If you care to look, I was runner 5 http://www.ragnarrelay.com/race/delsol/course_maps.
Plain and simple: Ragnar was gnarly for me.
My first leg (6.8) was in backcountry on pavement, slow/gradual downhill all the way but it was very slight and I didn't feel it at all. I couldn't find a good interval that worked. At one point I thought I'd just let my body decide what it should be, and I ran for 4 min straight. Shortly after that I cracked. The road is very curvy, so the entire run the shoulder had a severe slope to it. Not long into it and my bad knee started bothering me. I've discovered on runs that if I turn in that foot ever so slightly and try to really land mid foot I can get it to stop hurting. And I don't even have to do that the whole run, somehow that resets it and I can finish out without pain. Well, I tried it here, and before I knew it my knee pain was gone but the top of my hip was hurting badly. I thought it was bone for some reason, but afterwards when I stretched I realized it was my first IT band experience. Never had issues with my IT.
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| my van's boys after the first leg |
My unsupported second leg (5.7) started about midnight, so we had all day to figure out an alternate plan. I decided to take my cell with me, and I'd go as far as I could. From there the guys could finish my leg for me. The first 1.5 miles or so were trail, and I'd do my run/walk but during every walk portion I'd stop and stretch my IT band. I held my 1/3 pretty well and the guys stopped frequently where they weren't supposed to, always ready to take over. Somehow that run was nothing short of glorious. I had my phone so I played my music out loud. About halfway through I felt rocks in both my shoes, on the sole but towards the outside edge of both feet. I stopped and shook out my shoes - quite a feat without falling over. Nothing came out of either, so I decided I must've run so long with them that they'd embedded themselves into my socks. Taking those off would require sitting down, and with my IT pain I knew that wouldn't be pretty, so I just kept on. The pain wasn't too bad anyway.
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| so happy to see this sign at almost 2am |
After finishing our second legs, we spent a whole 2 hours at a community center in Anthem. It was probably one of the coolest parts about the whole thing, and that list is long. They had some warm food for sale, along with "hot" showers. They weren't hot for me, should've asked for my $3 back. In the gym, they'd turned out the lights, and scattered across the floor were probably 100 people sleeping in sleeping bags. Dave and I officially rang in our first wedding anniversary in sleeping bags on a gym floor. Awesome.
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| exhausted, but elated all at the same time |
Between that leg and morning, we stopped and got supplies at a grocery store. Dave got moleskin, I got the Bandaid blister covers. They were too little - wouldn't cover either blister. And Dave decided that the blood one needed to be popped so he did that in the parking lot. Then he covered it with the Bandaid cover and then moleskin. The other one didn't have a ton of fluid so he just put moleskin over it.
My last leg (4.7) supposedly partially unsupported but we ignored that. The first 2 miles are up. And I knew I was tired, and I had no idea how the pain would be with both feet wrapped, not to mention my IT band was still raging. I walked all the way up those 2 miles. Once I got to the part where it rolled a bit, I'd try to jog a little. Had to stop frequently to stretch out the IT. About 2.5 miles in I decided the pain was coming from the tightness of the wraps on my feet. Luckily a guy was stopped in his van waiting for their runner, and I yelled at him to ask for help. He came over. I told him that I needed him to rip off the moleskin, and to do it as quickly as possible, and that it would likely make me yell. He told me he was a medic in his day job, and that he'd do it as fast as possible. He had this amazing way of literally holding my body up while also tending to my foot. He ripped it off and I yelled, very loudly. That was impressive pain. I immediately threw my sock back on and thanked him. He told me the blister had popped so now it was only going to sting for the rest of the run. I can handle stinging. Once I crested the next hill Dave and my van were waiting for me. Dave had this look that told me everything - they wanted to pull me. I was doing very little jogging, and I was in a lot of pain. I told him all I needed was for him to rip off the other bandage. I'd felt some pressure release from the other one and I needed it done. Poor Dave. He was beside himself. But he knew he couldn't take me off that course without my wanting it. He took off the bandage, it didn't hurt quite as bad, and he wanted to redress it. I refused and just threw my sock and shoe back on. They stopped another mile down the road and Dave walked with me for a few strides, but he was too sore after his final leg and couldn't keep my walking pace. Then my Garmin died so I had no idea how much longer. Fuck you, Garmin. I got to a place where my jog was painful but I couldn't get much clearance between the ground and my injured IT band foot. I also knew my form was horrid and the pain wouldn't let me gain any flexibility. Instead of risking more injury due to crappy form, I walked. I couldn't even do the Ironman Shuffle! So I just walked, and even then stopped all the time to stretch. My leg finishes inside a park, so I had to go uphill into that. And I was a bit embarrassed that both vans for my team were there waiting for me, watching me walk. They did a tunnel for me into transition though, so I let it go and was happy for the support.
That leg was the worst experience I've had in an athletic event. The pain was impressive. Dave and I have discussed it at length. I guess he was getting heat from every guy on our team to pull me. They were all saying that if they had blisters like mine they wouldn't have even gone out. They wanted Dave to pull me off, and were quite vocal about it. 2 of my guys even suited up so they'd be ready to take over for me. I've explained it to Dave like this: I have no experience "pushing through the pain". In my past, I've never really been hurt during races or even training. Well, aside from that one time. I think that I've always pussied out and stopped, so I have no idea where my limits are. I wanted this, first just because I wanted it. The weekend before Dave and I were down in Old Pueblo, and I'd had a huge victory there by doing an entire lap on my own, my longest mtn ride to date. So I wanted 2 victories in 2 weekends. Plus, our anniversary was that Saturday, so I wanted a victory on our anniversary. Dave's biggest concern was what I would be doing to my body if I continued. I guess he was so concerned at one point that he called our coach and asked for advice. She knew better - she told him it was something I had to do for me, and if I wanted to keep going I was going to. He looked at it like every minute out there represented days (possibly weeks) of recovery for something that didn't matter. As it turns out, I had some soreness on Sunday, and I had a bit of a mental breakdown Sunday. By Monday the only pain I had was from my foot. Which then makes me question my limits all over again!
Come to find out, when the medic took off my bandage, he also ripped off a huge chunk of skin. I had no idea, I didn't even take my shoes off until we got home hours and hours later - I knew both were open and I didn't want to put flip-flops on to walk around in with open wounds. Yeah - here's the pic: In the one on the right I'm showing the border of the blister - you should be able to see how long it is. On the one on the right, that's the chunk of skin that must've come off with the moleskin when the medic helped me. My blister on my left foot sealed back down after the moleskin was removed. For the most part the blister on the right foot has too.
One of the awesome aspects of this race is the van decorating and tagging. The name of the game is to tag all the other vans with your emblem/team name/mascot while they're not around. This was some of my handiwork - pretty proud of this one:
Also my handiwork - decorating our van. We had duct tape and a big ass spider. I named him Myrtle and made him a web on our van's hood:
