The Ragnar is for the crazy and insane! Ü

David is a LOVER of sports....anything active. He has never really been a "runner"....I mean, he runs a lot in soccer or other sports, but has never said "I want to run a marathon" or anything like that. Well, there just HAPPENS to be a crazy run called the Ragnar...I know, a weird name to go with a weird sport. haha...just kidding....I'm actually really proud of David for doing this....
Shelly and Jason Turner have run the Ragnar the last 3 years and invited David to participate. He wasn't sure what exactly he was getting into, but was up for the challenge.

 

David and his team left Friday morning at 4:30 am to drive to Wickenberg, AZ to start the race. Here they are at 6:00 in the morning getting ready to start their race.

 

The Ragnar consists of a team of 12 people. In 2 days, they will have run 200 mles as a team. They have 2 vans that carry 6 people each. Each person on the team will run 3 different legs totaling 12 to 17 miles in a 2 day period. David was in van 1, which was the first van to start. His first run was 5.5 miles, 2nd was 5.7 miles and the last was 7.7 miles. Apparently the last one was a lot of hills.

 

After all 6 members ran their leg of the race, they rested while the other van ran their legs of the race. Since the race goes for 2 days, it's really important to get a little rest!

 

Here they are trying to catch a little shut eye. David said it was hard to sleep. I'm sure they were all running on adrenaline. I can't imagine doing this. I mean, they all made it look really fun, but mercy, they are running 5-9 miles....get all sweaty, change their clothes, and try to rest until it's time to run again in a few hours.

Their team had a lot of fun. It's funny to see all the funny things they do to keep their spirits up. Maybe this is where they can let out their "real" selves.... hahaha

 

Take for example this bum picture. I guess one of them ran their 5 or 6 miles with this naked bum looking thing on the back of them. I think they had a cape flapping in the wind also. I wasn't there watching them, so I'm writing this off of what I see in the picture. We did have....I mean get to volunteer....so I had fun watching other teams act like a bunch of fools. Some teams were running in tutus....or there were guys in hot pink spandex. It was really entertaining! Like I said, it's a race of it's own kind.

 

While training David seemed to have trouble with his I-T bands. I think that's what they are called....he really had to work at stretching them out and conditioning himself to run the distance. He would get frustrated because he wasn't tired or winded...his outside of his legs just hurt....so he would have to stop. (not during the race) I'm talking about during the couple of months training leading up to the race.

 

I think Derek Wilcock named their team "Lacticacidaholics"...kind of a catchy name for being really sore huh? Ü

 

Van 1 finished running all 3 of their legs by about 6 or 7 in the morning. Now they just had to wait for van 2 to run their legs. So they went out to breakfast and then came to the finish line to wait for the last runner and then they would all run through together.

Here they are in all of their glory....they did really well. I think they were like number 30 in over 200 teams. They really seemed to have a lot of fun. I'm really proud of them.

 

Look! They are all still smiling! 2 days of running, no sleeping, going to the bathroom in a porta potty, and trying to stay hydrated, but in the end....it's all worth it. David said about the Ragnar "Challenging, crazy, awesome, tiring, and rewarding."

 

Davids parents were visiting that week. Linda stayed home to watch Abbie while Bob and I went to "volunteer" at the run. I guess each team needs 3 volunteers to help at the run or it will cost them even more to run. The initial cost is $100 per team member, so they wanted to make sure they didn't get charged any more than that!

 

Saturday morning at 5am we went to Scottsdale to help direct runners coming in and out and the vans coming in and out. Kind of a crazy thing keeping it all straight. It's a good thing...keeps everyone safe. I was entertained watching all of the decorated vans coming in and out. They had Christmas lights on them, lots of writing all over the windows, and some had funny things on top or on the sides....Talk about team spirit!

 

The race ended in Tempe AZ at Tempe Town Lake. Don't know if David will do it again, but he is really glad he did it for the experience!