….and My Story Runs On….

Yep!  I didn’t just use this catchy blog title just for the heck of it, both of our teams were 2 of the last 3 teams to cross the finish line at the Ragnar Trail Relay Race held at McDowell Mountain last weekend. (This is a relay race done on trails with 8 people per team. Each runner has 3 legs that totaled 15.5 mile each.  When not running we were camping out)

Most people might be upset or embarrassed about this statement. We placed last at Ragnar!!…but not me…you know why?

1. This was our very first Ragnar Trail event for all 16 people.  Last year, I was practically the only one in my big group of running friends that was running on trails. Somehow over the course of the year, I’ve convinced many of them to “drink the Kool Aid”. This means that not only did about 15 of my team mates start trail running this year BUT they also had to learn to trail run at night time! When we started talking about this event I heard things like:  “I’m afraid of the dark” and “I’m afraid to trail run at night time” and “I don’t like camping” and “I don’t like running alone”. Although we all agreed we could’ve trained more, I AM SO PROUD of both our teams for finishing this event! Thanks to Aravaipa Running for having the most organized day and night trail races so we can train safely during the summer! (Ironically their team placed first 😉 )  Lesson:  Get out of your comfort zone!  Most team members were very anxious about this race but we stuck it out together and made it an amazing experience!
2. My runners took good care of each other (and others).  One of the rules is that there must be a runner from the team on the course at all times.  If someone gets injured or something happens, someone else has to cover.  One of our team members got sick on her first leg and several team mates stepped up right away to cover for her (increasing their mileage and sacrificing “sleep” to help out). We had several runners that weren’t comfortable doing their night runs so others pitched in to do the extra mileage with them.  One person from another team stayed with our sick team mate until the EMTs showed up.  I walked with a girl on the last mile of one of my legs because she wasn’t going to make it without any help.  I heard that several teams had to drop out because they weren’t able to cover for each other.  Not us! Lesson:   “The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.” –Phil Jackson Our team mates stepped up to the plate for the sake of the team and I love them for that 😉
3. The amount of fun we had was absolutely ridiculous.  For 16 women to do something we’ve never done before whether it was trail running or camping, it’s amazing me to how well we pulled it off.  The age ranges on our teams were from early 30s to mid 50s.  I’m a big believer that age is all in your head and I think during this weekend we were all kids, experiencing something new and different for the first time, together.  I know that several people on the team said this was a “One and Done” for them….and that’s OK!  You never know if something is for you until you try it.  Not everyone had the same amount of fun but none of our team mates complained or brought any one else down.  Lesson:  You don’t know if you are going to enjoy something until you try it. Don’t decide until you’ve tried it.  Like running, I talk to so many people that just say it’s not for me but they’ve never really tried it or done it the right way to find the many benefits of running.
4. The amount of fun we had was absolutely ridiculous.  Did I say this already?  But seriously, we had so many memorable moments…this is one of the reasons it was hard to try and go to sleep because you didn’t want to miss out on the fun and crazy conversations happenings.  Lesson:  Be present and enjoy the moment!  We only had one first time Ragnar experience and we will never forget it.  Of course most of us are already talking about next year.  We took a ton of pictures.  I posted a few of them below.
5. The Ragnar crew was amazing!  All teams needed to be done by 6pm and both of ours cut it really close.  It was very touching to see the Ragnar crew come out and help us cheer our team mates on.
   

   Ragnar crew hanging out with us until the very end!

   I’ve been to plenty of events where the crew starts taking everything down and away and you come in to what used to be a finish line with no one there because they are trying to get done so they can go home…not this crew.  Kudos to them for making us feel like we ended in first place…..and you know what we were winners!  Lesson:  Be proud of your accomplishments no matter where you place in a race…or life…it’s easy to compare yourself to other people but that serves no purpose.  Be grateful and look at what you’ve accomplished…who cares what everyone else is doing?

Both teams did a total of 248 miles in about 29.5 hours.  This was one of the funnest events I’ve ever done. Thanks to Ragnar and our amazing teams, Dust Bunnies and Dirt Devils,  for a memorable experience of a lifetime!  2015 here we come!

 ‘Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.’
Mahatma Ghandi

Ragnar Tagline…Yep, that’s what we did!

Ragnar has great signage all over the trails during the day and night time.

Baby G Growler and his Baby Evil brother (from Running for Brews..mascots)

Loved the costumes. So fun to see adults being silly…we need to have fun too!

Chilling at the camp site

Both teams together at the end! We all stuck it out for each other! <3

Our friend Diane came by with pizza and Fireball and we shared some s’mores with her 😉

Had to be there since it was one of “our” moments…gotta freshen up a bit before hitting the trail 😉

Chilling at the camp site

Transition area where we handed off our bib and kept on running..

Gorgeous views all weekend

From My Running Story to Yours….
(if you feel inspired to share your comments, do so below…I want to hear your story too!)