Jeff and Lindsey: RAGNAR Las Vegas!

This past weekend I ran another Ragnar Relay in Las Vegas! (November 9-10th)

This past summer I was put in touch with a girl named Beckie Hunter who is friends with a girl in my ward, Amber Lovelace. Beckie put together a team which I joined. The only other person I knew beforehand was my recruit, Nick Cutler, one of Jeff's best friends from high school. But that's the beauty of Ragnars, being stuck in a van with strangers for 30+ hours it's almost impossible not to make new friends!

Beckie picked me up Thursday afternoon so I could ride down with her to Vegas. (Thanks to my MIL for coming down and watching Shad for me!) Can you tell I was excited this week?

When we got to Vegas we checked into the hotel and met up with a few other girls from Idaho. We went out to what we thought was a pre-race pasta dinner at a pub, but didn't end up getting any food. But we did get our race packets... Instead we met up with our other team members at Olive Garden and ate there instead.

Friday morning we ran a few errands and Beckie and Jen went and got our rental van, which we enjoyed decorating. I was secretly excited that they wanted me to be the driver. To this day I'm still not sure why, but I didn't argue. Maybe because I'd run a Ragnar before? But whatever the reason, I'm glad they trusted me!

Nick showed up while we were decorating, and since his friend that he recruited backed out last minute, we now only had 5 people in our van! Which turned out to be a good thing since mini vans really aren't big enough for 6 people with food, clothes, and sleeping gear for 2 days. (I tried to explain this to my team beforehand... but I won't even get started on that...) Nick decided that he was going to run both his and his friend Cody's legs, which added up to 34 1/2 miles! He basically ran an Ultra, with breaks, which may or may not have been helpful... Nick then told us he said he hadn't really been training for his own miles, let alone double! But we weren't too worried, since Jenn and Joni are marathon runners and run long distances on a regular basis. They were prepared to help Nick finish his miles if necessary...

Our team had a late start time of Noon and they wouldn't let Beckie change it, even though our projected finish time was after 8pm and they were TAKING DOWN the finish line at 9pm. Frustrating. Because of this our van didn't even start till around 5pm. Due to the sun setting so early t his time of year, we started out having to wear our night gear. In fact, a few of the runners in our van had to wear them for all 3 legs! Nick was our first runner. We got to exchange 6 to check in and make sure Nick was ready to start. He started his first leg sometime around 4pm.

(Me, Beckie, Nick, Joni, and Jenn)

My legs for this race were supposed to be 5.7miles, 4.4miles, and 4.3miles. The course maps and elevation changes didn't seem to be that inaccurate, especially since they changed a few of the legs the day of the race, one of those changes making my last leg 3.5 miles instead of 4.3miles.

Our van's running order was Nick, Me, Joni, Nick, Beckie, Jenn. My first leg went well. At one point I turned a corner and headed down toward the strip. It was cool to see all the lights as I ran down the hill. I wish I had a picture of it. There weren't that many turns during this leg so luckily I found a few people so I knew I was on the right course.

Throughout all of our first legs I was feeling frustrated because with our late start time; it felt like we were so far behind everyone and couldn't catch up. We didn't see that many runners, there weren't that many vans at the exchanges, and it was dark. It just didn't quite feel like a Ragnar. Nick called us during his first to make sure he was on course because there were so few people...

The second major exchange was at a big resort that was supposed to have food and other amentities, but we hardly saw anything available. There were no sponsor tents, no directions. We found a few guys selling hot chocolate and snacks like rice krispie treats and cookies, but that was it. I was most frustrated with this because the website and Ragmag raved about the big exchanges and resorts and how they would be: "Luxury Exchange Hangouts: Van 1 runners will have a chance to lounge by the pool at the beautiful JW Marriott Resort and Spa as they wait for runner 12 to come in. Van 2 can pass off their slap bracelet, and then soak up the luxury." Ya, even though it was cold, I still didn't see any luxury or amenities of any kind...

Anyway, we met up with Van 1, Jenn handed off to Shaun, and we were finished for a few hours. We decided to go to back our hotel and crash Joni's husband's hotel room. (What a sport he was about it too...)

Our next set of legs started around 2:30am. We ended up with a unplanned middle of the night adventure when we ended up off-roading in our mini van. We had to put the exchange's address in our GPS since we were coming from the hotel and couldn't really follow the Ragmag since we weren't on the course. We realized later that Nick had somehow tapped on the map, creating a new via point, so the GPS was trying to take us out to the middle of nowhere. It had us trying to follow some narrow dirt utility road, which took us through a steep little dirt ravine up and through a bunch of foothills... at 2 in the morning... there was no one in site, it was crazy and kinda creepy. We followed it for a couple minutes before we knew it couldn't be right and we turned around and started over. We finally found the exchange after putting the address in multiple phones. We barely made it in time for Bryan to hand off to Nick. I'm just so glad we weren't late! All of our second legs were very cold, as that whole section of the course was out in the open. They were kind of pointless, as we just went out and back from exchange 18/24. My phone app calculated me running 4.8 instead of 4.4miles... I have no idea if it's right.

During these legs I'd wished I'd brought thick warm sweats, not for running but for standing around. All I'd brought were my thin "bum pants" as Jeff calls them... I think I carried a blanket around every exchange that I wasn't taking off from or coming in to.

We ended up adding a little more adventure to our already crazy experience when Beckie told me she was staying in the car at Exchange 21 but that she didn't need the car on, so I got out and left the key on the seat, after which she decided to get out and assuming I had the keys she locked the doors for safety... Beckie was the next runner but she didn't have her shoes on (they were in the car) so Joni and Jenn headed off with another team's van to meet Nick at the next exchange and run Beckie's leg if needed. After talking to both the security guard at a nearby casino and a race supervisor, we finally got the the security guard to break a recent rule of no longer being allowed to open locked car doors and he went and got his tools and easily opened the door! We made it to the next exchange with only a minute or two to spare before Nick came in!

We were also disappointed with the lack of amenities and the M Resort which was at exchange 18/24. We were told there would be outdoor sleeping and showers here, but we were told by other teams that runners were being turned away by the resort and told they'd be trespassing if they entered the buildings. Our Van 1 ended up sleeping at a nearby park instead. Lame!

Jenn was excited to not have to wear her night gear to run her second leg. She handed off again to Shaun at exchange 24 around 7:30ish in the morning.

We headed to the next major exchange, which was at Basic High School. We ended up getting in to use the restrooms there to change our clothes, they tried to charge everyone who came in because of the locker room showers, etc. They did have a pancake breakfast for purchase as promised, even though none of us really ate anything. (Nick ate like 3 bites of one...) We hung out in the van and some tried to take naps while waiting for Van 1 to finish their last set of legs so we could start ours. I went over to the exchange to meet up with Laycie Call, Rachel Rogers, and Amber Lovelace who were in Van 1 and just finishing their last legs. Their team name was "Sister Wives on the Run,", since they had 10 girls and 2 guys, with 1 guy being in each van. It was really funny, and a lot of people, especially guys, wanted pictures with them. Amber being pregnant made it even funnier.

Nick's calves and legs were super sore from all his extra, untrained-for running, so Joni and Jenn taped up his calves, hoping it would help. (I think he said it actually really helped!)

We started our last set of legs around 1pm.

Nick handed off to me, for our third exchange, and we finally got a few pictures!

When I started my last leg my left knee was feeling pretty sore, but I had no idea why. I pushed through the pain for a couple miles, and around mile 3 it started getting numb and I felt like I could pick up my pace a little. I didn't pick it up as much as I would have because they didn't put a 1-mile left sign, so I had no idea that it was going to be 3/4 of a mile shorter and the end came suddenly. So frustrating! But it felt good to be done!

I handed off to Joni, who had no trouble killing it on her last leg. I think she even had like 30 kills or something crazy like that!

Nick was really struggling by the time his last leg came around, which was around 7.4 miles. Around his 3rd mile we were able to stop and talk to him and see how he was doing. Joni ran out to meet him, and decided to just keep running with him because he really wanted to finish.

She told us later that she pretty much just talked his ear off and now he knows her whole life story. Around the 5 mile mark Jenn went out to meet them and switched places with Joni.

Nick told me later that he didn't think he would've been able to finish without them. He said them talking and him just being to listen and be distracted really helped. That right there is what Ragnar is about! I love the team aspect of these races so much! He said his legs finally went numb while running with Jenn and they were able to pick up the pace and finish strong.

Jenn was our last runner, so after dropping her off to start he last leg we headed out to the resort at the finish line. This resort also turned out to be a total joke. They directed us to park in a parking garage that was on the other side of a very complicated resort/casino, without any directions on how to get to the finish line. We had to ask numerous people how to get there, and even though we jogged most of the way, we still missed Jenn coming in! A lot of other teams told us they missed their last runner also. The finish line had also run of just about everything: car stickers, Saints and Sinners medals, pizzas, to name a few. We were lucky to get our finisher medals, as teams coming in behind us didn't. There weren't that many people around, no music, no massages, very few sponsor tents, most of which were bare of being taken down, etc. We had to run back after getting the van to take back our flag and by then it was around 8pm and they were already taking everything down and most people were gone! What if we had finished when we were projected to? We're lucky we were able to gain an hour and keep it! I felt so bad for all the first time runners in our van (which was 7 out of the 11 of us.) They definitely didn't get a true Ragnar experience. And for how expensive of a race it is, (around $1200 per team) there should have been more perks, especially those promised to us. I understood that it was a new course this year, and a lot of teams were from out of state so they were probably short on volunteers, but they still should've worked out more kinks than they did.

Well, despite my frustration with the lack of organization, I still had a blast with my van and am still glad I got to run it and earn the Saint and Sinners medal, even if I have to wait for it to come in the mail.

When we got back to the hotel I had to take a few last pictures of the van before we returned it to the airport. Evidence of our off-roading adventure, and all our kills!

We ended up staying Saturday night in the hotels also since we were all so exhausted. We didn't even end up eating dinner, just leftover snacks. Nick and I left to go home around 7am the next morning, after grabbing something for breakfast. It was so nice to come home and see Jeff and Shad again! I loved that Shad was excited to see me. :) My legs were so sore, especially my knee, and walking up and down stairs was really hard, but it still felt awesome knowing I'd just run 14 miles!

Our team finished well, even though it felt like we were one of the last. We finished 107th out of 319 teams in our division (open), and 196th out of 518 overall teams! I'd say not bad for a team of strangers and one man short!