Monday, July 16, 2012

Breakin It Down - Ragnar Relay Runner #2

Like I'm sure you all need reminding that I'm running the Ragnar Relay Northwest Passage with a group of super awesome bloggy girlfriends and Nuun...but what you might not remember is that it is THIS FRIDAY!

And since I'm a super technical runner and like to have detailed plans for all my races (NOT!) let's break down my legs shall we?  I am runner #2 and until last week I had the least amount of mileage out of anyone during Ragnar.  And I was totally ok with only having about 13 total miles...until I found out it is actually now 15.  So, that whole "I'm not going to train for Ragnar since I'm fresh off half marathon training" thought really isn't going to cut it anymore.  But it's too late to do anymore training so I'm just going to have to suck it up and run a little more than I anticipated.  

Leg #2 will be 6.8 miles of scenic flat roads around Birch Bay.  I was runner #2 last year and besides this being a longish run it isn't too eventful.  It is a good time to pick off some other runners and test my speed...dare I say I would like to do this run in under an hour?? We shall see...


Our team start time is at 9:00 AM so I'll probably on the road for leg #2 around 10:00 AM so the weather should still be in the morning cool zone.

Leg #14 is 3.7...scratch that 5.7 miles through Burlington.  Yep, this leg was 3.7 easy peasy miles at first but Ragnar decided adding 2 miles the week before a relay is no big deal.  While I know I can handle the mileage I'm just worried about running too hard on my 6.8 to be able to give this run my all, someone on my team should try and hold me back on my first run so I don't run out of gas...ok?

According to our super technical, I'm sure it's really accurate pace calculator, I should be running this around 9:00 PM. Again, perfect timing for some cooler weather and some sweet reflective gear and glow necklaces!

Leg #26 is an "easy" 5K in Oak Harbor.  I put "easy" in quotation marks because that is what Ragnar says but it appears the first 2 miles are all up hill.  While that doesn't necessarily scare me by itself but after running over 10 miles combined with probably 1-2 hours of sleep I'm sure my legs will hate me every step of the way.  But I'll probably still try to run this thing fast because afterall it is just 3.1 miles until I'm DONE!  


Pace calculator predicts this run will be about 7:00 AM...again...perfect timing with the weather.  I should be able to enjoy all my runs in cooler/comfortable weather conditions...this makes me VERY happy.

So there you have it, that is runner #2's journey in a nutshell.  I have a good friend running #2 on another team so I'm looking forward to comparing notes after this is all done.

In other Ragnar news...look what came in the mail today??
MUCHO thanks to BondiBand for giving us a sweet deal on these bad boys and making them in record time!
Don't worry van drivers, you won't feel left out...there is a band in there for you too :).

Question: What is the number one thing you would never leave for a running trip without besides the obvious of course?

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