DC Ragnar 2011 was awesome!

I'm not sure how to start explaining how FUN the Ragnar race was. If you don't know what it is here's a little info:

- Relay race with 12 people running a total of 198 miles

- 2 vans with 6 runners each

- 2 days and running through the night

- The Ragnar motto: Run, drive, sleep?, repeat

Our van consisted of my dad (Papi), sister Jill (Jill the Kill), Jonathan (the Flying Frenchman), Tiffany (Pump and Dump), me (Runnin Mama), and my friend Katrina (Hurrican Katrina). Van 2 was Greg, Holly, Heather, Trevor, Kiersten, Alisa, and their driver Hank. The only non-family was Katrina and she was kind enough to fill in for a team member who decided not to run. More on her awesomeness later.

To make things more fun each team decorates their vans according to the team name. Our name was "Civil RELAYtions." We decorated with stars, and our names. At night we added awesome glow sticks and light up balloons to the outside of the van. Many vans also keep track of their "kills" (i.e. the people they pass while running). Our van had 83 kills and most of them were Katrina's. Everyone did great though.

If running three legs in 24 hours isn't hard enough try doing it on hardly any sleep. I slept about 2 hours the night before the race and 2 hours the night of the race. I still don't know how I was able to run, adrenaline I guess. I had one of the easiest legs out of the whole team so I wasn't too impressed that I finished my legs. I was very proud of myself for sprinting at the end of my legs to pass people so I could record some kills. People on the sidelines were cheering for me so that was exciting.

My dad had the hardest leg of the whole team. He ran for 7.8 miles and climbed 1,247 feet! The whole time we were driving the route in the van I kept saying, "No way, I can't believe this!" The hill kept going up, and up, and up, and up! The name of the leg was "You've got to be kidding me!" He was awarded with a belt buckle that has the Ragnar logo on the front and "I survived Leg 3" on the back. It's pretty sweet.

Every one did great on their runs, but Katrina did especially well. My sister had to drop out of the race due to injury. My dad finished the last part of her 2nd leg with a 1.8 mile run mostly uphill. In order to not drop out of the race, our team had to have another runner run Jill's 3rd leg. To make matters worst the leg was 8.5 miles labled as "hard." Katrina stepped up to the plate. She had finished her 3rd leg only a couple hours before starting to run again. We followed her along the course and she was smiling and looked great! Our whole team really owes her a huge THANK YOU for finishing the race for us. The last picture is our "Katrina is AWESOME" photo.

I know this all sounds totally crazy. and it is. Why do we pay people to set up a race so we can physically torture ourselves? Because its so much fun! I'm so happy I decided to run and had such a great team. I would do it again in a heart beat. Well, maybe in a year. I'm definitely going to do it again! If you run a Ragnar you'll be hooked too.

Thank you Mom for watching Macy so we could all run!