Races and Places with Azsungoddess

Wish they could all be Arizona girls - Ragnar So Cal Recap

4/9/2018

Writing this post from the back of the van on the drive home from Cali. I’m reflecting on yet another amazing Ragnar weekend, this time at Ragnar So Cal in sunny California.

It was my first time doing So Cal. I knew going into this race that it was going to be fun. The team was made up of members from my local Moms Run This Town chapter. I’ve seen other teams that they had put together and had so much FOMO. I was stoked to be included in this group. Our team name was Wish They Could All Be Arizona Girls.

My buddy Tricia and I flew out to San Diego while the rest of our team drove out with the vans from AZ. We had a series of planes, trains and automobile mishaps trying to get there. Maintenance delay, missed train, then uber ride to meet our teammates. We rented 2 houses located just 1 block from the beach in Carlsbad. Um, yes please!

I was in van 2. Our team started at 5:15am from Huntington Beach. We took beach pics and lingered over coffee and then headed out to meet our team at the first major exchange.

Van 2 lineup:
Runner 1 - Foley
Runner 2 – Laura
Runner 3 – ME
Runner 4- Brecka (Captain)
Runner 5 – Tricia
Runner 6 - Jen

It was warming up as the handoff time approached. It wasn’t even noon yet and we were getting sunburned just waiting for the team to arrive.

Then right as we were leaving I found my friend Erica who was on another team.

Our first legs were hot and sunny. My first one was 3.1 miles and plenty of downhill (yay!). However, there were several stoplights along the way that we had to wait at. Not cool. I somehow managed 13 kills during this time, not sure how that happened!

Some of my teammates had brutal long runs during this time. We were happy when we wrapped up earlier than projected. We went back to our house in Carlsbad to freshen up and actually cooked a pasta dinner with garlic bread. Cooking at Ragnar – who knew that was possible! We laid down for a bit and then it was time to roll out again for our night legs.

My night leg would be my longest and most challenging run. It had over 700 ft of elevation gain over 5.3 miles. Some of the hills were so steep that it was more like hiking. Really tough. At least it was nice out!

I got to take my turn driving the van - a tattered 15 passenger van with a whole host of issues affectionately known as Bertha. After our night legs were over, I drove us back to the house again for a few more hours of sleep in an actual bed. It was unbelievable how many people opted to sleep outside at the exchange on the concrete. No thank you.

We continued to pull ahead of our projected finish time, so we had to hurry and make it to the exchange Saturday morning to finish our last legs. The exchange was at Torrey Pines, so the scenery was pretty epic.

Was fun meeting up with 2 more friends – my fellow BibRavePro Mai and a guy we both follow on Twitter (@touchted), who was running an ULTRA!

Most of our last legs were near the water (yay). My last run would be 3.8 miles through La Jolla. I enjoyed most of it – again except for dealing with stoplights and all the city blocks of downtown. I was happy to run along the beach, even for just a few minutes.

We went out and cheered on Tricia during her very long 9 miler by the beach. We had fun exhibiting a lot of girl power and helping to direct runners on the course)

We met our last runner at the finish line – right down by the water by the San Diego Convention Center. It was very congested. Parking was nuts. But finish line activities were buzzing with excitement. We only had to wait for a few minutes for Jen to come in – then we all ran across the finish together in our matching team outfits. We finished 2.5 hours earlier than expected!

The Hawaiian themed beer garden was fun and the dj guy was so impressed with our outfits that he came and took our pics, and gave me an extra beer ticket because I had done so many Ragnars. In fact, I earned another bonus medal for doing 3 so far in 2018.