Race Recap: 2012 Ragnar Relay Northwest Passage - Part 1

DISCLAIMER: There is literally no words I can write to describe the experience of 1) the Ragnar Relay itself and 2) running it with the amazingness of Nuun and my whole team...but I do have a blog so I guess I'm supposed to try right?  I also won't go into any details on my  teammates  legs as you can make sure to stalk them yourselves to get the whole picture!

Team Nuun Kids on the Block

Pre-Relay Fun!

Van 1 ladies Corinne, Katherine, Holly, Becky, me, Meghan

Nuun seriously went ALL OUT for us to make this experience the best possible and they kicked it off with dinner and van decorating at their headquarters Thursday night.  It was great to meet the rest of Nuun Kids on the Block and so much of the Nuun family.  We chowed down on pasta, salad and bread with a little beer and Nuun thrown in before heading outside for some serious van decorating.

Carbs, hydration, de-hydration

I got home at a decent hour, set up alarm for 4:15AM (YIKES!) and actually got a pretty good nights sleep.

Relay time with Nuun is here!!

Van 1 met at 5:15 at Nuun HQ and headed north towards the Canadian border where the relay starts.  Mason (Nuun CEO) was our super awesome driver and his wife, Katherine, navigated (and was runner #4) for basically the entire trip.  I dare you to find another company with a CEO who is as awesome and down to earth as Mason.

We made it to Blaine with plenty of time to spare, checked in, received our safety briefing, and got all Nuun/Ragnar tatooed up!  Holly was runner #1 and the pouring down rain started just in time for her to begin the relay for us.  Summer...where are YOU?

It's raining so hard it's blurry! Van 1 before the start!

The 9:00 starting field

Since I was runner #2 I just started mentally preparing myself for 6.8 miles of running in the rain :(.  At about 10:00 I was off on my first run for the relay!  The first few miles of my run was on a pretty busy street and the van couldn't stop so it was a bit lonely but I had runners in the distance to try and catch up to kill to keep my mind busy.  It was seriously pouring but the silver lining was that it wasn't cold so I wasn't too miserable despite the sloshing around of water in my shoes at approximately .5 miles into the run.

Nuun support with a monster thrown in...totally normal :)

I eventually made it to Birch Bay and got a pretty good view for the rest of my 6.8 miles.  I was drenched and kept ringing out my hair to stop the dripping down my neck, but a little rain wasn't going to ruin the awesomness of this race!  I didn't wear a Garmin but just ran like I felt without going too hard since I knew I had many miles left.  

Thanks Becky and Holly for capturing the pics of my first run (pre-race game face, running in the rain, handing off to Corinne)

I handed off to Corinne after 1 hour and 2 minutes (9:10 pace) of running and immediately took my shoes off in fear of large blisters...thankfully there were none!


Corinne had a loonnngg leg of over 8 miles and we couldn't stop at all for her run so we went straight to the next exchange and got down to business...Nuun tatooing business that is.

Hey, I know you...that's Nicole!

After Corinne, Katherine was up, then Becky (who had the BIGGEST smile on her face the entire run since it was the first time she ran in 8 weeks) and finally Meghan who busted out a long run despite being pretty sick.

Pure running joy from Becky...I love it!

Poor Meghan felt about 10x worse after her run but luckily for her we ended in Bellingham, where she lives, so we dropped her off at her house for a hot shower and nap while we ate.  Of course it was also awesome to have a real bathroom to clean up in and she even attempted to dry my and Holly's shoes!  We picked up Meghan who looked and felt better and made our way to meet with Van 2 to start our second legs.

Next up...night running with butt tatoos, dark trail running, and spectators pretending they were bears....

STAY TUNED!