Ragnar - Del Sol

Several weeks ago my friend Nate from high school sent me a facebook message asking if I might be interested in filling on their Ragnar Relay team.  They had a couple of runners that had to drop out due to injury.  Nate and I met up last fall at the St. George, UT marathon - it was the first time I'd seen him since high school but we've been keeping in touch over facebook.  Anyway, Anissa and I are avid Ragnar Relay fans - Anissa has already run in the Utah (Wasatch Back) and northern CA (Napa Valley) Ragnar Relays, so we decided to see what we could do to make it work.  I called up Mom (THANKS MOM!!) and she fit a weekend in California into her plans to come watch the kids so we could fly to Phoenix and run 200+ miles with a team of 12 people.  I still can't believe it worked out.  This was Anissa's birthday weekend too, and it was exactly what she wanted to do.  It was the first time we've been away for a weekend together without the kids for quite some time, and we got to spend it doing Anissa's favorite hobby - running!

Here's our team at the starting line.

 We split into 2 vans.  Van 1 had 5 runners (one runner short) and van 2 had 6 runners.  We were in van 2 with my friend Nate and 4 of his friends.  Nothing like spending 30 hours with a few great people in close quarters to forge some new friendships very quickly!!  These people ROCK!!  Here is Nate, Doug, Brian, Erin and I getting ready for our first leg.

 Nate and Doug traded off as drivers.  Nate's navigational skills can't be matched.

We saw some pretty creative teams.  I have no idea how this one ran in the Arizona heat....

Getting hyped for leg 1....

Brian's amazing hand-off to Doug...

Anissa and I at nightfall in AZ!  We were runners #11 and #12, so we got to hand-off to each other.  Once we finished leg 1 we stayed at a nearby high school - rolled out our sleeping bags on the grass and slept for about 2.5 hours.  Then it was time to get up and go again for leg #2!

Brian and Erin look really good for being sleep deprived.

And Doug kept it lively in the driver's seat!! ROCK ON!!!

In the morning, we had to get a picture of us with the Arizona Saguaro Cacti in the background.  Yes, we are tourists!!

Our final leg was in the heat of the day - with a high of 81 degrees.  Here's Anissa conquering the Arizona heat on her last run (hint - she's not the one with the tutu, she's the one further back....)

Anissa and I are used to running in 40 degree weather here in Cali, so this was a major adjustment for both of us.  However, we surprised ourselves with faster-than-expected paces on all of our runs!  

 

As runner #12 I got to run the final leg of the entire race.  We finished right around 4:00 PM on Saturday with an elapsed time of 29 hours, 19 minutes.  Our team came in 20th place out of 55 in our division.  We rocked it!! Most importantly, we had a great time!

Here's our team right after we all crossed the finish line together.

What a great team.  We'd do it all over again in a heartbeat given a chance!