Ragnar Tennessee

If you've never done a relay race, you're pretty much missing out on one of the silliest things you can do. It's silly, and you get 5 or 11 other people to do it with you. You run 196 miles together, usually 15 to 30 miles each, in just over 24 hours. And you do it while depriving yourself of sleep. Just. Plain. Crazy. But it's fun!

I would try to describe this for you, but no words can adequately explain the relay experience. It's an excuse to break all the rules.

Rule 1: Recover properly from a hard effort before giving another hard effort.
You gotta break that one or you're not giving your teammates what they deserve from you. Give your best effort for 10.9 miles. Then, 7 hours later give your best effort for 11.2 miles. Then, 5 hours later give your best effort for 12.7 miles. While your best may get progressively slower, give your teammates your best.

Rule 2: Eat well to fuel and recover from a run.
Reese cups, peanut m&ms, Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pies, cookies, PB&J (okay, that's not so bad), chips, and a Clif bar or two thrown in just to give the appearance of balanced health in convenient ready to eat packages. Midway through, you're badly craving a cheeseburger or a pizza or a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit. Better yet, a cheeseburger pizza with bacon and a biscuit crust. And oddly enough, you don't want dessert when you're done with the cheeseburger pizza.

Rule 3: Sleep plenty.
How are you gonna sleep while the van is in motion and everybody is talking about directions and where the next exchange is and who's running next?

Rule 4: Warm up and cool down properly.
Yeah. There simply isn't time. You get to the next exchange just in time for your runner to get there. And you're really guessing about when he'll get there. You don't want to be out warming up when he gets to the exchange. If you warm up too early you'll get stiff again waiting. And cool down? You don't want to run after you're done with your leg and your teammates are all... "Let's get goin to the next exchange." Run hard from cold. Get in the van and get stiff. Repeat. Repeat.

Having said all of that, it's insanely gross and fun. Dudes stink anyway. But now think about this van we were in... Dudes were running hard and getting sweaty. Then, we'd get right into the van, change clothes and shoes and leave the nasty smelling shoes in the van floor. Then we'd compound that odor by having 6 dudes do the same thing. Then, we'd eat junk food which creates its own set of different odors. Now, don't shower and only use port-a-johns for 24 hours. GROSS! You gotta try this. It's so much fun.

Now... How did we do? We ran 196 miles in 24 hours, 2 minutes, and 51 seconds. That was good enough for first place ultra team and third overall. Yep. That's right. We won that. And second place was over two hours behind us, so it wasn't even close. We had people at the finish line saying... "You guys were an ultra team? And you're finished already? You started later than we did!" Yep. That's right. We're bad. And we're sore, too. :)

Here's my quick rundown of my legs on this adventure.

Leg 1: 10.9 miles
This was an extreme downhill leg. I had a net loss of 1140 feet over the first 6 miles. That was some of the most fun running I've ever done! I had to climb about 180 feet in the first mile which slowed my overall pace down, but then I let it fly on the downhills. Then, I got disoriented with about two miles to go. I didn't see any other runners or any course markings and panicked and thought I had missed a turn. So, I turned around and walked a bit. Then, I ran. Then I saw other runners so I turned around and ran like mad to the end! Even with that diversion, I averaged 6:20 pace for 10.9 miles. I only passed 3 people during this leg.

Leg 2: 11.2 miles
This leg started at 10:00 PM and the first thing I saw after getting started was a couple of dogs to chase me. Nice. But they backed off because the road was busy and cars were coming, thankfully! Running at night is neat because you see the blinking butt lights ahead and you just go and try to pick them off. Pass. Next. Pass. Next. Pass. It's pretty motivating to pass people like that. I was able to reach 6 people during this leg with the concentration coming toward the end. There was one guy who was trying to hold me off at the end. I wanted to ask him... "Are you on an ultra team?" But I didn't. That seemed... not nice. So I told him that I was very tired and he'd probably hold me off. He ran faster and I stayed with him. Then he faded and I kept going and put about 10 seconds between us. I was kinda glad that he did that because I would have mailed in that leg without his motivation.

Leg 3: 12.7 miles at 4:40 AM
Still running in the dark for this one. And fog... Man, it was foggy. I was so sore from the downhills and the fast running of the previous two legs. I really just wanted to keep a sub-8 pace. Anything faster would be gravy. Given that I wasn't warmed up, I just started at about a 7:45 pace to shake my legs out. Up ahead, I could see a light that I wasn't gaining on very quickly. So, I tried a little harder to gain on him. When I did, I didn't blow by. I was toast and not feeling it on this run. I asked him if he wanted to work together for a bit, and he did. We ran pretty much 7:00 miles for about 4 miles before he faded. That was very nice to have some company. I just tried to hold on to that pace for as long as I could. The last section was uphill and my pace slowed way too much. I averaged about 7:30 for this leg. Very disappointing, but it was all I had given the sleep deprivation. Really, I'm convinced that the sleep deprivation contributes more to poor performance  than the previous hard efforts. The good news... Even with that slow pace I was able to pick off 35 runners on this leg! Too fun!

Do a relay some time. It's an experience.

Ragnar Results!

I've had the results for the Ragnar Relay DC for a few days and just haven't gotten around to posting about it. Here is the link to the results. We are the ADTRAN Rapid Routers. We were the 29th overall team and the 2nd place Corporate team!! That's awesome!

The only corporate team to beat us was "Saucony Rocks". Hmmm. I wonder what those guys do for a living?!? We had to provide volunteers for this race. What we should have done is to get our volunteers to disqualify team "Saucony Rocks"! Then, we would have won the corporate division! (Of course, I'm joking here.)

First, I have to thank ADTRAN and Fleet Feet of Huntsville. Without their generosity, this experience would not have been possible.

I am very proud of the team effort during this race. I saw everybody on our team run until it hurt and then run more and run faster. Several team members gave PR type efforts during their legs of the race. What a great team!

Justin - Youth and speed. I wish I had more of both! He was clearly the star of the team.

Both Dave and Steve gutted out painful knees to finish up. Dave's long downhill effort was beyond painful for him and he gutted it out. And thanks to Steve for the medical help!

Gene and Kevin just ROCKED their last legs with personal best efforts. How were they able to do that on the 3rd leg? Not to mention Kevin’s 8.2 miles non-stop uphill.

Paul gave an awesome midnight effort chugging up that beast of a hill in the black of darkness!

Eric F. ran 10 miles at faster than my tempo pace. Dude.

Shawn gave a great effort on an 8.8 miler that turned out to be longer! I think he ran faster than he thought he could.

Elle really toughed out an underrated uphill night time run in her first leg. Nice job!

Angie gave a PR effort early and then braved a not so safe part of town in her last leg.

Christie braved Northwest DC in the rain to finish the relay. I was afraid for her as I was sitting in safety at the airport. She was a great hand-off partner!

And I can't forget Bruce who was the fearless driver for Van 2. It was great having you along, Bruce!

This was definitely an experience of a lifetime. If you get the chance to run a relay in the Ragnar series, take advantage of the opportunity! There are a few on the team worthy of special thanks. Thanks Angie for having the idea and being the team captain! Thanks Eric F. for your outstanding project management and organization skills! Thanks Shawn for getting the finances in order for this. And thanks Gene for hosting us Thursday and Friday night and for generously loaning your vehicle to be Van 1.

Big thanks to Angie for her effort in putting together this video. I had to destroy the quality to make it fit on my blog, but you'll get the idea. It was a GREAT experience, and the vid captures some of that!

Ragnar Relay - Leg 25

This last leg was one of the toughest things I've ever done.

Exchange 18

Dave was the last runner in Van 1. When he handed the wristband to Paul at exchange point 18, we departed quickly in the dark of the night to a hotel that Gene had reserved for us about halfway between exchange 18 and exchange 24. Having that hotel was one of the best ideas of the whole trip!

There were people lying on the ground everywhere at exchange 18! The weather was starting to get uncomfortably cool. I grabbed a cup of hot chocolate and was than

kful that I didn't have to try to sleep in a sleeping bag on the ground. They were serving a hot meal there, too, but I couldn't think of eating after Park-n-Dine!

One thing I learned about relay racing is that you don't have nearly as much time between legs as you think you do! Man, we didn't waste any time, but the time just flew by! We got to the hotel at about 1:30 and we were estimating the start my leg at about 5:00 AM. Counting time for a MOST welcome hot shower and drive time to exchange point 24, that left about 2 hours for sleep. The last leg was BY FAR my hardest! It was supposed to be 7.8 hilly miles.

Exchange 24

Those two hours of sleep just flew by! When we got to exchange point 24, it was very crowded. There was a lot of traffic and there was just no space to warm up. I tried to warm up, but it was just miserable. I didn't have space or desire to run. So, after about a half mile of jogging, I just hung out with the team and waited on Christie to bring me the wrist band.

I really wanted to run harder on this leg than I did. I wasn't thinking anything crazy like 6:30 or even 6:45 pace, but I sure was hoping to keep the pace below 7:00. A 6:59 pace would have been acceptable. However, I had a feeling that 6 something miles were a VERY long shot. I was trying to get warm and stay warm, but I just couldn't stop dreading the run! Justin said that there would be no more 6:00 miles for him. I agreed that my 6:30 miles were all used up as well.

The 25th Leg

At about 5:40, They called "1-1-5, Team 115 get ready, your runner is approaching!". Oh well, here I go. I guess I will if I have to! I knew that this section would be hilly. It was nothing like Runner #5 had to deal with, but it was rolling to say the least. I also hadn't studied this route like I should have, so I was more dependent on the course markings. Angie told me that if I was running uphill then I was going the right way! It sure seemed that way!

The first mile was mostly downhill and it still took almost 8:00! I wasn't warmed up and I was very tired. It wasn't "running" fatigue as much as it was "lack of sleep" fatigue! I just couldn't get going. The second mile was rolling, and took around 7:40. I knew then that sub 7:00 average was probably out of the question, but I was awake and warm now. I realized that I hadn't eaten since the Park-n-Dine. So I downed a gel and tried to dro

p the pace. The problem with dropping the pace was that it was still hilly!

Man, this route was in the middle of nowhere! I heard (and smelled, ugh!) cows and horses all around. The smell of this route was nearly unbearable!

When I started this leg, there was no other runner in sight. At about mile 1, I finally caught someone. I encouraged her as I passed. Yep, even running a 7:47 mile, I caught someone! And then there was another! Then, the Expedition leap frogged me and Van 1 was there cheering me on! That is really what lifted my spirits. I heard cheering teammates and I kept seeing blinking butt lights to chase. At this point in the relay, though, nobody was making even a modest attempt to hold me off! I encouraged everyone as I pa

ssed.

Wow!! More blinking butt lights! I passed at least 14, maybe 16 runners on this leg. I was having trouble counting because of the lack of sleep! Nobody passed or even threatened to pass on this leg. I don't think I was the only one who was totally spent by this time.

At the two mile to go mark, a van passed and told me "2 miles to go!" I thanked them and tried to give more effort. I was just out of gas, and that next to last mile was uphill!!! Another van passed by at the one mile to go mark and said, "1 mile t

o go!!" I thanked them, and tried again to increase the effort. Thankfully, the last mile was somewhat flat. I was so glad to see the exchange point up ahead!!

This run didn't hurt nearly as bad as the first and second. It was like I just couldn't move faster. It was just the general fatigue of two previous hard efforts in the day combined with the lack of sleep. The leg was a little longer than advertised, 7.96. I averaged 7:15 per mile, up and down and up and down. I probably did let the team down a

bit on this leg. I just didn't give the effort that I should have. Looking back, I should have taken the attitude that this is the last leg and I have nothing to save for. I simply did not go all out.

Ragnar Relay - Leg 13

The Pre-Run Mistake

While Van 2 was running their legs, we joined them at the occasional exchange point. We tried to rest, but it just wasn't bed time. Since breakfast, I had only had a bagel, peanut butter, apples, chips, etc. So, I was STARVING. So was everyone else. Gene and Steve were familiar with the area, so they recommended a diner along the way, the Park-n-Dine in Hancock, MD. If you're ever in the neighborhood, don't miss this dive.

I made a huge mistake at the diner. There was this great looking sandwich on the diner menu. Roast beef, gravy, mashed potatoes, fried mushrooms, and cheese on sourdough. It was AMAZING! As I was about to take my last few bites, Steve reminded me that I had to run in 2 hours. WHAT?!?!?! OH NO!!!! I had completely lost track of time. Huge mistake! Um, yeah. Turkey on wheat with lettuce and tomato would have been a much better choice.

The 13th Leg - The First Half

Leg 13 was a 4.1 mile run that had a couple of noticeable hills. I've never run a 4 mile race before, so I was guessing at what pace I should run this leg. I decided I'd be aggressive and run it at 5k pace and see what happened. There I am taking the baton. (OK, it was a reflective wrist band, but whatever.)

At this point in the race, we had lost just a little bit of our planned time. We were maybe 15 minutes behind our plan, so I was going to try to make some of it up. Since it was a night leg, I was allowed a bicycle pacer. So, Steve rode alongside me. I warned him that I would be pushing too hard to talk on this leg. His encouragement and watching for traffic REALLY helped.

Immediately after starting this leg, I passed 3 people. I went out at 5k effort, but there is about an 85 feet hill in the first quarter mile of this leg. OUCH! It was NOT 5k pace! And when the hill let up, it didn't flatten or go downhill, it was just a gradual 40 feet rise until about 1.5 miles. UGH! The first mile was definitely harder than 5k effort, but ended up 6:37 for the mile.

About half a mile in, I got passed. Steve warned me that he was coming. His move was strong! I stayed on his shoulder, but he was determined. He dropped the pace to about 6:00, and I knew that I couldn't hang on to that, especially uphill. I had to let him go. This guy was at least 50. Man, I hope I'm that fast when I'm 50! I kept him in my sight. He backed off some when he realized that I wasn't going to stay with him.

At the top of the hill, at about the 1.5 mile mark, the 50-ish year old passed another runner. That runner was going at a sub-7:00 pace, and he didn't even try to keep up. So, I set my eye on him. At about mile 2, When I started to make my move, he stayed with me for just a few steps, but then he encouraged me and let go.

I kept the first passer in sight on the flat section at the top of the hill. I didn't know if I would be able to make a move or not. I knew that the downhill was coming and I feel pretty strong on downhills. I did close the gap some down the hill, but it was futile. He is faster than me! I asked Steve about the guy I passed, and my lead on him was slowly building. I had one guy to chase, and nothing really to worry about from behind.

The 13th Leg - The Second Half

Mile 2 was mostly flat with a couple of 10-15 foot bumps in it. I hit it in a disappointing 6:35. The next two miles were downhill or flat all the way! I hit them in 6:05 and 6:01. During them, I blew by 3 other runners, but the guy who passed me just built his lead. This leg was the only leg that gave me the "1 mile to go" sign. When I saw it at about 3.05 on the Garmin, I was determined to just get after it!

At about 3.6 or so miles, there was a turn to the finish. I could see this daunting 50 foot hill up ahead. UGH!. And, after the turn, there was this nasty smell of raw sewage! Remember the diner in Hancock, MD? Eww! At my current effort level, that was about the worst thing that could have happened. I managed to keep everything down, though. This leg turned out to be just a bit shorter than 4.1, and I was a little surprised by the finish, so I didn't start my ending kick soon enough.

I didn't feel as good as I looked, so I must've felt really BAD!! After the bad feeling went away, I got this extreme euphoria in the van. I guess that was endorphins combined with satisfaction?

Ragnar Relay - Leg 1

My first leg of the Ragnar Relay was a "no excuses" race from the start to the first exchange point. I had ridden in a very uncomfortable 15 passenger van for hours and hours the day prior, but I had one of the best nights of rest I've had in a long time! The weather wasn't as warm as the forecast. It was cloudy, and just below 60 at the start at 11:00 AM EDT. The leg was FLAT. The surface is the same surface on which I run about half my miles and almost all of my temp runs on. PERFECT!

And we're off!!! I took the lead and held it for about 0.75 miles. I probably started just a bit too fast, but I was very excited! I got passed at about 0.75 miles. I didn't think this guy was going to take me. I kept him in sight, and never let him get more than 10 seconds ahead. There were two others just behind me. At about the 1 mile mark, they made their move. Their move was stronger, and they were competing with each other. I do wish I had joined them. Who knows if I could have kept up or not, but I didn't try. One day, I'll get over that tentativeness I have early in races.

The two opened their lead over 3rd. I kept 3rd in sight. I had to decide. Do I want to go after the leaders or not. For whatever reason, I wasn't sure if I had it. I was afraid I would bonk. Why was I afraid? Oh well. There was no one in sight behind us. This was becoming a battle for first and a battle for 3rd.

At about the 3.5 mark, I decided to make my move on 3rd. I passed him strongly and didn't look back. OH NO!!! What is that? My shoe is untied?!?!?!? How does this happen? UGH!!! I decided that stopping to tie it was the best move because if I fell, I would lose even more time. Yep, he passed me as I was tying my shoe at the 4 mile mark or so.

I wasn't ready to give up that pass so easily. I chased him down and easily overtook him again. Now, the leaders were probably out of reach. I gave some effort, but their lead was nearly 30 seconds, and I just couldn't close the gap. I finished in around 40:30. That's PR pace for me, but of course this isn't a certified 10k. But it was about 6.22 miles, which is pretty close. I was very pleased with the time.

12 Runners, 199 miles

I'd like to give a BIG thank you to the Morisak family for their hospitality last night. What a beautiful place this is! I got a good 9 hours of sleep so I'm ready to roll today! I start at 11:00 AM this morning, and then we'll end when we cover the 199 miles from Cumberland, MD to RFK Stadium in Washington, DC.

That's a photo of our team post spaghetti dinner. The dinner was AWESOME!!! Bailey, the Morisak's daughter, made the sign for us.
Left to Right: Gene, Steve, Christie, Justin, Dave, Elle, Eric F., Angie, Kevin, Paul, Eric P, Shawn.

Ragnar Relay

Today will either be a day off or a recovery run day. Either way, it would be ho-hum to write about. So, I'm going to mention something pretty exciting coming up.

Eleven of my friends (Well, 3 of them I've never met and another 3 I only just met at the first team meeting. We'll be friends after this, I'm sure.) and I will be embarking on a big adventure on September 25-26. We're running in the Washingdon, DC race in the Ragnar Relay series. This is going to be off the charts fun!

So, what is it you ask? It's about a 195 mile relay race from Cumberland, MD to Washington, DC. Each of the 12 runners has 3 legs of the race of varying lengths. So, 6 of the team members will be in one van and will run their legs in order. Then, the other 6 will be in another van and run their legs in order. We continue to run our legs in order, swapping vans at every 6th exchange station until we get to Washington, DC.

I've never done anything remotely like this, but it will be a BLAST! I have (estimating) a 9 mile leg, a 4 mile leg, and a 7 mile leg for just under 20 miles total. We expect to complete the race in just over 24 hours.