RAGNAR RACE!

What could be better than 12 girls running 178 miles in California?!?!

Not Much!

I was really excited about this race! I trained for 4 months. I went from running one mile and thinking my insides were going to fall out (I don't know why, but after having a third baby, my body did not bounce back the way it did before) to running almost everyday and sometimes loving it! I have a love/hate relationship with running. I love it cuz it makes me feel better about my self and is a big stress reliever. I hate it cuz it is hard! It does not come easy and sometimes I think "Why am I doing this?" BUT, there is nothing better than the first few energized steps listening to good music, getting my heart pumping, feeling the sweat drip down my elbows and the finish.....I really think I do it for the end of the run....my mind is clear, my stress is gone, and I feel like eating healthy because I want to, not because I have to!!

Any who.... we started the race on the 24th at 10am. in Santa Barbara with a lofty goal of reaching Dana Point. We were all so excited to run. It was hard for us to save our energy for our own legs of the race. It felt good to jog around at the check points, a few girls ran with me the last mile of my 1st leg.
We had 2 vans, each with 6 girls. One girl would run 4-10 miles and then pass off the wrist band to the next girl.
Van #1 Rocked! Everyone was so great!
Laurie, Annette, Brooke, Me, Penny and Noel!!




All the teams had team names and decorated their vans. It was fun to see all the fun ways people decorated their vans and wore costumes. We were the Ragnolians.

Ragnolian: (n.) A woman possessed with the wisdom of Athena (without the Heft), the beauty of Aphrodite (without the negative side effects), the hunting instincts of Artemis (road kill ahead), the speed of Nike (the goddess not the shoe) and the kick butt mentality of Medusa (but with better hair!)!!!

Oh yeah, and Noel was pregnant! She did so amazing... I could not believe her pace!





Here is our whole team at the finish! Below are some pictures Noel took. For some reason they are really small.
(Noel, Thanks for the pics and for letting us stay at your house!!!)



All in all a FUN race. I did not like all the waiting around and driving. I think I got a half hour of sleep that night. Which is 20 minutes more than Annette....she was our main driver and did an AMAZING job! THANKS Annette!!
I do not do well on no sleep. I found out on the 21st about the Melanoma Cancer and did fine during the day, but at night that is all I could think about. I know I would have liked my last leg of race better if I would have had a good nights rest.
I liked the night run. It was funny running at midnight and people were still out (Friday night and all). One guy yelled from his window, "Where are you running to?" I said, "Dana Point" he said "Where's that?" and his friend said "No way! That's FAR!" - Didn't get to tell him I was only running parts of it....
I ran a total of 16 miles (3 legs). I have been thinking about doing a half marathon, but I don't know.
Would I do this over? IN A HEARTBEAT!
Would I do again? .....
I don't know. I think I would prefer to just run straight instead of having long enough breaks to start feeling sore from the last leg.

Sorry if this does not make any sense... it is late and I need my sleep. More to come on the rest of my trip to CA.....