My Napa Valley Ragnar Relay Race Report. The Return of TL;DR!!
X-posted in runners!
Last Friday and Saturday I ran in the Napa Valley Ragnar Relay, one of those insane relay races you hear so much about!
A Ragnar Relay is a relay race with teams of twelve runners and the course is around 200 miles long (give r' take,) and takes more than a day to run. The runners are shuttled to the exchanges by two passeneger vans. If you want more details check this out:
http://www.ragnarrelay.com/about
My team consisted of seven people from Southern California who were part of my So Cal Ragnar team in April, one from Utah, (Always gotta have at least one runner from Utah,) and four of us who are native to Northern California. The name of our team is a geek test. Cyberdyne Systems. Half the people who hear our team name are all "Oh, cool!" The others just think we're some boring software company. Cyberdyne Systems is the name of the fictitious corporation that designed and built Skynet and the terminator Cyborgs!
The Start
As the team Captain, I had to fret out all the details. The only detail I was truly worried about was getting everyone to the start. Our start time was 7:30 AM in a park near the Golden Gate Bridge. Now, for those of you not familiar with the San Francisco Bay Area, you should know that this area has about 5,000,000,000,000 cars in it, 90% of which seem to be on the road at any given moment. Getting through San Francisco on a working weekday morning is worrisome, because Bay Area traffic can quickly turn int an unreal nightmare, even during non-rush hours! Fortunately I got everyone up and out early enough to avoid the truly gnarly rush hour morning traffic.
First leg
My first leg was a mere 2.7 mile trot through Petaluma. It was a pretty straightforward course, running along one street until we hit another and then turning left.
I started off at a slightly elevated pace. I felt all right, but before I had run even a mile I could tell that I hadn't properly hydrated and fueled myself for running. I was runner 12, meaning I had already waited until the first eleven runners had run their first legs. (Nearly ten hours! Starting just after 5 PM.) Still, I was able to maintain a decent pace.
My pace did get hindered a bit. I did manage to run into a lot of stoplights. Unlike other races like 5Ks and marathons, the streets aren't closed off for runners, ergo you had to obey regular pedestrian traffic protocol. Like a good Ragnarian, I waited at red lights and "Don't Walk" lights, unlike some other runners. On this leg I saw not just a few of incidences of jay running, including two runners who ran out against a red light, cutting off an SUV that had the right-of-way. Fortunately the driver of said SUV was much brighter than these runners and managed to brake in time.
Along the route I had a few passing civilians ask me "What's going on?? Why are all these runners out here?" I gave the quick answer. "Long crazy relay race. 200 miles through Marin and Napa counties!"
Me and some of the other runners were a wee bit distressed about the lack of on course direction. One runner blurted out to me, "Can we at least get one more sign??" There was a slight fork which momentarily confused me, but it was fairly obvious which way to go. Some runners had not studied their maps well enough before running and I told them which street to turn on.
I made pretty good time even though I was running with low energy. I would turn out to be the only runner to beat the van to the next exchange. My van #2 spent most of the time stuck in traffic. No big. It gave me time to stretch and relax. (Though the van #1 people felt the urge to rib van #2 about being slowpokes!)
Ragnar Sea Legs
When I ran So Cal last April I was surprised at how well organized the race was. I had been told that it had not always been so, that when they had the first So Cal Ragnar they had a lot of problems. Well, that became apparent during Napa, which is the first Northern Californian Ragnar. Many of the van ones missed the third exchange and ended up driving to the fourth exchange because of confusing directions, thinking it was the third exchange. My teammate Marcela ended up standing around exchange three for about ten minutes until the van had doubled back to drop off the third runner. Some of the problems quickly became apparent, as I was texted corrections to the maps during the race.
We also had to wait a long time for runner #6, my vivacious friend Lisa, as she missed a turn that cost her half an hour worth of running time. Later on our faithful So Cal runner Michele (One 'L') got lost in a pack, as she and a group of runners who were pacing with each other got lost en' masse.
But I can only blame Ragnar so much. I've seen race organizers snafu 5Ks. Considering that it was a course of more than 180 miles going through numerous cities and counties, and they had to deal with volunteers not showing up and people stealing and knocking down signs, the fact that they can get a race this immense off the ground in the first place is basically a miracle. I'm sure they will have most of the bugs for the second Napa Ragnar ironed out!
My Second Leg
My second leg started in the deepest darkest night, somwhere between 3 and 4 AM. This was my longest leg, 9 miles through a mountain road.
After my first leg I made sure I got a good, solid dinner. I also kept snacking on bananas and the other various goodies in the van as well as doing lots of hydrating. I also took a couple of gel shots with me. I looged out on a 2.7 miler because I wasn't paying attention. I certainly wasn't going to make that mistake with a 9 miler!
The nighttime weather was fairly cold. I kept my sweat pants on until right before I was about to run. As soon as I got going and got myself warmed up, the air was just the right temperature for a night run. I started out at a nice steady pace. I understood that the beginning had some hills, but the inclines turned out not to be too severe at all. This area is very rural-ish. I was basically running through a valley forrest, with hills and stars and trees all around. Runners I passed up would remark about what a nice run it was.
There was a good solid half an hour where I didn't see another runner. The course was not complicated, but as is always the case with long distance relays like this one, I half-wondered if I had strayed off course. Finally another runner came up behind me. I told him "Either I'm on course or we're both lost!" :)
There was a problem when I finally made it to the exchange. Ragnar volunteers are suppoed to call out the team numbers of runners coming into the exchange chutes, and they didn't always did such a good job calling out approaching runners. But at this exchange they did it right. A volunteer up on the course before the exchange asked me what my number was and immediately called it in. As I rounded the corner, still a couple of hundred feet from the exchange, I could hear my team number being loudly called out through megaphones. I held up the baton, (A slap wrist bracelet,) and looked for my teammate Erica. A few young women were milling near the chute, and I squinted through the darkness and saw that none of them were Erica. I stopped in the chute as they kept calling out my team number. A large crowd of runners standing near the exchange were looking around, along with me, for my runner. When they realized that my runner wasn't there, they all started cheering for me. "Yay! 95!! Woohoo!! Go 95!!" (My runner was still in the school gym. My team didn't think I'd run this leg so fast!)
Marin and Napa counties
Northern California, just above San Francisco, is a very nice place indeed. It's the kind of place where even the bigger cities feel like small towns. It's also foodie central. Lots of good and great food can be found up here, with lots of indpendant restaurants and farms.
Running through Marin and Napa meant running with fog-covered mountains in the background, and running past farms, small churches, lots of countryside type houses and businesses, and also by many vineyards. On our later legs I would direct exhausted runners to look out the windows at the scenery. We ran past farms and fields and one vineyard after another. I facetiously asked my runners to refrain from drinking any wine during the race. But as I predicted, a few of our runners sure enough dived into the wine after the race!
The last leg
I ran the very last leg of the entire race. A 5.2 mile run through a small town in Napa Valley.
Our first legs had been run on cool and windy days. Our second legs were run on cold nights. But on Saturday the weather had become quite hot. All the runners from every team were getting slowed down by the heat.
I made sure I was hydrated for this run, sipping water and Gatorade while the last runners were charging out their legs. I took a bottle of water with me and sparingly sipped from it as I kept a steady and reasonable pace. Luckily it was later in the afternoon and there was a slight wind blowing. My course was also fairly shaded by trees and mountainsides. But even so I was feeling the heat, as well as the fatigue of 30+ hours of van riding and running.
By the time I was approaching the finish line I was fairly spent, but also chugging along reasonably well. I rounded a corner, just a few hundred yards from the finish line, and there were Ragnar teams sitting and standing along the route, all wearing their gold Ragnar medals. They started cheering as I ran by, jumping up and down and hollering like I was a running back headed for the end zone! This outburst of rah rah goodness gave me a burst of energy, causing me to take off like a sprinter. I charged into the finish area to see my teammates jumping up and down. They joined me for the final run through the arch, as we crossed the finish line as a team!
One more Ragnar down, the second Ragnar for me. This time it was my team, a team I worked hard to get together. I am very proud of my Terminators. A lot of my runners toughed out some difficult runs, refusing to stop despite heat, sore feet, blisters, confusing courses, and fatigue. These guys really were Terminators!
And I'll say it again: If you have not yet run a race like this, you must! It is a unique running experience that you have to try out. I seriously could have made this report twice as big, if I had the gall to write about all of my experiences in this race. Go! Sign up! Hood to Coast! A Ragnar! Get stuck in a van with sweaty and filthy runners for 30+ hours. You'll love it!
Up early, as per thee Captain's (me) orders!
Erica about to start off our team on the very first leg. @ Crissy Field in San Francisco.
An exchange! brokenheather (Heather) hands off to aparigraha! (Sarah.)
My friend Shelly was on my So Cal team. This time she ran for Napa Roxen. This iron woman ran this relay with a big ol' baby belly! (Almost eight months pregnant!)
A not atypical scene along the route.
Also not an atypical scene. This is Marin Country! Misty Mountains...
Our team shirt. The back said "I Am A Machine"! (Only my friend Ed had the Cyberdyne badge!)
Yes, this is what we had for dinner. Toldja they had good food here!
This is what van one was doing as me and van two were running the last legs of the relay race. From left to right: Marcela (So Cal Gal), Lisa (San Jose Party Girl), Erica (Our Utah Gal!), Tamara and Chris Haggstrom (The too cute running couple,) and van one driver Chet. (Tech support for Terminators!)
The Cyberdyne System runners at the finish line! Tall people in the back: Tamara, Her hubbo Chris, Me, Lisa, Evonn, Ed, and aparigraha! Tommy is in the white baseball hat and brokenheather is in front of aparigraha. In front: Erica, Michele (One 'L') and Marcela!
Last Friday and Saturday I ran in the Napa Valley Ragnar Relay, one of those insane relay races you hear so much about!
A Ragnar Relay is a relay race with teams of twelve runners and the course is around 200 miles long (give r' take,) and takes more than a day to run. The runners are shuttled to the exchanges by two passeneger vans. If you want more details check this out:
http://www.ragnarrelay.com/about
My team consisted of seven people from Southern California who were part of my So Cal Ragnar team in April, one from Utah, (Always gotta have at least one runner from Utah,) and four of us who are native to Northern California. The name of our team is a geek test. Cyberdyne Systems. Half the people who hear our team name are all "Oh, cool!" The others just think we're some boring software company. Cyberdyne Systems is the name of the fictitious corporation that designed and built Skynet and the terminator Cyborgs!
The Start
As the team Captain, I had to fret out all the details. The only detail I was truly worried about was getting everyone to the start. Our start time was 7:30 AM in a park near the Golden Gate Bridge. Now, for those of you not familiar with the San Francisco Bay Area, you should know that this area has about 5,000,000,000,000 cars in it, 90% of which seem to be on the road at any given moment. Getting through San Francisco on a working weekday morning is worrisome, because Bay Area traffic can quickly turn int an unreal nightmare, even during non-rush hours! Fortunately I got everyone up and out early enough to avoid the truly gnarly rush hour morning traffic.
First leg
My first leg was a mere 2.7 mile trot through Petaluma. It was a pretty straightforward course, running along one street until we hit another and then turning left.
I started off at a slightly elevated pace. I felt all right, but before I had run even a mile I could tell that I hadn't properly hydrated and fueled myself for running. I was runner 12, meaning I had already waited until the first eleven runners had run their first legs. (Nearly ten hours! Starting just after 5 PM.) Still, I was able to maintain a decent pace.
My pace did get hindered a bit. I did manage to run into a lot of stoplights. Unlike other races like 5Ks and marathons, the streets aren't closed off for runners, ergo you had to obey regular pedestrian traffic protocol. Like a good Ragnarian, I waited at red lights and "Don't Walk" lights, unlike some other runners. On this leg I saw not just a few of incidences of jay running, including two runners who ran out against a red light, cutting off an SUV that had the right-of-way. Fortunately the driver of said SUV was much brighter than these runners and managed to brake in time.
Along the route I had a few passing civilians ask me "What's going on?? Why are all these runners out here?" I gave the quick answer. "Long crazy relay race. 200 miles through Marin and Napa counties!"
Me and some of the other runners were a wee bit distressed about the lack of on course direction. One runner blurted out to me, "Can we at least get one more sign??" There was a slight fork which momentarily confused me, but it was fairly obvious which way to go. Some runners had not studied their maps well enough before running and I told them which street to turn on.
I made pretty good time even though I was running with low energy. I would turn out to be the only runner to beat the van to the next exchange. My van #2 spent most of the time stuck in traffic. No big. It gave me time to stretch and relax. (Though the van #1 people felt the urge to rib van #2 about being slowpokes!)
Ragnar Sea Legs
When I ran So Cal last April I was surprised at how well organized the race was. I had been told that it had not always been so, that when they had the first So Cal Ragnar they had a lot of problems. Well, that became apparent during Napa, which is the first Northern Californian Ragnar. Many of the van ones missed the third exchange and ended up driving to the fourth exchange because of confusing directions, thinking it was the third exchange. My teammate Marcela ended up standing around exchange three for about ten minutes until the van had doubled back to drop off the third runner. Some of the problems quickly became apparent, as I was texted corrections to the maps during the race.
We also had to wait a long time for runner #6, my vivacious friend Lisa, as she missed a turn that cost her half an hour worth of running time. Later on our faithful So Cal runner Michele (One 'L') got lost in a pack, as she and a group of runners who were pacing with each other got lost en' masse.
But I can only blame Ragnar so much. I've seen race organizers snafu 5Ks. Considering that it was a course of more than 180 miles going through numerous cities and counties, and they had to deal with volunteers not showing up and people stealing and knocking down signs, the fact that they can get a race this immense off the ground in the first place is basically a miracle. I'm sure they will have most of the bugs for the second Napa Ragnar ironed out!
My Second Leg
My second leg started in the deepest darkest night, somwhere between 3 and 4 AM. This was my longest leg, 9 miles through a mountain road.
After my first leg I made sure I got a good, solid dinner. I also kept snacking on bananas and the other various goodies in the van as well as doing lots of hydrating. I also took a couple of gel shots with me. I looged out on a 2.7 miler because I wasn't paying attention. I certainly wasn't going to make that mistake with a 9 miler!
The nighttime weather was fairly cold. I kept my sweat pants on until right before I was about to run. As soon as I got going and got myself warmed up, the air was just the right temperature for a night run. I started out at a nice steady pace. I understood that the beginning had some hills, but the inclines turned out not to be too severe at all. This area is very rural-ish. I was basically running through a valley forrest, with hills and stars and trees all around. Runners I passed up would remark about what a nice run it was.
There was a good solid half an hour where I didn't see another runner. The course was not complicated, but as is always the case with long distance relays like this one, I half-wondered if I had strayed off course. Finally another runner came up behind me. I told him "Either I'm on course or we're both lost!" :)
There was a problem when I finally made it to the exchange. Ragnar volunteers are suppoed to call out the team numbers of runners coming into the exchange chutes, and they didn't always did such a good job calling out approaching runners. But at this exchange they did it right. A volunteer up on the course before the exchange asked me what my number was and immediately called it in. As I rounded the corner, still a couple of hundred feet from the exchange, I could hear my team number being loudly called out through megaphones. I held up the baton, (A slap wrist bracelet,) and looked for my teammate Erica. A few young women were milling near the chute, and I squinted through the darkness and saw that none of them were Erica. I stopped in the chute as they kept calling out my team number. A large crowd of runners standing near the exchange were looking around, along with me, for my runner. When they realized that my runner wasn't there, they all started cheering for me. "Yay! 95!! Woohoo!! Go 95!!" (My runner was still in the school gym. My team didn't think I'd run this leg so fast!)
Marin and Napa counties
Northern California, just above San Francisco, is a very nice place indeed. It's the kind of place where even the bigger cities feel like small towns. It's also foodie central. Lots of good and great food can be found up here, with lots of indpendant restaurants and farms.
Running through Marin and Napa meant running with fog-covered mountains in the background, and running past farms, small churches, lots of countryside type houses and businesses, and also by many vineyards. On our later legs I would direct exhausted runners to look out the windows at the scenery. We ran past farms and fields and one vineyard after another. I facetiously asked my runners to refrain from drinking any wine during the race. But as I predicted, a few of our runners sure enough dived into the wine after the race!
The last leg
I ran the very last leg of the entire race. A 5.2 mile run through a small town in Napa Valley.
Our first legs had been run on cool and windy days. Our second legs were run on cold nights. But on Saturday the weather had become quite hot. All the runners from every team were getting slowed down by the heat.
I made sure I was hydrated for this run, sipping water and Gatorade while the last runners were charging out their legs. I took a bottle of water with me and sparingly sipped from it as I kept a steady and reasonable pace. Luckily it was later in the afternoon and there was a slight wind blowing. My course was also fairly shaded by trees and mountainsides. But even so I was feeling the heat, as well as the fatigue of 30+ hours of van riding and running.
By the time I was approaching the finish line I was fairly spent, but also chugging along reasonably well. I rounded a corner, just a few hundred yards from the finish line, and there were Ragnar teams sitting and standing along the route, all wearing their gold Ragnar medals. They started cheering as I ran by, jumping up and down and hollering like I was a running back headed for the end zone! This outburst of rah rah goodness gave me a burst of energy, causing me to take off like a sprinter. I charged into the finish area to see my teammates jumping up and down. They joined me for the final run through the arch, as we crossed the finish line as a team!
One more Ragnar down, the second Ragnar for me. This time it was my team, a team I worked hard to get together. I am very proud of my Terminators. A lot of my runners toughed out some difficult runs, refusing to stop despite heat, sore feet, blisters, confusing courses, and fatigue. These guys really were Terminators!
And I'll say it again: If you have not yet run a race like this, you must! It is a unique running experience that you have to try out. I seriously could have made this report twice as big, if I had the gall to write about all of my experiences in this race. Go! Sign up! Hood to Coast! A Ragnar! Get stuck in a van with sweaty and filthy runners for 30+ hours. You'll love it!
Up early, as per thee Captain's (me) orders!
Erica about to start off our team on the very first leg. @ Crissy Field in San Francisco.
An exchange! brokenheather (Heather) hands off to aparigraha! (Sarah.)
My friend Shelly was on my So Cal team. This time she ran for Napa Roxen. This iron woman ran this relay with a big ol' baby belly! (Almost eight months pregnant!)
A not atypical scene along the route.
Also not an atypical scene. This is Marin Country! Misty Mountains...
Our team shirt. The back said "I Am A Machine"! (Only my friend Ed had the Cyberdyne badge!)
Yes, this is what we had for dinner. Toldja they had good food here!
This is what van one was doing as me and van two were running the last legs of the relay race. From left to right: Marcela (So Cal Gal), Lisa (San Jose Party Girl), Erica (Our Utah Gal!), Tamara and Chris Haggstrom (The too cute running couple,) and van one driver Chet. (Tech support for Terminators!)
The Cyberdyne System runners at the finish line! Tall people in the back: Tamara, Her hubbo Chris, Me, Lisa, Evonn, Ed, and aparigraha! Tommy is in the white baseball hat and brokenheather is in front of aparigraha. In front: Erica, Michele (One 'L') and Marcela!