my girlfriend called me on Wed and said her team is down a runner. could i help out? well,,, I've got the dog and the kid and husband traveling, so let me know if you can't find anyone else... would be hectic, but maybe i could help.
well, she found someone to do it.
then Friday morning 10 minutes after the race started, she called again. their first runner's down. he rolled his ankle. can i come help? of course, yes. I'll figure it out. can't get there till 8pm. have to run a training at work all afternoon for new staff. no problem.
food? they've got lots of food. they'll set me up a tent. they'll watch my kid. they did all that. I just showed up and ran. e packed then to off to camp. i came home and packed super quick. r came home from business trip, and learned we were leaving. he figured out a dog walker! thank goodness for her. i worked, let my training out 1/2 hour early. picked up e and we went straight to crystal. i dropped him off and then found parking. hoisted all our stuff up from a lower lot. put on running clothes. couldn't hardly eat that day, i was so nervous. could i do it? the angst....
we got to crystal about 7:30. i took the gondola up and started running down at 9:15. in the dark. 8 miles down. LOVED it. well not the little bits of uphill at the end. what a high. blisters apparent around mile 6, but not bad.
sleep wasn't sound, so much adrenaline and concern that e was cold. he loved the warm packs S had given him. he was fine. i actually got about 6 hours of sleep according to fitbit, which is fantastic. yay for ear plugs.
7am ran, well actually slowly hiked 4.8 miles up to the top. stupid to eat a cookie and nothing else before that. super hard steep hike. fortunately, I did take a full gatorade and gummies and water. was dragging at the top... but then i saw that the next runner brought e up in the gondola to meet me. so fun! i ran to him. such a high at this point. n had asked me to think about the green run... i had missed the whole first day, so someone else had run that green for "me". so i decided i wanted to run her green, therefore i can say i did the whole ragnar trails. not just 2/3 of it. e and i took some (he estimates about 40) photos at the top and on the gondola ride down (he didn't have to pay, normally $30 to ride it, but covered because of ragnar).
i had about 1.5 hours to wait until the green, then i did it too. ran all the downhills and loved it. so no shower ever. did change clothes after the red downhill. they made me egg on toast after the yellow, which was perfect.
everyone on the team was really nice, and i didn't have to spend much time with them, since i didn't show up until the race was 1/2 over! i got sleep! i had my son with me. and he loved it too.
everything about it was so much better than the road ragnar. just the right amounts of alone time on the trail - even in the dark, I wasn't too worried about alone time - and times with others being passed or passing. yes, some pressure to go fast, but not too bad. i was coming in to save the day, so it didn't matter if i was slow, they were just glad i was helping out.
15.8 miles. therefore the sweet 16 theme. i tried to pay the injured guy, but he wouldn't take it.
he slept on the way back home, and i took him straight to the y for tween takeover.
we got to see r on sunday and he had an amazing weekend adventure also. stay tuned.
crazy is a compliment
captains are heroes in disguise
blisters are a badge of honor
Sore legs don't last, but memories do.
Life is too short for clean fingernails
There is a badass inside all of us
sleep is overrated
s'mores are part of a balanced breakfast
this time i bought a souvenir (headband). felt like i deserved it.
i just can't find where i put my travel toothbrush and toothpaste.
someday I'll stop partying and clean up and get organized.
No comments:
Post a Comment