Wednesday, June 15, 2011

RAAAAGNAAAAAARRRR: ALL NIGHT LONG



I keep talking about how races have been sneaking up on me. But really, THIS RACE TOTALLY SNUCK UP ON ME. That’s what happens when you have such a packed schedule I guess. One day you’re organizing a bridging ceremony for a bunch of Daisy Scouts and the next you wake up and find yourself at the starting line of a 197 mile relay. That happens to everyone, right?

Let me say that I knew for the most part that the people on team 12 Sweaty Nuts were rad. But nothing highlihghts the innate rad-ness of people’s personalities like spending 30 odd hours in a couple of stinky vans with them. Some people would argue that this could go in the completely opposite direction and we’d all end up clawing each others eyeballs out by Saturday morning but with runners this cool I have only love. Big stinky, sweaty love. (Ok, maybe that came out a little bit wrong.)

For me, the running was secondary. Sure, i was responsible for completing 16.5 miles. A five miler, a five and a half miler and a sixer. But the REAL challenge (and the fun) was staying up all night, consuming mass quantities of sugar, and cheering on my teammates at each exchange point. And coming up with as many euphemisms as possible. We were a team called 12 Sweaty Nuts so what do you expect?




So we ran. And drove. And ran some more. And drove some more. I got to run in the middle of the night with a headlamp and reflective vest on which was quite frankly the most badass thing I’ve done in quite a while. I even knocked out a couple of 7:45 miles up a gigantic hill during this leg. Heeeyyyyyy. Yeah, I don’t know how I did it either. We painted peanuts on our van, emptied a two pound bag of Sour Patch Kids and had a 90s dance party where I did the running man in a parking lot to C&C Music Factory. We also made a video of us saying the word RAGNAR like we were death metal singers.

These are good times, I tell you.

And so it all ended on a beach in Chicago- coincidentally down the street from where I used to live in college- and there was BEER! Sweet, glorious beer. And I don’t know if you know this, but if you’ve been running and not sleeping for hours and hours then beer tastes FANTASTIC. Also, you need very little of it for you to be very, very happy.



And then we saw Krista! And then the second van with the rest of the sweaty nuts showed up! And then Marty brought in the anchor leg and performed the astounding feat of be-shirting himself without stopping running!

You should watch this video now:



And then there were medals. And pictures. And high fives. And this was something I will never, ever forget.



RAAAAGNNNNNNNAAAAAAR 4-EVAR.