Las Vegas Ragnar 2011

Back in October I had the opportunity to run the Las Vegas Ragnar Relay race. This is my third year in a row running this race. It's great! It's October and it's still 80 degrees during the day and about 65 at night. Love those night runs! I was runner 1 this time. I'm not used to being the first runner. It was a new experience for me. But it was still fun!


Going through safety training before starting the race. These are the kind of things you see when running Ragnar. This team's name was Smooth Porno Jams. And yes, they ran in those outfits. Awesome.


Another guys that has shaved the Ragnar symbol into his hair. Saw something similar when running the Wasatch Back. I think the guy behind him looks like Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite.


The starting line.


Here I am at the starting line, waiting to get started.


And we're off!

They altered the course a little this year and the first 11 legs of the race were non-support. Which meant, runners in the van couldn't get out to support the runner out on the road. The course was altered and it was on a two lane highway, so there wasn't anywhere for the vans to pull off. We had to toss water bottles across the road and our runners would pick them up for a drink and then throw them back to the car.

Here are some of the vehicles we were running with for our legs.




This lady was hilarious. She was one of the traffic controllers I guess. As we're driving past her (it was a little congested at this point, we were coming up on an exchange) she says, "Cops are coming, don't do anything stupid now."


And here's the van for the Smooth Porno Jams


Oh these guys....They were interesting. We were with them most of the first leg, before passing off to van 2 and they were drinking the whole time! You could smell it on them when they got out of their van to support their runner. They gave us a good laugh, that's for sure. They had a Winnebago and my friend needed to use the bathroom, so she asked them if she could use theirs. At first the guy in the clown outfit (he was drunk) told her yes, but then she was told no by another one of their team members. The guy in the dress came to our van and told on of the guys, "She needs to pee, you need to get her a (insert explitive) sheet so she can go outside!" Yeah, they were interesting to say the least.


Here I am after my last leg. It was listed as very hard. It was 6.7 miles of uneven, rocky terrain on a dirt road. It was at 3:30 in the morning, pitch black, no street lamps as it was away from the road where the vans were driving. It was a non-support leg. All I had was the light from my head lamp to help me. There were several times where I almost face planted because of stepping on a rock that I didn't see. I was pretty excited to be done with that portion.


This is what happens when I run sometimes.


Our team at the finish line!


Jessica, Emma and me at the finish line, with our medals. Since we ran the Wasatch Back and the Vegas relay in the same year, we got an additionl Saints and Sinners medal. It was a great race with wonderful people.