SoCal Ragnar Relay (Part 3)

If you have read Part 1 and Part 2, then continue on :D

So I survived my second run, and for most of us, this was our longest leg. Heather followed me with an almost 9 miler. I was getting a bit tired, and knew I would have to be up early to run my last leg. I don't even know when this picture was taken, but we are awfully smiley for being in the dark:

I am pretty certain that I started to fall asleep before we even made it to the exchange point with van 2. I don't even think I got out of the car except to use the bathroom. I probably was able to get a few hours of sleep, which I think is more than most people got. I'll take it.

I vaguely remember getting up when Shannon left for her last run since I had to change clothes and get ready. Not sure what time it was when I headed out. It was still sort of dark, I think around 5:30 am? I had another longish leg, over 7 miles, and I knew that there were some super tough hills in there.

The first few miles weren't too bad, it was humid though, and I was sweating. I had only brought along my little handheld water bottle, so had less water than usual, but I had figured that it would be ok since it was cooler/dark out. I also had forgotten my GU. Good thing I managed to eat a strawberry pop tart before heading out.

I spent most of the run obsessing about my forgotten GU. Around mile 4 I got stuck at a traffic light crossing the highway for almost three minutes. During that time, I managed to whine to the runners waiting with me about forgetting my GU. A super nice runner from the "Rangry Birds" gave me a package of chomps. Seriously saved me!

I ran out of water halfway up the first hill. Made me super cranky for the rest of my run. I kept hoping to see my van so they could throw water at me, but they must have headed right to the exchange. The biggest hill of all, seriously looked liked | for a quarter mile on the profile, and I walked the whole thing. I was tired and thirsty and NOT feeling it. The downhill was great and I smoked a few people heading into my final exchange. I come up to the exchange and see Sandy, but Heather was missing... she had run back to the van to get her map because she was afraid of getting lost. Due to the fog, the night hours were extended until 7:30. Considering ALL THE WALKING and the time spent at the stop light, my time is pretty dang amazing.

Leg 3 - 7.44 miles, 1:20:58 (10:52 pace)

While driving to the next exchange, we took a detour by the ACTUAL RUNNINGSKIRTS STORE:

The Heather/Julie exchange... chaotic. There had been a wedding proposal RIGHT before Heather got there, and in our hurry to go see it, Julie forgot her bib. Here you can see her taking Heather's. Good thing we weren't going for time. We really sucked at the exchanges.

Julie hands off to Sandy.

Look, Sandy is happy and PUMPED to run. Again. Love her!

Madison anxiously awaiting her last leg, and the final run for our van. I tried to warn her that it was a billion degrees, but she didn't listen and headed out in the sweatshirt anyway.

Hand off is a success!

Go, go, go!!

Madison rocked her last leg, passing 20ish people. Crazy!! Meanwhile, Shannon and Julie were reading "Ragmag" to an illiterate monkey. Or so they said...

When we were all done we headed to breakfast and I had the biggest omelet ever in the whole world. Plus pancakes. And part of Heather's food. And some of Sandy's bacon waffles. I'm a pig :(

Our van rocked. Especially Madison!

After we were done eating, we headed to Shannon's house, where we were able to take HOT showers and change clothes. Also meant we had to clean the van, inside and out. Turns out that black window paint is REALLY HARD to get off white paint. FYI, don't do it. If you do, you'll likely have to use a magic eraser to get it off. We even had time to do a little shopping at Lululemon in La Jolla (sorry, Sandy, for bringing you to the dark side). I dozed off again on the drive to the finish line.

We finished on the beach. And it was FREEZING.

Our well-deserved beer. Cheers to Van of Awesome!!

And then I found the tallest guy EVER.

The final picture of the nerd herd in our finish line "costumes"

The medal is ginormous:

We were going to stick around to watch the ultra team finish, but we were exhausted and still had a LONG drive back up to Orange County.

Honestly, this was the most fun EVER. I had the best ladies ever in my van, and other than my mild freak out before leg 2, I was enjoying myself the entire time. I remember thinking that other people didn't seem to be having as much fun as we were, and I felt bad for them. I don't think I'd change anything, other than maybe packing a bit more carefully. Although, I didn't bring anything I didn't use.