Marathon Lar: Race Recap: 2012 Ragnar Relay Northwest Passage

Are you sad this is the final part of my epic relay recap trilogy? Read part 1 and part 2 to catch up on the good stuff...or as New Kids on the Block would say "the right stuff, baby" <---sorry, I went there

So, it's Saturday morning...5:30AM to be exact and while I barely slept I actually felt a tad rested. Of course, nothing a little Nuun Kona Cola and a trip to Starbucks couldn't fix (stop number 3 on the relay FYI).

Kona Cola and Zensah leg sleeves = TWO relay essentials!

Van 2 rolled in with many sleeping beauties in the van and soon Megan came in and handed off to Holly to start our last legs! We got a tad "lost" on the way to the next exchange which allowed me the lovely privilege to see the hill I would be climbing for over half of my 3.1 miles (thanks Mason!) so I started to psych myself out on my ability to run such a hill on little sleep and not that much good food (gummy bears, dried mango, and brownies don't count!).

Holly came barreling into the exchange and Meghan captured the best slap bracelet handoff of them all and I was off!

SLLAAPP!

Surprisingly, the hills weren't as bad as I thought they would be and I even killed three people on the way up, 2 boys BTW! I think the sheer fact that I was almost completely done running propelled me uphill the whole way. After the up there was a looonnngg downhill so I opened up and pretty much sprinted down before encountering the final hill of the run. I came into the exchange in about 29 (9:26 pace) minutes which was just what I was hoping with the hills...a sub 30 minute 3.1 miler.

Hey I'm DONE!!

I wouldn't change any of the running for the world but man it feels good to be DONE!! I was happy to cheer on the rest of my van including the hero of the group, Holly, who picked up a 4th leg after Becky was too injured to run...serious rockstar!!

supporting our hero on her gorgeous run!

Meghan finished off van 1's journey and the only thing on our mind was bacon! Mason not only drove, navigated and pretty much provided everything for us...but most importantly he went ahead to the restaurant while we all freshened up and ordered massive quantities of breakfast food! We also got the pleasure to meet our two stowaways for the relay courtesy of Meghan and we named them...

Meet Ragnar and Drunk Puppet (DP)

For more information on Drunk Puppet please please please visit Becky's blog!

After eating probably more calories than we all burned we made our way to the finish line for some more relaxing and beer drinking while waiting for van 2 to bring it to the finish for us!

And then 32 hours, 13, minutes, and 45 seconds after we started the day before, Megan brought us home and we were done!

Van 1!

Team Nuun Kids on the Block!

Like I said before, no words can really describe what this experience was like and I encourage all of you to try a relay at least once in your running career...you won't regret it! I was in a van of all Ragnar newbies and it was fun to experience it with them and I'm fairly certain all of them would tell you it was an amazing experience! I know I've made friends for life and we have all already started discussing when our NUUNKOTB reunion will be. Keep an eye on my I Run Alot page and I'll link up all my teammates recaps as they come in!

And of course, a thousand million thanks to NUUN for sponsoring the team and not leaving out one teeny tiny detail. Special thanks to Caitlin at Nuun for organizing everything pre-race! And without the super navigating skills of our talented drivers and nighttime running buddies, Mason and Tyler, I'm sure we would have gotten lost, fallen asleep while driving, and not have been properly caffeinated (special thanks to Mason's Starbucks app who never failed in locating the closed place to caffeinate!). Go by some Nuun today and support this Pacific Northwest company!