Caden and I returned from California at about 10pm on Wednesday, July 18th. I came home and had less than 12 hrs to unpack, do laundry, sleep, repack, (plus get Caden ready for a babysitter and 3 days of Daddy care) and get my buns off to meet my team at 9:30am Thursday morning. Never mind the fact that I went through 5 back-up babysitters until my 6th one was actually able to make it! That's what I get for trying to plan too far in advance and then leaving town for 3 weeks.
However, let's go back to the beginning before all the craziness began. This all started when I spoke in church at the end of November last year (yes, when Caden was 3 weeks old - not gonna let them live that one down). I introduced us to the ward and mentioned that I was an avid runner. After church a couple of the women came up to me and mentioned that they were all running Ragnar - Northwest Passage the following summer and they were wondering if I'd like to join their team. Um, YES! I always need more friends. And then going running with friends. Of course, I'm in. Fast forward 8 months later to me running through some random field in the middle-of-no-where Washington at 12:30am and I'm wondering what the heck I was thinking. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
11 other women and I rented vans and decked ourselves (and the vans) all out and drove up to the border of Canada and the U.S. and ran, relay-style, 200 miles down the coast out to the point of Whidbey Island near Seattle. We started Friday morning at 7am.
 |
| Friday at the starting line - still smelling fresh! |
And ran...
 |
| Marcelle handing off to Diana after a wet and windy run! |
...and ran...
 |
| Having fun! |
...and ran!
 |
| Me handing off to Alicia |
But a race is never complete without some adventure:
 |
| Lost waterbottles... |
and
 |
| Sleeping on high school gym floors with hundreds of smelly strangers. |
And a Ragnar is never complete without some:
 |
| Go us! |
 |
| DONE! With my legs of the race at least... |
 |
| While the van 2 was finishing their legs of the race, we cleaned up a bit and went out to lunch! |
And then we went to the finish line to meet up with van 2 for our finish!
 |
| We did it! |
It took us a little longer than expected, mostly due to a team member injury (one of the ladies had a torn meniscus) and us picking up the extra legs (which I was kinda happy about, I got to run more!), but we finished. Hallelujah. Overall it was more mentally difficult than I expected - almost more mentally difficult than a marathon. The thing is, in a marathon, you only need to do that "give it all I got to the finish/adrenaline rush" thing once. During the relay you had to do it three times (in my case, 4). Plus, in a marathon, you're done in a couple hours. Here, you go without any real sleep for 48 hrs and running off and on at odd hours. However, training for this wasn't nearly as intense as it was for a marathon. So, you know, pluses and misuses. But it was a cool experience; glad I can say I did it. Go team Runnin' from the Law!
Good job Janelle! Looks awesome! I can't believe you ran 4 legs!
ReplyDeleteI need to run more. Pushing a 100 pound jogger though isn't quite the same though. =P
Haha - it isn't! Although mine isn't that heavy (yet :D), running with the stroller has DEFINITELY improved my speed. I found that I eventually still fell into my comfortable pace when I ran with the stroller, so that when I didn't have the stroller I ran super fast and I felt just great! If we lived close we'd totally go together just like the good old days :)
ReplyDelete