Rabid Ragnar Runners

Garmin’s view of my crazy weekend:

Run #1, Run #2, Run #3

First of all, thank you Ian for asking me to be a part of this team of great people and amazing runners.

Thank you van 1 for all your encouragement and support!

I’m kinda new to running and I knew this wasn’t gonna be easy, but I seriously under estimated how evil the hills would be (and my hills were not the hardest in this race). There might have been a few moments when I wished I had never agreed to do this, but in the end it was all worth it!!! The accomplishment, the fun, the laughs, the friends, the support… it was all a memorable and amazing experience!

I will never forget… the smell of cow manure as I’m trying to make it up the first evil hill, Kristin with a glass of chocolate milk for me after my run, Elise running with me out of Reading, cause I was scared, Josh and all his kills on his 8 mile run, Julie looking so happy on every run, Rose and her amazing speed walk up the hills, the bonfire at exchange 25, the creepy lady that asked what this was all about, the best breakfast ever in Jim Thorpe and how great it felt to be DONE!!! Thanks everybody! Tammy

After having some time to reflect, regroup and recover. I hate to get sentimental, however I must say, I still feel like crap and Ian, I still hate you for coming up with the whole idea of doing this.

No really. This is the dumbest thing you ever talked me into.

Ok seriously, it’s crazy that we are all sore, tired and miserable after one of these, and yet we still all agree that we would sign up to do it again in a heartbeat. I can honestly say that, the ONLY reason that is the case, is because we have such AWESOME teammates and captains/leaders. Basically what I’m saying is, if you guys were all A-holes like Craig, I wouldn’t do this to myself.

Van 1: Im going to throw you all into one lump here basically because all I know about you all is that you guys killed it. Too fast for me to even watch the majority of the Phillies game Friday night. Running though the lovely city of Reading at night, the serial killer Josh, and basically a Van full of Ragnar rookies who killed it. Kristen, you’re like my Ragnar Mom. Your awesome, It just wouldn’t be a Ragnar without you.

Linsky: Totally agree with Ian, you’re like hanging with the coolest kid in school. Somehow I feel way cooler having you on our team. Except people probably think that because you are soo fast that the rest of us will be the same. And let me tell you we really change those thoughts in a hurry. Your willingness to pick up extra miles the past 3 ragnar’s is unreal. You’re a machine man.

Cynyth: I couldn’t be more proud of you. I had no idea about how you decided to do this on a whim after hearing everyone talk about it. Your first race to finish being a Ragnar? That’s incredible. Your super cool, a great teammate, and an awesome cook. Good luck with your future runs.

Craig: What can I say, you bring out the worst in me. You’ve made the past two races in the van so much fun. We must get together and hang out and have a beer, without having to worry about the effects its going to have on our next run in a few hours. I would also like to thank you for all your hard work with the super accurate spread sheets allowing us to know EXACTLY how we performed. Glad you didn’t die on me.

Karis: Our anchor. Its pretty safe to say that you need to relax with the worrying about EVERYTHING. The whole time I had to hear about how cranky you would be with no sleep, how you weren’t going to run alone, how you weren’t good at hills, heck you darn near mased (spelling) your vagina and my face because you were scared of a cridder jumping out of the woods at you. I think its pretty safe to say that you put all these to rest and you have NOTHING to worry about. Your now a ragnar vet. Remember what I told you hammered drunk at Doug and Heidi’s? Well I meant it. Your awesome and im proud of you!

Ian: The team captain, one of our best runners, organizer extraordinaire and one of my best buds. You did it again, you managed to find 12 people that over achieve again. Seems like no matter who you fill these spots with, they do a great job. Baring any injury, or what grumpy zook says. Im all in. Ragnar, getting hammered early, warrior dash or tough mudder. Your in, im in.

Last but not least. I don’t know how many of you recall, but Karis somewhere along the whole trip told me she wanted to race me, and that she was faster. She also brought up the fact that she beat me by 1 second in the AC half marathon. I just wanted to lay all of this nonsense talk to rest. Thanks to Craigs 100 percent accurate spreadsheet, it is factual information that Karis you ARE NOT faster than me. I in fact averaged 1 second per mile faster than you. Numbers do not lie and If I were to run the AC half marathon next weekend, I would probably finish 12 seconds faster than you! Ahhh, I don’t think ill ever race you again.

As of next year. I have a brilliant idea. Since we have an over whelming amount of new Ragnar runners, as well as a few that were on the shelf for various reasons. What if we elected two Captains or coaches, hold a behind closed doors draft, the two captains come out with two teams picked and we create the Ragnar Challenge.

George Zook Dolan Construction Inc. 401 South 13th Street Reading, PA 19602 610.372-4664 Ext. 213 610.372-4627 Fax

Notice that I even gave Linsky full credit by splitting mine into Leg 34A & 34B! Thanks again to the machine for saving me there!

Kristin: Can’t imagine doing one of these crazy things without you.  You’re a huge helping setting it up, recruiting runners and then you go and kick butt on the course.  You’re Ragnar to the core!

Elise:  This is what we call “baptism by fire”.  The fact that you were willing to do this thing with us so soon after meeting us all just tells me you’re going to fit in to our nutty world just perfect.  Great to have a new friend at Spectrum.

Tammy:  Anyone who runs through Reading in the middle of the night gets my respect.  You have the most intimidating mace I have ever seen.  Now we can chat about Insanity, P90X and… oh yeah, that we kicked the crap out of the Ragnar!!

Josh:  16?  Seriously, 16??  You, my friend, have a long Ragnar career ahead of you.  You are a machine and definitely earned your nickname as Van 1’s “Serial Killer”.  Welcome to the team!

Julie:  So glad Kristin brought you to our team.  All we got was high fives and encouraging words every time we saw you.  You’re one of the coolest people I only “semi-know”.  Next year, you and me are on the same van!

Rose:  Holy crap, are all the Miller girls funny?  You’re a riot, an it turns out a pretty impressive runner.  I’ve always been our #6 runner, but if I have to give my position up to anyone, I wouldn’t want it to be anyone other than you!

Linsky:  Sometimes you’re just cool because you’re friends with the coolest kid in school.  That’s what running with Linsky is like.  You’re left shaking your head in amazement.  Your 10.2 third leg up and down a mountain is truly one of the most amazing things I’ve seen in my brief Ragnar career.  Linsky=”Kill Machine”.

Zook:  You’re an absolute beast on the hills.  Next year, how about a blanket or sleeping bag?  It’ll make you less grumpy.  Your twitching calf is officially one of the freakiest Ragnar events to date.  How you made it 2 miles with it doing that is beyond me.  Now, let’s get making those reservations for skydiving…

Craig:  In addition to tackling some tough runs, I’m not sure what Ragnar life would be like without your humor involved.  Makes me miss the days of you and the Mrs living a couple miles away.  2011 will go down in history as the year Pubiful was born… Can’t wait to see how you explain Jordan’s “silo” drawings to his teachers.

Cynyth:  This was your Ragnar.  You’ve listened to so much Ragnar talk, even offering to join us as a non-runner… then you said “Screw it” and you’d run one.  And run it you did.  So proud of you and the job you did for us.  You worked so hard to get here and you deserve that medal around your neck.

Karis:  I kept telling everyone that you could run… like really run.  And you lived up to all the hype and then some.  After a year and a half of training, you’re officially a well-deserved Ragnar veteran.  The medals hanging in our kitchen almost make up for the fact that we’re walking around the house like a couple of 80 year olds.

Ian

Wow. Cannot stop thinking about the last 56 or so hours. Was it really that long? Time moves at a different pace during a Ragnar Relay.

I was up at 8:30 this morning feeling fine except whenever I have to walk up or down a step or even the smallest of inclines. Holy crap, my quads are toast. But I guess if I’m still standing, I didn’t run hard enough. Lots of training to do for next year.

I just checked out the blog, and I agree with all the props and shout-outs. This was an amazing experience with an amazing group of people, and that is an understatement. In these last two days, I have been motivated and inspired by all of you. I am a runner now. I know what I can do. I’m signing up for a Chilly Cheeks 7-mile trail run in January. Gotta have something on the books to keep me in my sneakers and working on my time.

Thank you everyone for the encouragement and for giving me a place on this team. I was kind of lame on the support part, and hogged the back seat for sleeping whenever possible, which was often. Thank you, Van 2, for indulging me as a newbie dealing with unfamiliar exhaustion and mush-brain.

This experience will stick with me for a lifetime 🙂 It was an honor and an incredible pleasure to share this with all of you! You’re were right, Zook. Never felt anything like this before!

Cynyth

So I’m sure some of our Ragnar family would like to know how the PA Ragnar was and how it compares to DC.  So here is my two cents:

Course
Both are really tough.  But Pennsylvania is an absolute beast.  It’s 4 miles longer, but that’s not the tough part.  In DC, you tackle the mountains first, then as you get more and more exhausted, the course gets flatter and flatter.  In PA, you get the rolling hills of Lancaster and Reading, and then you end with an absolutely insane set of runs in the Poconos.  So you get very little flat, and just when your tank is on empty, you get punched in the face with the toughest section of the course. Props to my boys of Van 2 for combining on the toughest stretch of 4 consecutive runs in either race, and to our girls for finishing it off by killing their runs like the rock stars they are!  Also, will definitely be recommending a better choice than having Van 1 run right through the middle of Reading in the middle of the night.  Josh & his Ladies get serious kudos for a brave late night run…

Vans
The split in PA was great… right up until the 3rd round, and then it was brutally bad.  The 44 mile trek through the mountains wasn’t only bad for Van 2.  Van 1 finished their 3rd round just before 9am and had to kill time until almost 4pm to collect their medals.  We had some of that in the beginning/middle of the DC race as well, but has to be worse when you’re finished and have to wait almost 7 hours for the finish.

Volunteers
I guess you have to understand a couple things.  In either race, you have a Start line and Finish line and 36 exchanges in between that need to be staffed.  So, when you have a smaller race like PA, you basically had 150 less teams than DC.  That’s roughly 450 less volunteers throughout the course.  There were some great stops, there were some stops that were less than helpful, and there were a few stops that had no volunteers whatsoever.  Hopefully this race gets more popular and gets more workers as a result.  Big thanks to Karen and Jordan for pitching in and representing our team on the volunteer side.  You guys are awesome!

Verdict
So the big question is… If you were only going to do one, which would it be?  PA is a tougher challenge.  DC is significantly better run.  But frankly, with two groups of people as awesome as we have, I can’t imagine this will be my last double header medal.  Can’t wait til next year!!

Ian

Sent from my iPhone

As I woke up this morning after 12 hours of wonderful sleep, I couldn’t help but smile as I moved my old, sore body to get out of bed. I had such a great time with all of you.

Greg – THANK GOD FOR LINSKY….what would Don’t Call Me Gaylord be without your amazing ability! Thanks for putting up with us “less abled” – it’s amazing to watch you run!

Ian – thanks so much for coming up with the crazy idea of a double header. You are a great runner and Team Captain! I’m so glad you made Ragnar DC and PA a reality for us.

George – I’m impressed by your willingness to run some of the hardest legs. You’re a great guy and I’m glad to know you Zook. Bring a pillow and sleeping bag next time;)

Craig – even though I’ve never had the experience of sharing a van with you – your emails and posts kept me laughing and motivated to not be the butt of them:). I’m so glad you didn’t become the “dead guy” of Ragnar PA!

Cynyth – I can’t tell you how impressed I am that you took on this challenge and rocked it! You’re an inspiration to me…so glad I got to be part of this experience with you.

Karis – I’m glad you decided to join us on this crazy adventure and let us use your house as a rest stop along the way! I am impressed with how quickly you made it up those hills to slap the bracelet on my wrist and to lead our team across the finish line.

Elise – what a graceful (and polite) runner. It was nice to watch your running ability. Your “kneelegs” were impressive – but not as much as your ability NOT to think about walking:). So glad you were in Van 1!

Tammy – WOW, you had some rough ones – and to think that you only started running a year ago. Those hills were massive and I’m so impressed with how to tackled them. If they knew how strong you were – Reading would have been scared of you:). Van 1 wouldn’t have been to same without you.

Josh – I can’t tell you how impressed I am with what a great 16 year old you are! The fact that you agreed to hang out with a bunch of strange women, run some of the most difficult legs, get little or no sleep, and still talk to us at the end of it all is incredible. So glad I got to meet you and hope you would consider doing Ragnar again – I would be glad to have you on my team! Thanks for agreeing to be in Van 1.

Julie – aka Peppie:). I really enjoyed watching you run with that fabulous smile on your face! Your ability to stay positive is amazing – you made Van 1 a lot of fun! Let me know next time you want to go for a night run – I’ll leapfrog you in my car:)

Rose – I already knew you were an impressive and determined woman, but watching you run 9.5 miles in the pitch black, thru cow manure, and over some brutal hills was something I’ll never forget. And then, to come back in your 3rd leg and kill the Zombie was great. Thanks for doing this with me…what a great experience.

Hope everyone is taking the day to recover (even you Linsky!)……

Kristin

Kristin Liezenga Account Executive

Spectrum – A Herman Miller Dealer 1003 West Ninth Avenue King of Prussia, PA 19406 P: (610) 354-0300 x 4651 D: (610) 233-4651 F: (610) 354-0370 kliezenga@spectrumworkplace.com www.SpectrumWorkplace.com ———————————————————————– Sent from my Blackberry Handheld Device