Ragnar Chicago - RunOther

Leg 9...my first leg. Around 630pm, give or take.

LOTS of hills for the first 4 miles. I killed 5 in the hills. My pace was slow (for me) tho. I couldn't get under 7 minutes. I wound up at 702 average after the first 4 miles. The gang met me at the 4 mile mark to cheer me on. After that, it was time for a nice 4 mile trail run. Killed another 4 on the trails for a total of 9 for this run.

I wasn't too satisfied with my pace here. Although, I did get way faster on the trail since it was flat. But I was hoping for a more impressive pace than just under 7 minute miles.

Still, a decent 8 miler. I finished with a time of 58:15 and an average pace of 6:57.

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We decided to head to Exchange 18 right after runner 12 came in...we needed a rest (wound up sleeping for an hour in a high school gym on a wrestling mat after a little bowl of pasta).

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Leg 21...my second attempt. This was my night run...surprisingly, I felt better about this run than the first.

I started off nice and strong and was able to stay that way. My pace was steady right at 655 or so the entire time. Not a whole lot of climbing here so I was able to ration energy better. I killed 7 on this one. 8 total, but got blown away by Superman. This guy just whizzed by my at Mile 1 and I never saw him again. Must have been one of the superfast ultra teams.

Since the terrain wasn't as difficult, I'm not surprised I had a tad bit better pace here than the earlier one. Usually my pace falls off in the nighttime run since it's harder to navigate. But with less difficulty, and almost no light on the bike trail in the last 3 miles (so I couldn't see if I was running uphill or not...it makes a difference when you can see it!!) my legs just "went with it". My effort was high though, I wore a long sleeve shirt for this one, since it was drizzly and cold. But damn, I was absolutely drenched upon finishing this leg.

I felt my quads and knees after this one. I was pretty sure that wearing the heavier Newton trail shoes was the reason I was slower than I wanted to be, but I was having a lot of heel pain earlier in the day, so I'm happy with the decision to wear them.

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After finishing this one, I was exhausted. We were still WAY ahead of our best case scenario, so we decided to head to Exchange 30 to sleep. When we got there we were told this place had no indoor sleeping and no showers. So we all slept in the van...it was extremely uncomfortable, but we were so tired it didn't make a difference. Unfortunately, this is where everyone started getting sick. Christina started throwing up, Tracy felt flu-ish, Brian was nauseous, and I couldn't stop peeing and pooping. Sorry...TMI. Seemed like Jess and David were the only ones who were okay. Soon it was time to get up and try to get back to business.

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Leg 33 was my final leg. I had decided to try my hardest to hit the pace I wanted...somewhere between 645 and 650.

I decided to wear the Newton racer after feeling slow following the second leg. I think I made the right decision. My knee was hurting but my feet felt better. So I decided to go with the racer since it's softer, which made my knee feel better.

I was nervous about my knee, but I was excited to be done soon. Since Christina was sick, Jess had run the last 8 miles of her leg...usually I'd be handing off to Jess (and I would at the end of this one) but this time she handed off to me! Two guys took off about 15 seconds before Jess came running into the exchange. I knew these would be my first two kills since they seemed to be tired upon taking off. I passed them about 10 seconds after I left the exchange. As I started off, I felt really tired and my knee was hurting. I had taken some Tylenol and Glucosamine/Chondroitin an hour before, but it didn't seem to be working yet. I went on but it was hard getting on pace. Still I was running strong.

I passed another couple guys in the first mile. Finally, I had loosened up and my knee stopped hurting. I saw a bunch of people ahead. So...it was time to work. I just picked them off as I went. Most of this run was on a paved bike trail. There was an Army platoon doing run work out there...it kinda charged me up to see that I was running WAY faster than they were. I kept picking people off. By the time I was four miles in, I had passed 14 runners. There was a guy in front of me that I could see, he was also passing people, but I was running faster. I HAD to catch him. Every time we turned a corner, he looked back, saw me, and sped up. I just kept going steady. I figured he'd run himself out. I was right...cuz about a half mile from the finish line the course went up a few small hills. This is where I caught him and thanked him for being an awesome rabbit. I thought he might try to repass (he looked strong) so I kicked it up a notch...i was running sub 620 pace for about 200 yards but he faded back. I was only about 200 yards from the finish and I passed two more runners. I had roadkilled a total of TWENTY runners in my last leg of the race!!

I was sooooo happy to be done. Now it was time for the last three runners to run it in. When David finished the race for us, we all ran across the finish line and celebrated with a post-race beer at the venue.


Ragnar is so hard to make plans for, it's very hard to say I could do something differently. You go with the flow...make do with what you're given. All my plans were executed, so as far as doing something differently, I think nothing...you just can't control what you're handed on race day.

We all headed to our respective hotels to shower (holy shit, a shower was like heaven after being sweaty for 36 hours), change, and get ready for dinner. We had made reservations at a pub-type place and went there for some beers and food. I ate a steak, mashed potatoes, and fried onion straws. AWESOME. I had a couple beers to drink and enjoyed them immensely. We pretty much crashed hard after this.

No after party, no all-nite craziness. I was asleep by 815pm...and I didn't know there was a world until 845 the next morning.


I think the humidity and the hills limited my overall speed. I think my heavy trail shoes had a little play in that as well...on legs 9 and 21 anyway. Other than that, I'm pretty happy with the speed I made.


I effing LOVE Ragnar. Doing races like these make me want to stop doing individual races and just do relays forever.