I dropped the kids off to my
friend (who would eventually pass them off to Grammy—so grateful for the help
of friends and family that let me continue this crazy habit) and raced to the
airport. I barely made it in time, immediately
boarding and settling in for take off. A
long layover in Vegas was spent with a Jamba Juice and panini before the final
leg into Seattle.
I arrived at the airport and
waited for another good friend and teammate to arrive. Then both of us were picked up by the team,
thrilled to see old friends again and excited to meet some new teammates. We drove to the hotel where we met more of
the team, did a whirlwind shopping trip to stock up on food and went to the
Olive Garden for dinner.
The team split into our two vans
for the night. Mostly because my van
(van 1) only got to sleep for four hours before we had to up, load into the van
and drive to the start. We checked in
and rallied to the starting line. I was
runner 1 so I got to lead the team, rocking my rainbow yeti boots for a 6.5 miles
run starting at the Canadian border and running south along the
waterfront. It was gorgeous! And perfect
weather. Not as fast as I’d like to be,
but I kept my anticipated pace and handed off to my teammate. After finishing our legs, we turned it over
to van 2 and hurried back to our hotel.
Since we got a late checkout, we managed a quick shower and then went in
search of food. We found burgers at a
local sports bar and then lounged until our second legs. I ran another 4.5 miles, this time in matching
tutus with a teammate (“team tall and small”, since I’m 5’10” and she’s
5’0”). I got to facetime with the girls
to do our bedtime routine together and they always love to see what I’m wearing
for races. (We did our usual "happy and sads" conversation which I always love. But I was happily surprised when I got my entire van to report happy and sads each night as well!) One of the exchanges was at a
local farmers market with ice cream, fresh waffles cones and local produce (the
seafood had unfortunately already been put away). We decided we couldn’t resist and ordered ice
cream. Two runners from our van still
had miles to conquer so they begrudgingly passed while the rest of us
feasted. Our cones, a “2 scoop” turned
out to be bigger than my head and I ate less than half before I gave it
away. But turns out that ice cream
during a race weekend is never a good idea and we definitely regretted it.
We passed the race over to van 2
and slept for a few hours before I started my third leg (3.1 miles) around 4
am. We cheered each other on, taking
naps when we could and continuing the highly inappropriate but downright
hilarious stories and comments. We finished
our last legs and went out for breakfast.
We found a local café, “Knead and Feed” right on the waterfront. We spent our thirty minute wait wading in the
ice cold water for a pseudo ice bath while we admired the beautiful view. Breakfast was amazing and then we made our
way to the finish line party. We
wandered briefly, exchanged shirt sizes, picked up free stuff and shopped in
the gear tent before we settled down in the shade to wait for our team
It was late afternoon (one of my
earliest finish times yet) when our team gathered both vans and waited for the
last runner to come in. She had
struggled through most of her runs, apparently fighting heat and injury and had
to walk part of it. So we just hung out
and waited, excited to join her and run across the finish line as team in
Ragnar tradition. Unfortunately, as soon
as she caught up to us, she broke into a sprint and crossed the finish line
before we could catch up, which is actually pretty insulting—and which is why
she’s ready to pass out in our team photos.
So we shrugged off the anticlimactic finish and enjoyed our brief stay
at the finish line party with pizza and drinks.
We headed out shortly after,
anticipating the traffic to get off the island.
We waited in line 90 minutes to get on the ferry (still better than the
3 hours it would take to backtrack the other direction). Once our van was loaded, we went up a deck to
enjoy the view. Back on land, we drove
to our hotel, unpacked and divided up gear, and said goodbye to part of the
team. Seven of us stayed together, going
to dinner at a highly recommended seafood restaurant (Pike’s Chowder House—so
unbelievably good!) and then spent the evening at the hotel. We lounged in the hotel hot tub, showered and
then stayed up way too late playing “Rotten Apples”, a dirty, adults only
version of “Apples to Apples”.
Half the remaining group stayed
and slept in until their afternoon flight while I left with the early
group. We took a 4:30 shuttle to the
airport and then said our goodbyes there.
All in all, this race goes in my
top three all-time favorites. The
scenery was gorgeous, my van was unbelievably fun and we had so many great
experiences (and so many new favorite phrases, stories and legends). And despite my less-than-usual mileage, I’m
so sore!
No comments:
Post a Comment