Races and Places with Azsungoddess
  • Product & Race Reviews
  • About Me
  • Race Discounts
  • Product Discounts
  • Tea Shop

Races & Places with azsungoddess
Running & Racing around the globe

Running through Wine Country...Ragnar Napa Valley Recap

11/7/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
I recently completed Ragnar Napa Valley, which wrapped up an incredible year of Ragnar for me.  It started here in AZ last February, and it was a really fun ride!

Feb – Ragnar Del Sol (AZ)
Mar-  Ragnar Tennessee
Apr – Ragnar So Cal (CA)
May – Ragnar Chicago (IL/WI)
Aug – Ragnar Great River (WI/MN)
Sept – Ragnar Michigan
Nov – Ragnar Napa (CA)

As per usual, I jumped on this team with strangers and hoped for the best. As it turned out,  almost our whole van 2 were new to the team and strangers.  And guess what…it worked!
Picture
I flew in Thursday night and waited for the rest of my teammates to arrive. It was really seamless. We got picked up at the airport, whisked across the Golden Gate Bridge, and stayed overnight in San Rafael.  We had an eclectic bunch in van 2. Two experienced Ragnarians that flew in together from DC, one was from Russia and the other from Chile,  a girl from Park City who was also running her 15th Ragnar, and 2 local newbies. We had a 7am start time, so our van one got this amazing view:
Picture
Photo: Reebok Ragnar Napa Valley (Facebook)
Meanwhile, we grabbed breakfast and a few supplies.  No sleeping in or lounging around, we were on task and at the exchange by 10am for an 11am handoff.
Picture
Nothing but sunshine and blue skies here!
I got to see my Ragnar del Sol buddy Alex, which was a nice treat!
Picture
We got some beautiful views while we waited at exchange 7.
Picture
It was heating up fast, and I had my longest run ahead of me, with a 3pm start time. Ragnar made a TON of last minute course adjustments the day before, so my 10.9 run became an  8.9 run.  I wasn’t sad.  Luckily it was a lot of downhill.  So much so that my quads paid the price.  I was runner 11, so just one more runner to go and then we got to have dinner!

I am a craft beer lover, but I had no idea that Lagunitas was brewed nearby. We ended up at the Lagunitas taproom in Petaluma.  What a cute place!
Picture
 I don’t recall a ton of downtime after that before it was time to run our night legs.  I do know that my stomach started giving me a few troubles before the run and I should have paid more attention to it. I got a major headache, possibly from dehydration. My night leg was only 2.9 miles, part of it on a pitch dark trail in a neighborhood. I felt pretty crummy because I needed to use the bathroom in a bad way. The second I finished I went straight there.  I felt better, but still “off”. It would continue for hours.
Picture
Ready for my night leg - SPIBeams hat, Knuckle Lights, Noxgear vest and my fun halloween leggings!
My team was killing it. We were ahead of projections! We got some sleep – some of us in the van, some inside the school and some out in a field.  We took over around 7am for our last legs – I was shocked that van 1 was done at 7am! I’ve been van 1 for the majority of my ragnars, and I have never been done that early. Maybe 11am, but that is probably the earliest.  So they got to get a little rest, eat, clean up, and then went WINE TASTING while we were still running! Wish I had been in on that fun, as it turns out I would not get another opportunity :(

It was another hot one on Saturday – high of 88! We waited at the finish (again once I finished my 3.5 miler, I was runner 11 so we only had 1 runner left to go!).  Megs took a wrong turn and went out of her way by about a mile.  We finished and had some local wine at the finish area – I have never seen wine at a Ragnar, but it makes total sense here! Local winemaker Omen wine was selling some fun packages with cool tank tops, a bottle of wine and glasses. I had to partake in that! Megs and I pretty much cleaned out the place LOL.
Picture
Our team had some pretty stellar results, probably the best of any Ragnar team I've been on! Top 25% overall, 75 out of 250 in our open category! wow. We finished in 31 hours and some change.
Picture
Run.Wine.Rest.Repeat!
Picture
Our team name was Chubby Bunny, apparently named after some campfire game?
10 of us were up for staying in the area that night, which was great. However, the rental place that they found to accommodate everyone was over an hour away in Geyserville. It’s a cute tiny town, but once we rolled into town the few wineries they had were already closed.  The rental place was…interesting.  It was a very strange combination of animal sanctuary and spiritual center to worship the Egyptian goddess Isis. I kid you not.  There were more than a dozen beds in one room, like a hospital ward of sorts.  The only upside was we could walk to dinner/breakfast, etc.   We sat around sharing stories and wine.  Sunday morning we left fairly early (the roosters woke us up), and grabbed coffee before we all rolled out in different directions. One of my teammates Stephanie was nice enough to take me back to the airport on Sunday, so that was a bonus! 

Overall, I enjoyed the experience. I met several people who I really enjoyed and fully intend to keep in touch with.  I also want to do this race again, it was pretty convenient for me to get to from AZ. However, I absolutely 100% will switch to van 1 AND will spend the night in Napa like so many other teams did. It sure looked like fun!
Picture
Getting silly with Megs
Picture
Wine and double bling, great combination!!
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Author

    Hi, I'm Emily! I'm an avid runner in Arizona with a passion for travel and racing around the country!

    Read more

    FOLLOW ME!
    SUBSCRIBE
    Picture
    Follow my blog with Bloglovin
    Picture
    Picture

    Archives

    October 2022
    September 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    September 2021
    June 2021
    December 2020
    October 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Product & Race Reviews
  • About Me
  • Race Discounts
  • Product Discounts
  • Tea Shop