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Ragnar Relay – Madison-Chicago 200 mile (ish)… June 2012 (pt. 1)

Ragnar Relay – Madison-Chicago 200 mile (ish)… June 2012 (pt. 1)

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Apparently, I got busy over the past month.  I’m beginning to sound like a broken record, aren’t I?

The month of June and thus, the summer racing season in Chicago, kicked-off with the Madison to Chicago 200 mile Ragnar Relay.  As you might recall, I didn’t know any of the other 11 runners with whom I’d be spending 48 hours and close quarters in our vans.  At one point, we were a full 12-person team, then we were down to 11, and then to 10, and by the time the race began, we were at 11.  Flexibility is always a good thing in life and in running!

If you’ve never done a relay before, as was my case, it’s a pretty interesting experience.  The basic premise is this: you get 12 runners (or 6, if you want to do an ultra), two of those big vans, and then you take turns running.  Van one has six runners, and while the first six runners are going, Van two, which carries the other six runners, hangs out, relaxes, or does whatever they want until it’s their turn to run.  I was in van two, runner #11 (out of a 12-person team, even though we were down a runner), so I didn’t even begin running until nearly 5pm on Friday.

I have tons of videos and pictures from the event, which I think can do a wonderful job of telling my Ragnar story.  I’ll link to the videos, since I can’t embed them in wordpress (or don’t know how to, anyway), and I’ll post the pics here in chronological order.  Enjoy the stories 🙂

Video one: van one getting ready to start the race.  Team captain Otis is bestowing the coveted Ragnar snap bracelet, our pseudo-baton, onto our first runner’s wrist for the festivities that will ensue over the next few hours (read: days).  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kqTJp2-85o&feature=plcp.

Video two: race start.  Some teams started as early as 6am or as late as 10.  We started right at 8am.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnxhnPAEus8&feature=plcp.  Our runner is in the green and black tank.

Here's the Ragnar starting arch/starting line. These were a handful of the other teams who began their Ragnar expeditions at 8am.
The Ragnar starting area/starting arch, from a distance. The orange tent-like thing on the right is the Ragnar merchandise tent. It was already pretty sunny and warm-ish (70s) at 8am on Friday.
The Ragnar merchandise store (orange tent) with Randy (blue t-shirt) and Brian (hoodie) from van 2, chit-chatting in the foreground.

Once the race began, we in van two had a lot of time on our hands: well, several hours, anyway.  After doing some running around and grabbing breakfast/lunch/brunch for everyone in the van, we went over to what would be our first exchange, between Otis and Brian, at a school in Wisconsin.  Van two hung out, took pictures, talked to vendors, and did all the necessary Ragnar stuff, like attend a safety training, get flags (that we had to use at night anytime a non-runner was crossing the street), and generally just leisurely passed the time for several hours.  It was rather relaxing 🙂

Lindsay and Brian show off the awesome orange Ragnar flags that we had to use during the race anytime a non-runner crossed a street. Safety first! Made me think of elementary school crossing guards
Jamie and Randy chill in the lawn as van two waits for Otis (last runner, van one) to come in and Brian (first runner, van two) to start. Jamie shows off her awesome core strength.
Lindsay, Brian, and Randy showcasing Van Two pride... or we're all closet hippies.

 

The Otis fan club, also known as the other runners from Van One, waiting for Otis to finish his first leg so they can all rest for a few hours. Stephanie, Allison, Liz, and Ashley show their O-T-I-S love

(I’ll continue the recap in the next post)…

Catching up: CrossFit, YMe 5k, the BOB, Team NMA/RYBQ, and the (pending) move

Catching up: CrossFit, YMe 5k, the BOB, Team NMA/RYBQ, and the (pending) move

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It’s funny, in a way, because I’ve been staying at home with A now for almost a whole year (while sometimes working PT or being in grad school FT), and I think way back when, part of me thought that I’d find that I had tons and tons of time on my hands because that’s what stay-at-home moms have, right?  Lots of time. I could blog and blog and blog, and then blog and blog some more, among other things.

Good lord, how wrong I was.

Even though I completed my MA and my TESOL in March, and I ran my marathon in April, things have been non-stop ever since March between marathon training, finding a condo and then subsequently preparing for the move, running a marathon, starting Windy City CrossFit’s foundations class 3x/week for four weeks, joining the folks over at Team Run Your BQ/Team No Meat Athlete, and learning how to run with A’s newest urban assault vehicle ride, the BOB Revolution SE… among other things.

Honestly, I mean to blog nearly every night as I’m winding down for bed, but half the time I’m just ready to veg and not think anymore… especially after a full day of (insert many and varied activities here).

So, in an effort to shoot for brevity, I’ll do a quick catch-up, bullet-list style.

  1. CrossFit: I wrote about this in my last post, but it’s f-in awesome.  Tons of fun.  Like adult recess, basically.  I’m in week three of my four week program, and it might be in my head, but I swear I’m already stronger and harder/more toned (in parts) than I was on April 29th.  Here’s an interesting article I read about CrossFit and runners.
  2. YMe 5k: Perhaps closely related to #1, I ran YMe’s Race at My Pace 5k on Mother’s Day (my gift to myself) and knocked off 61 seconds from my time at the GNYER in Ohio on 12/31/11–making a PR in the process (20:31).  What’s interesting is that I’m only two weeks post-marathon.  Seriously, I think #1 had something to do with how I performed.  Naturally, I did some pre- and post-race vlogs over at my handy YouTube channel, so click here, here, and hereto watch 🙂

    Ran the YMe for my mommy... read my bib!
  3. Running with a BOB: I’ll have to write a separate post about this (and about running post-pregnancy… I’ve been meaning to write that one for a while now), but it has been quite the learning experience, for sure.  Below is a pic of A and me in her Mazzerati stroller (although we weren’t running at the time).  I’ll come back to this post in the future.

    A and me rockin' out in the BOB on LSD (always in the Boston jacket!)
  4.  Team NMA/RYBQ: which means No-Meat Athlete and Run Your BQ (Boston Qualifier).  I think it’s technically Team RYBQ, but since I learned about it through the No-Meat Athlete website, I’m giving credit to both entities.  This has been really interesting so far because it’s basically an online community of runners who are trying to run their BQs and/or PRs, and it’s coached by Matt Frazier and Jason Fitzgerald.  I’ve been reading their articles and forums (and contributing to the latter), and I’m excited to try their plans come NYC and Houston training time.  I’ve never done a training plan or really, have been part of a training community, like this, so I’m looking forward to it.  It should be fun.
  5. The move: ah, yes, the move… my new hobby that has seemingly taken over lots of my days and nights when I’m not with A (and sometimes, even during).  I can’t tell you how sick I am of reading MLS listings.  Crossing my fingers here that if all goes well, in about three weeks’ time, I’ll be blogging from our new condo 🙂

Super short and quick tonight–well, at least a bit shorter than usual–but I’ll try to be better about blogging.  My next race is the Ragnar Madison-Chicago 200 mile relay, so that’ll be a good time and I’m sure will lend itself to a great post.

More to come!  Until then, onward and upward…