Ragnar Relay del Sol - RunOther


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Prescott, Arizona
United States
Ragnar Relay
 		Total Time = 3h 24m
Overall Rank = /
Age Group =
Age Group Rank = 0/
Pre-race routine:

At eggs and toast for breakfast about 6:30, but I wouldn't be running for 3.5 hours. Met Van 1 at Bass Pro parking lot in Mesa where we dropped our cars. Left parking lot about 7:30, which should have been plenty of time for our 10:00 start, but we had to stop in New River to use the restroom. We made it to the check in barely in time for me to start with the 10:00 group. It was really cool to be at the start and hear our team name announced. About 300 people were at the start line, which was located at the top of a small hill.
Run
  • 3h 24m
  • 19.1 miles
  • 10m 41s  min/mile
Comments:

Legs 1 and 3 were hilly, but overall enjoyable. Leg 2 was essentially flat except for multiple ditches. Leg 2's trail run SUCKED since it was run at night. But I was luckier than other Runner 1's: one guy went the wrong way down 89 first, then completed the trail and did an extra 5 miles. Another guy was being worked on by his teammates after the trail run to remove thorns and bandage deep cuts. Every runner I talked to complained about the trail run and getting lost.

One thing I did right during leg 3 was to bring along three PowerGel cola chews. I took 30-second walk breaks to eat one chew each at 40 minutes, 65 minutes and 80 minutes into the run. This helped keep my energy up.
What would you do differently?:

First, I went out way too fast on leg 1, thinking that it was a short run and I could run faster, and not wearing my heart rate monitor to ensure I wasn't working too hard for the distance. I also didn't take the altitude into account.

I screwed up the nutrition before leg 2. We had a fiasco of a time trying to find something to eat before the major exchange, then ended up eating pasta and salad two hours before my run. The pasta sat in my stomach, and even though I didn't eat much, I had GI problems all through the trail run.

On leg 3, I reverted back to my old ways of running -- with iPhone and music playing. I clipped the iPhone to my right side, and I didn't realize that I subconsiously moved my shoulder and elbow to avoid hitting the iPhone with my arm when I ran. So by mile 7, my shoulder hurt so bad that I was almost crying. With one mile to go, I finally figured out the problem, moved my iPhone to the middle of my back, and relaxed the shoulder. It worked, and I was able to run the last mile at a fairly good pace.
Post race
Warm down:

Wish I could say that I stretched a lot, but we usually had to pack up the van and go. Not a lot of opportunity for stretching, although I tried whenever we stopped.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Fatigue, pain, the trail run in the dark

Event comments:

Ragnar doesn't do drink stations, but on the long legs it would be nice if they would. Also, they really shouldn't do trail runs in the dark. Bad planning on Ragnar's part.




Last updated: 2009-02-02 12:00 AM
Running
03:24:00 | 19.1 miles | 10m 41s  min/mile
Age Group: 0/
Overall: 0/
Performance:
Course: Leg 1: 3.4 miles in Prescott. Elevation over 5,200 feet. Went out too fast, with first mile in 8:24. This is the fastest mile I've ever run! But it was also mostly downhill. Rest of leg was rolling hills, and lap times skyrocketed: mile 2 in 9:40, mile 3 in 9:58. Still came in more than 3 minutes earlier than expected and therefore got the team off to a good start! Leg 2: Was supposed to be 6.3 miles, but Garmin ended at 6.98 (and I may not have started it exactly at the start. Was essentially a (trail run in the dark!) starting about a quarter-mile before the intersection of highways 71 and 89. The trail mostly paralleled highway 71, and sometimes we were guided onto 71 for a short time to go around culverts and gullies. There was no shoulder at all on Highway 71, which I guess explains why they chose the trail, but although it probably looked like a decent trail in the daytime, at night there were parts that were really confusing and I would even say treacherous. You'd be running along and suddenly the ground would drop out from under your feet into a small ditch. Sometimes these ditches were illuminated by powerful lanterns and sometimes they weren't. The last two miles were the worst as we were given directions to follow along a barbed wire fence, but there would be mesquite bushes and other thorny plants in the way. I tripped and stumbled several times, but fortunately didn't fall. Dean rode his bike next to me, and I was grateful for the extra light and companionship. Many guys passed me on this leg (no one else with bicycles), and I started to get frustrated at my slow progress. But we lost the trail a few times and that didn't help as I ground to a halt trying to find a way to a lantern or orange glow stick marking the trail. Many patches were sandy and Dean skidded out on the bike once, landing hard on his knee. We also had to jump into and climb out of several ditches. Even coming out of the trail to the exchange was confusing and I didn't know where to go. It was longer than advertised, not well marked, and really just plain ludicrous that Ragnar made us do that run in the dark. I think that running down 89 with its wide shoulder would have been much better than taking the back way into Wickenburg and making us run that trail. Leg 3: After a night of very little sleep, it was my turn to run again about 9:00 a.m. The wind had picked up overnight, although it did die down enough before my run to allow a few balloons to launch from Carefree Highway. The start of my run was at Cactus Shadows High School off of Carefree Highway and Dove Valley Road. The 8.7 mile leg consisted of rolling hills all the way to Pima and Dynamite. Wind and fatigue were definitely factors on this run, but there were wide shoulders and/or bike lanes through the entire leg, so safety was not an issue except for crossing the streets. It was also starting to get hot during this leg and my teammates gave me extra water, which I poured over my head to stay cool. Even through some vicious shoulder pain, and normal right foot arch, right hip and left knee pain, I managed to come in about 92 minutes, which was 5 minutes sooner than the projected 97 minutes for this leg.
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall:
Mental exertion [1-5] 3
Physical exertion [1-5] 2
Good race? Ok
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? No
Post race activities: Average
Race evaluation [1-5] 3