOT. When Stan finished our last loop for the team we were all so EXCITED. They handed us our medals and told us they would be mailing us 8 more. They made a typo mistake by putting Atlanta, VA instead of Atlanta, GA. But what's cool about the medals is if you put all 8 together they are a puzzle and the back of them form a Ragnar saying. We quickly took a picture and then begin to pack up. It was then again that we wished we had a WAGON! We had to lug all that crap forever to the parking lot! Kathy and Amie had went to get the vans, but they wouldn't let them stop and us load our stuff at the entrance. They had to drive down in the parking lot and park and then we had to carry our stuff all the way down there! I was burning up and so very TIRED. My shoulders were aching again so bad and I wanted to pop 3-4 Advils but couldn't!
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