Your Favorite Call Girl: Team RUN WALK CRAWL...Ragnar 2012

SO I have to take time out of my life to write about this little race I ran called RAGNAR 2012. This is one of my favorite events of the entire year, right up there with Christmas. I honestly think this was the most fun I've ever had with this race, like, ever.

We had the most awesome team ever, plus one incredible driver. How could it be anything BUT the craziest, most sleepless, funniest, most exhausting two days of my year? And what's not to love about all those things, right?

(Although, going without sleep for two days makes me l.o.o.p.y. I am too old for that to happen more than once a year)

This is a relay race where you have two vans with six runners each. The first van goes out and each runner runs one leg. Then the second van runs six legs while the first van rests. Back and forth, three times. So, each runner ends up running three different legs, of varying difficulty and distance. It is AWESOME. And challenging.

Honeybuckets...our best friends on this two day adventure. They really are the greatest thing ever when you are coming in from a long run. And look, Kaycie even looks sexy all sprawled out on a honeybucket!

Sistas! Krista and Kaycie. Krista was the most fabulous driver ever, keeping us all motivated and pumped up. And of course, keeping us where we needed to be at all times. Well the rest of us dozed off between legs, she didn't sleep a wink throughout the night. Thank you, Krista!!

Brittany loves Liz. We were cracking ourselves up in the backseat. We are clearly not as funny as we think we are.

Coming in from my first run. It was only 3.5 miles, but it was hot and surprisingly difficult. I was a little worried since my other legs were going to be much, much harder than this one!

Car full of girles. "SeXXXy Mama's!" Yes, triple X.

Kaycie had some dang hard legs. This is her coming in after her first...Beat!

Tiffany was a joy. Happy, happy, silly, happy. And an awesome runner just to top it off.

Lunch time at Subway. I ate jalapenos, and lots of them. I'm not sure that's wise while running a race. Something about heartburn and a ten mile run doesn't sit well with me.

"Spooning"

We are missing Nicole in this picture.
This is one of the major exchanges where we meet the other van. They are just finishing up running their legs, and we are just beginning ours. Well, our other van was full of crazy ladies who took this running thing way too serious for our taste. They were always worried about where we were and about what our times were and so forth. So, as their runner was heading up the hill, maybe 20 minutes from the exchange with our runner, they sent us a text message wanting to be sure that we were indeed ready and waiting. OHMYGOSH, of course we are! We are big girls, and we can totally do this! - that's what we were all thinking. And by "all of us", I mean, that's what I was thinking. So, I couldn't help myself. I wrote back a text saying, "I'm so sorry, but we stopped for cheeseburgers on the way up the hill and the traffic is horrible. We'll get there as soon as we can." Which would mean their runner would just have to wait at the exchange until our runner got there. And seriously, like we would be purchasing cheeseburgers 20 minutes before a major run. They were in a panic!! Several of them came rushing over to the exchange to let their runner know we were not there, and of course they saw us there. And let's just say they were not amused :) But I sure was!

This is Jaclyn taking off at the major exchange. She was the one who looked lovely no matter what time of day or whether or not she had just run a million miles. Lipstick, smiles, tight abs, and lookin' fab. Quite opposite of myself.

Nicole...she is just starting her night run. We got a little tired on our night runs, which went from maybe 9:30pm-6:00am. We had all of our long runs during the middle of the night, which I actually love.

My night run was 10.0 miles, which I ran from about 12:00am-2:00am. People had told me that I might not see anyone on this leg, which seemed a little scary, since it was a trail run, but I did not see how that could possibly be true. This is a race FULL of people, what are the odds I would suddenly see NO ONE? Well, in the beginning, there were people everywhere, but since it was such a long run, as people paced out, I suddenly found myself completely and totally alone in the PITCH DARK. It was so, so, so dark. Obviously, I had my headlamp, but that was the ONLY light I could see. Truth be told, it was pretty creepy. And more than anything, I was nervous about getting off the trail and becoming lost. Really, I have to say, the trail was NOT marked very clearly on this super long, super dark stretch. BUT...towards the end of the leg, maybe 8 miles in, a man caught up to me and ran with me the rest of the way. That was very, very helpful. And I made it!!! TEN MILES in the middle of the night. It felt awesome!!!!

GOOD MORNING!!! I think we had maybe 2-3 hours of sleep. A "power nap" if you will!

Love this chick!!! Ready to start running again! I was feeling VERY nervous for my last leg, because it is arguably one of the hardest legs of the entire race, if not the hardest leg. I think Kaycie's and my last leg are the hardest of the whole blasted race. But, funny, I don't think she was nervous at all :)

Our leg tattoos...with "Random Man". Seriously, I had no idea this guy was even standing next to me. I blame it on the sleep deprivation. Liz started laughing about this "random man" in our pictures, and sure enough, there he was. Standing next to me. So funny!

Love this driver.

Look, it's Jaclyn looking sexy again.

Again, the honeybuckets. We've lost all shame.

This is the exchange before my big, scary, totally uphill run. I'm on my way!

Right off the bat, this guy and I met up. We were running the exact same pace...so we became running buddies for this absolutely horrible, evil, evil, bad, bad leg. I could NOT have done it without him. It was seriously the longest, steepest, straight-up-the-mountain leg. We kept eachother going and tried to push eachother.

This was us at the top. WE DID IT!!!! We turned the corner and the finish line was in sight, but I could NOT move my legs to run any longer. He stayed with me and told me, "You are going to finish strong. We started this together. We are going to finish this together. We are going to run through at the exact same time." That was exactly what I needed and it gave me that last push to make it the final few feet. AND I WAS DONE!!!!!!!!!!! What an accomplishment. I was on top of the world!

The view from the top! Gorgeous!

Liz and Tiffany after Liz's super long, uphill run. WAHOO, LIZ!

I was relaxing while waiting for Kaycie to finish her leg. Which was a killer!!!! For her, not me.

I love this picture because it captures a very honest moment after doing a brutal run. I imagine I looked much the same after my run. You feel horrible and incredible at the exact same time. It is an exhilarating feeling.