Ragnar Cape Cod 2012

This blog is titled "Running A Ragnar" 

and I never blogged about how our actual race went. 

 I am THE WORST.  So here it goes!

For those of you just tuning in: Marissa and I managed to organize a 24 person over-night running relay called a Ragnar Relay More about that here.  The race consisted of 12 people and 2 vans running 176 miles overnight from Plymouth MA to Provincetown at the end of the Cape and it looked a little like this:

Team Caped Cod Fish featuring Turbo Todd the Cod

Thanks again to all of our sponsors 

Jill and I took the longest legs of the race:

9 miler, 9 miler, and a 6 miler.  24 miles in one race!

Thanks for the shirt design Frank!

Some of the competition

Hand off: And I am off for 9 miles of fun

Some of our van mates getting ready to run

Thatch is quite excited for this race!

Pepto Bismal- an essential for any over night running relay 

Waiting for Angelo at exchange 9

Coming in quick- the paces of the boys in the van 

put my pace to shame

Another hand off
Another gorgeous view

Turbo Todd isn't fairing the 176 mile journey too well

Stretch it out Van 2s

Beautiful Cape Cod

Doug coming in for the exchange 

All geared up for my second 9 mile run- this time at night.  

Head lamp, tail light, and reflective vest... CHECK!  

Other team names are quite creative: 

 Lady Jagas... awesome

Oh Frank...

Hey Jay

We even picked up Olive along the way! 

At the finish line 24 miles later

Medals/bottle openers

Chowder

And beer!

Thankfully Chris let us stay at his house in Welfleet 

so we had time to play on the beach, sleep, eat and drink.  

Just what we needed.

Olive loved the beach

Liz loved the food

And plenty of bacon for all!

Overall the race was GREAT!  I was really nervous about my 24 mile leg.  In April I ran my half marathon and shortly after became pretty burnt out from running.   By the time Ragnar came along I felt pretty undertrained.  The year before I felt over trained with shin splints- comparing the two ... undertraining was the way to go! 

My first 9 mile run went by quick and easy.  The change of scenery and cool weather was just what I needed.  After my run I slipped into some compression socks and slipper, and slipped a few advil down the hatch.  My second 9 mile run went pretty smooth as well, I made a friend during my run and we spent 5 miles chatting about ragnar work and life- really helped to pass the time.  He even offered to share his gatorade with me- after asking if I had any tums on me (who has room in the pockets to carry around tums on a 9 miler)? 

 By the time the third leg came around... moral in the van was low.... REAL LOW.  The thought of getting out to run with NO SLEEP was deadfull for all 6 of us.  I headed out for my 6 mile run feeling miserable.  My legs were sore, my shoulder aching from napping in the car, and I virtually hobbled the last 3 miles.  

At that moment, I questioned the torture I had just put myself through.  Months of planning and stress.. 24 miles on virtually no sleep and no shower.... Maybe I just needed some food and sleep and to reassess the situation.  

I crawled into my tent, took a nap, took a shower, headed to the beach and ate some food. At this point I decided yes, Ragnar was a blast and almost everyone agreed.  The key is Ragnar is that its only as much fun as you make it.  Some vans even popped champagne ( van 2 lushs ) and threw back a few beers- all while cramped in a Ford Explorer.

Will I run another Ragnar in the near future... not this year!  Lake Placid is just a little too far for this runner.

 Good luck to the Caped Cod fishes running the Adirondack Ragnar and I can't wait to see your Docks and Dacks medals!  

Back in Action ( kind of )

Watching all my friends continue on their running routines guilted me back into my sneakers.  Jill and Marissa (Check out her running blog!) are training for full marathons, Sadie and Bethany put in 6 am runs, Jayme Eric and Vanessa are training for Ragnar Adirondacks, and I am eating a snickers bar........

Why is there a 2+ month break in my running?

  Here is a list of excuses:  Its too hot,  I am too busy riding, I am too busy working three jobs, and the dog hates the heat more than I do.  Over the years I have seen a trend in my running schedule.  It looks a little like this:

January:  "Holiday Hate"- 

Bah humbug-  the money is spent and the calories are collecting on my inner thighs-  I just ate enough food in one sitting to feed a large family for a week- Bundle up and  run run run

February:  Its my birthday month-

 heavy drinking and extremely bored- cant afford to ski- guess I will keep running

March:  Still bored... Still broke... 

Ski once or twice and run when I'm not too sore from that.

April:  Starting to warm up- 

 running is slightly more enjoyable- those races are creeping up on me- usually about the time my shin splints are at full force- Running/hobbling around the track

May: Running races like a mad women- 

Ragnar (never planning a Ragnar relay every again), half marathon (it was all hills- at mile 11 I decided I would never run a full marathon), 5ks- why not?  Starting to feel and look better

June:  It is so hot and now I hate running-  

kayak swim hike ride to stay in shape

July:  Refer to June 

and watch all those months of training go down the tubes

August: Refer to July

September: It is time-

 new sneaker shopping to jump start the process-attempt to run a mile and remain amazed that I once ran 13... in a row.. without stopping...

October:  3 miles aint so bad.... 

 Bumpin up in miles!

November:  Turkey Trottin 

( local 5 miler on Thanskgiving day) - I use this 5 mile run to justify my over eating

December:  Running as an outlet for holiday stress

If you are looking at that schedule then you probably realized I should be in "Its so hot I hate running mode"  and I partially am.  As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, all of my friends are still running and it is proving for great motivation to pick back up where I left off ( who am I kidding, start back at a mile or two).  Once my ear heals up ( stay tuned to hear THAT story) I will be back at it.      

I cant decide if I love or hate running- or maybe its just a love/hate relationship...

Sound familiar to anyone?

Keep Calm and Plan On

18 days until Ragnar Cape Cod- EIGHTEEN DAYS thats it.  

That means we have 18 days to : 

Get our shirts to and from the printer (oh shit moment) and paid for
Make sure you all check the spelling of your sponsors! 

Collect any last minute sponsors check (NER get on that..)

Organize a meet up location for 24 people in 4 different vans (bigger oh shit moment)

Organize food and safety supplies (headlamps, tail lights, vests) for each van

Send out contact lists

Print 4 copies of the Race Bible

Print 4 copies of the race courses

Get an estimated time schedule together

Make sure everyone brings sleeping supplies for Welfleet

Figure out what to do with my dog  (we have end up having a mascott...)

Collect payment from everyone

Any 7,000 other things I cant think of right now-  I guess I will have plenty of time to think during my (attempt) at nine miles today

Anyone think of anything else? 

West Coast Running

Running was starting to become a chore.  It took far too much effort to lace up my sneakers for a run.  Every time I thought about it, a lengthy conversation played in my head:

Brain:  You need to go for a run, you just ate 3 servings of Pasta
Katie:  Eh, I ran 3 miles the other day
Brain:  You have to run 24 over the course of 30 hours next month- you will die...
Katie:  Probably...FINE

In February I had planned a trip to Seattle WA and Portland OR for Thatchers Birthday Suprise.  In Seattle we stayed with Thatcher's childhood friend Dan, and his lovely fiance Allison.

Of course we did lots of eating.  Cheeseburgers and fries (and lots of booze)- healthy of course 

The next morning, we woke up and planned to go for a 9 mile run.  Of course 9 miles turned into 6 miles.  Even though we cut the run short- that was my BEST run in a very long time.  I felt great! airy, light, happy, I felt like I could run 6 more (this rarely happens).  I think it was a combination of rest, happiness, amazing company, but most of all the beautiful scenery that kept my mind off how miserable running could be.

We ran 2 miles along the Puget Sound.  It was a little cloudy but soon enough, the Sun came out and the weather was perfect, high 50s, sunny, with a light breeze.  I stopped to tie my shoe, turned around, and the views took my breath away.  Behind me was Mt Rainier.  It was gigantic, clear, and stood out in the background with his snow capped peaks.  I couldn't believe that these people get to look at these beautiful views every day.

(No I didnt take this- hard to run AND take pictures)

                               

We got back to our starting point, 6 miles later, refreshed and happy.  We started to act like tourists again and posed for a Post run pic with our gorgeous views.  Seattleites, I envy your Sculpture park and amazing running routes.

While we never ran the rest of the trip (due to a miserable hang over)  The trip only got better. We spent a few days in Seattle, and then took a train to Portland to stay with Thatcher's brother for a few days.  We were lucky to be around good friends and family and to have such beautiful weather.

Seattle is a gorgeous city...

and surrounding the city- hiking, skiing, waterfalls, you name it!

Wish we had a market like the one in Seattle! Fresh amazing food- YUM

Lots of walking in Portland 

 And AMAZING food in both cities

West coast, we love you!  BUT it took being away to realize how lucky we are to live in Essex, with our friends and family so close by.

 Back to reality, East Coast running, and Ragnar training.

(okay East Coast running is pretty awesome too- I mean CAPE COD - fine ill stop complaining :)

Burned Out

Saturday evening, I set out for my long distance run for the week.  After about 4 miles and 6 hills I just stopped ...and walked.  I was completely burnt out of running and did not have the motivation or desire to run another step.  After a mile and a half of walking I decided I was over that too and called Thatcher to pick me up.   It was the strangest feeling... I always had days where I had to push myself out the door, and days where I felt sore and tired, but this was a whole new feeling.  I had no desire, no drive, and was not enjoying ANY part of that workout.
Looking back now, I think I was just "Burned Out" from running, especially after spending 3 months training for my half marathon.  My run Saturday was just a week after my half marathon, and maybe I should have taken the week off to recuperate and redefine my relationship with running. Having the longest legs in the Ragnar has unnerved me into thinking RUN RUN RUN, no time off, keep going, you have to run back to back 9 mile legs.....
I decided to do some research to see if anyone else felt as BLAH as I did, and I was happily surprised to find out it was a common phenomena, especially after a half marathon or marathon.  

This quote did it for me:
"The butterflies and romance weren't going to last forever.  They never do.  There comes this time in every relationship when you have to just decide to do it.  Love is a verb, and it should be done unconditionally.  You just have to get up everyday and honor your commitment, not because of what you get but because of what you give,  and you have to trust that your run is going to do the same".

If that wasn't motivating enough, here are some tips from Live Laugh Run Today, to put that spark back in your run and get you through the last month of Ragnar training:


1) Set a smaller goal.


                2) Pick a place you KNOW you ENJOY running.


    3) Make a new playlist. 
                                 4) Find a buddy. 


5) As always… THINK ABOUT HOW GOOD YOU WILL FEEL AFTER!