Ragnar

Ragnar, Ragnar, Ragnar.  What a crazy experience this was.  I have heard about others doing Ragnar for years and was always a little jealous.  Not sure I'll be doing it again anytime soon, but I'm glad I got to try it out.  

I think it would have been a little different if I had known some of my fellow teammates before the event.  I happened upon our team by chance.  I was at the Deer Valley soccer team's end of year banquet when I was approached by one of the players' moms.  She asked me if I ran, I told her yes.  She was desperate to find a replacement for her because she needed to be in Utah the same weekend as Ragnar was scheduled.  She let me know that none of my 3 running legs would be more than 6 miles.  I was excited!  Perfect distances and I had always wanted to do it!  

Ragnar was only a few weeks away.  I met with some of the team a week later to learn some of the rules and what I would need to bring with me.  It was an all women's team and all of them were so nice!  A few days before the meeting, I found out I was pregnant.  I was a little nervous about running, but Jason and I both decided it was fine.  I could run those distances easily and I just felt good about it.  I knew it wouldn't be a problem.  So.....I packed my bags and got ready to get my Ragnar on....Phoenix style.  

We started the race early at 6:00 am in Wickenburg, AZ.  I was the 6th runner in my van of 6 women.  There are two vans per team, so our van ran, then I passed the baton on to the other van.  We would go rest a while and then their 12th runner would pass to our 1st runner.  Does that make sense?

This is me right before my last leg.  I had run one the afternoon before, one at 1:00 in the morning and then this one around 10:00 am.  Jason actually came and ran the night run with me.  As the evening was setting in, I realized that much of that run was in the "wilderness" and I was a little freaked out.  We got a babysitter and he met us in North Phoenix at the switch spot.  I was so glad he was there.  I was honestly pretty sick with my pregnancy and was having a hard time.  I hadn't been so nauseous with my other kids, so this came as a surprise.  The combination of being without sleep and running while wanting to puke was no fun at all.  We hadn't had a chance to talk about our big move to Italy yet, so we had an hour to visit and dream a little bit about the upcoming adventure.  I dry heaved a couple times, but him being there made it so I could think about something else for a while.  

After my night run, we went and crashed at Bree's house for a couple hours.  I showered very quickly and tried to get some rest, but was only able to sleep like 45 minutes. 

The pass off from Lynell.  We were the Sole Sisters.  

There I go!

The ladies in my van were so nice!  They always asked how I felt and tried to help me any way they could.  

We all met up at the end to run through the finish line together in our matchy shirts.  

 The whole Sole Sisters team

Ragnar may have been a once in a lifetime experience for me.  A team full of my close family and friends could possibly make me do it again.  I'll need a little more time to forget, though.