EN Chica FLK Ragnar Relay Ultra Race Report
We had an all Chica team run the Ragnar Relay from Miami to Key West last weekend as an Ultra Team. Below is the race report I wrote mainly for myself (to capture the memory) but also for friends and family who tell me they like reading this stuff. I thought I'd simply copy/paste it here as the race report for our whole team and the Chica's can each add comments to the thread as they feel. Enjoy!
It’s been a long time since I’ve written a race report. To be honest, I haven’t had much to write about. I mean after a while the races all start to look and feel like just small variations on the same theme. But after this race, I feel a strong need to sit down and try to document my thoughts and feelings about how it all unfolded over what turned out to be a very loooooong weekend!
So let’s get started. First, it would probably help to give you and idea of what a Ragnar Relay is all about. The race is a 200 mile point to point relay run. Teams are made up of 12 individuals who each run 3 legs of the course in relay fashion (passing off slap bracelets to the next runner). The legs of the race vary in distance from 3-9 miles and each individual averages somewhere between 15-20 total miles. The team is broken into two groups and then each group is stuffed into one of two vans. Van 1 runners complete legs 1 thru 12 and then they pass off the slap bracelet to Van 2 which goes on to complete legs 13-24 while Van 1 gets to rest. The vans rotate like this two more times to complete the whole route of 48 legs.
That’s how most people do Ragnar, and frankly, that process just never seemed appealing to me. It seemed like a lot of moving parts with a bunch of people I wouldn’t really know all that well to put in essentially the miles I’d do on a single 2-3 hour Saturday long run, just spread out over 2 days. Eh- what’s the fun in that? But when one of my friends put out the call to pull together an all Chica ultra team to do the Ragnar Relay in the Florida Keys- well that caught my attention! Let’s see, six women who know and love each other, working together to finish a 200 mile race, each running a total of about 33 miles in a beautiful location in the middle of winter- yup, I’m in.
We had to decide on a fun team name and someone (I promise, it wasn’t me) suggested “Captain Nemo and the Hawaii 5-0 Girls”. We figured we could run in grass skirts, hand out leis, and play up the tropical nature of the venue. Cool! So the first order of business when we all arrived in Ft Lauderdale on Thursday afternoon was to decorate the van that would become our home for the weekend accordingly.
I suppose all teams handle it a bit differently, but this was the basic model we planned to follow (and I say planned because as you are about to find out, this plan fell apart pretty early on).
Beth seemed to have a good first Leg and we checked on her at each of the exchange stations that she ran through (as an ultra team you have the option of either rotating your runners through each of the 36 legs, or combining the legs into larger “Legs” and rotating through runners that way. We chose the later so we often “ran through” smaller exchange points. By the time Beth finished her first Leg the sun was coming up and she handed the bracelet off to Michele C who was able to start her run without the safety gear.
Michele C seemed to be having a good first leg, however we started to notice that Michele M (yes, there’s two Michele’s to keep track of, sorry!) was making a lot of trips to the port-o-pottie and making lots of requests for Tums and such. Race day nerves, right? Meanwhile, I was seriously jonesing for some coffee and despite the fact that we were in a very urban area of Miami, we couldn’t seem to find an open Starbucks! Shocker! Since I was up after Michele C, I finally gave up on getting the caffeine fix before my run since I didn’t want to risk any GI issues so early in the race.
My first Leg would be a little over 14 miles. Now, my team knew that I was coming into the race sub-par and I’d warned them I would need to run/walk my Legs. But what they didn’t know was that my longest run since the Chicago Marathon more than 3 months earlier was a whopping 6 miles. So yeah, I was a bit nervous about getting my Leg done and not letting the team down.
This section of the race is run through very urban areas of Miami on concrete sidewalks (ugh, not exactly soft surfaces). On the bright side (sort of), you are forced to stop frequently to wait for traffic lights in order to cross major intersections. This would probably have been much more annoying to any other runner, but for me, it provided that little break I needed so I didn’t have to implement my run/walk strategy after all.
With a caffeine headache starting to grow in the heat of the now full-sun hot Miami day, I chose to take caffeinated Gels and Cliff Blocks along with Heed to give myself a little boost. But I had to laugh when I found myself running right by a Starbucks! I swear, if I’d put a little cash or my Starbucks card in my pocket I would have stopped for an espresso! But instead I just took a picture and texted it to Jo with a smile.
In the end, I had a great run averaging a 10:30 pace (including all the traffic stop lights) for the 14+ miles and after handing the bracelet off to Jo, my team immediately took me to the nearest Starbucks for a fix!
It was at this point that I learned that Michele M was having nausea and diarrhea issues. Apparently she disclosed this information to the team as I was running my leg. She was hoping it was just something she ate the night before and that it would clear up shortly. Since her Leg was up next, the team had made the decision to have Jo run through the exchange where she was scheduled to hand off to Michele M to see if that would give her enough time to recuperate.
However it quickly became apparent to everyone that this wouldn’t be nearly enough time so we substituted Michele C back in at the next exchange point to finish up what would have been all of Michele M’s Leg.
Fortunately for us, Michele C is a nurse. She assessed the situation and instructed us to take Michele M to the First Aid station at the next exchange point (where Michele C would finish the Leg) and ask them if they had an IV bag. While she didn’t think they would have anyone there who could administer the IV, she hoped that they would allow her to administer it for Michele M and that perhaps, if the stomach issue was temporary, we could get her hydrated and feeling better so she could be worked into the next round of rotations.
The next exchange point was at the Speedway in Homestead. This was a “major exchange” point where on the normal teams, Van 1 hands off to Van 2 and Van 1 gets time to shower up, eat real food, and sleep. It was a pretty cool venue and I wish I had more time to enjoy watching the relay runners go around the track. But my job was to take Michele M to First Aid and find out if we could get her that IV while Beth and Jo took care of making sure our next runner, Meredith, got to the exchange point to meet Michele C and that Michele C then found her way back to our van and the First Aid tent.
Are you tired yet? Cause I sure was, and we were only ¼ of the way there!
With text messages flying back and forth between us all, the word comes down that Michele M is in serious trouble and is getting transported to the nearest hospital.
At this point we are still hoping that perhaps she can get patched up at the hospital with a few good IVs and some drugs and she’ll be able to rejoin us (I think we were all in serious denial at this point). The next few legs of the race cover about 20 miles (much of it going through the Everglades) but because it sort of loops around, we don’t actually get very far from the hospital where Michele M is being taken. So we decide to send Michele C with Michele M to the hospital so that she has some support while the rest of us do what we can to continue moving the race forward with just 4 people.
Now- do you remember what I said earlier about this 6 job rotation and the importance of getting recovery, food, and sleep? Well it’s a heck of a lot harder to do when you’ve only got 4 people! Night is now approaching and we’re all getting quite a bit sleepy and irritable. When Meredith finishes her Leg, she hands off to Beth in the dark and Beth proceeds to run what I consider the scariest part of the whole course. 8 miles, in the pitch dark, down a gravel road (very rough gravel), which parallels an alligator infested canal. In all seriousness, they warned us during the safety briefing NOT to use the port-o-potties in this section if we could help it because for some reason the alligators are drawn to the smell! The only light on this road is coming from the slow moving team vans and the headlamps of the runners. Seriously creepy stuff! To top it off, cell coverage through this area was pretty spotty, so our attempts to find out what was going on with Michele M were getting more difficult.
When we reach the end of the creepy Everglades Leg, we finally get some good communication going with Michele C about Michele M’s situation. It’s starting to sound like she might be discharged in time to rejoin us (before the course turns due south down the Keys) but she certainly won’t be able to run. The next 12 mile leg was to be Michele C’s turn, which is obviously not going to happen. Jo volunteers to cover it without any van support while the rest of us leave the course and head back to Homestead to retrieve Michele C and hopefully Michele M.
But when we get to the hospital Michele M makes it pretty darn clear she isn’t getting back in the van with us. She insists we continue on with the race as she doesn’t want to be responsible for causing us to quit. But she also insists she’d be much happier and more comfortable simply spending the night in the hotel across the street from the hospital. Now I have to tell you, this was a very hard pill for us to swallow and it took a lot of convincing from her to get us to leave. None of us wanted to leave a friend behind like this and we were ready to throw in the towel and take care of her. But at the same time, we all understood the (unjustified) guilt that would put on her as well. So after making sure all the arrangements with the hotel had been made, we agreed to continue the race without her, promising to finish it for her.
So off we went, back down the Keys to pick up Jo at the next exchange where it was my turn to run again! Yup, it’s now 11:00pm at night, I haven’t slept at all since getting up at 2:00pm that morning, and I’ve got a 7.2 mile run to knock out. Anyone who knows me even the least little bit knows that I turn into a pumpkin at 9:30pm sharp every night. The mere fact that I was still awake at this point was a miracle. How the heck I was going to pull 7.2 miles out of my butt at this point I had no idea- but out of the van and into the dark I went with my reflective gear, blinking light, and headlamp glowing.
Much to my surprise, it actually felt good to get out of the van, into the fresh air, and run. With the sun no longer beating down on me, I could enjoy the cool temps and just run within myself. My team checked on me frequently to make sure I had everything I needed, and the miles felt like they were clicking off pretty quickly. There were only a small handful of intersections to cross or lights to wait for this time around which also helped me to just get into a steady groove and move forward. I finished up the Leg averaging 10:45 pace and feeling pretty good. I passed the slap bracelet off to Michele C who had finally been able to get some nutrition in her system (she didn’t have access to any food while at the hospital with Michele M).
Meredith shuffled me back to where our van was parked and got me some chocolate milk and potato chips while I grabbed my dry cloths to change into as Jo drove us ahead another 3 miles to check on Michele C. There’s no longer time for putting your legs up a wall or stretching. Any recovery stuff you needed to do had to be done while moving!
The next stop was another major exchange point with lots of people sleeping on the grass all around the High School grounds. We parked the van and it was my turn to take Meredith out to the exchange spot on the High School track to wait for Michele C to come in from her run while Joe and Beth got a little rest. As our estimated time for Michele’s arrival came and went, and the clock continued to tick, we started to get a little concerned that perhaps she had run into some trouble, and when she finally arrived our concerns were confirmed. Michele was experiencing some extremely painful cramping in one leg, likely due to the fact that she wasn’t able to recover very well after her last run before heading to the hospital. She was in good spirits though and I walked her back towards our van, stopping inside the High School for a bathroom break. When she came out from the ladies room she provided me with more bad news, she has blood in her stools. Great.
We get back to the van and update the team on Michele C’s current situation. We look at the legs ahead another time and the team tries to reshuffle things a bit more to give her some easier/shorter legs coming up. She is still determined to try to run, but we all know it’s likely she’ll be forced to do quite a bit of walking.
Now- here’s the scary part. It’s now about 2:00am. I know that for the next 2.5 hours I was either driving the van or navigating. Who was running, how far they ran, where the stops were, what were the roads like? Don’t ask me! I’ve been racking my brain trying to remember what happened during this period and it’s as if I have a total black out of that time. I just don’t remember! What I do remember clearly is that at 4:30am I told the team I absolutely had to have the back seat to try to sleep. If I didn’t get some sleep before the sun started coming back up, I knew I’d be toast. So at 4:30am, I finally laid down, put my ear plugs in and an eye mask on, and found a way to fall asleep. But that’s all I remember!
When I woke up around 6:30, I felt much better, even if I was still a bit groggy. My main focus now is timing a good breakfast and getting some caffeine so that I’m ready for my next run. Getting coffee at this point is nearly impossible. We don’t have time to stop (nothing is open anyway) and although we brought a small coffee pot and had an electric outlet- trying to dig that out of the bottom of the van, set it up, and make coffee while we were moving all sounded like a heck of a lot of effort and energy I just didn’t have. Instead, I manage to find a bottle of Dr Pepper that Michele M had purchased in attempts to settle her stomach earlier in the day and it gave me the boost I needed. If there’s a next time, I’d buy a case of Coke to put in the cooler and leave the coffee pot home!
The big goal for our team now is getting through what we believe will be the two most challenging legs of the race. Two back-to-back 9+ mile runs with no van support due to the fact that the majority of the runs are over the long Key bridges. To top it off, these legs are going to be coming up at the hottest part of the day with Beth taking the first one from about 10am-Noon and me taking the second one from about Noon-2:00. Once we get past these two big legs, we’ll have about 32 miles left with most of the legs being 4 miles or less long and we feel fairly confident if we can just get past the double 9’s we will be able to finish.
As we wait for Meredith to finish up one of her legs, Michele C takes a little time to attempt cleaning up and organizing our van which looks like a bomb exploded inside! Next time we need to bring boxes for the food because the plastic bag deal simply isn’t working! The spring cleaning lifted our spirits a bit and things were looking pretty good too, until Meredith came in from one of her legs limping. Quick diagnosis from nurse Michele indicates Meredith has done something bad to her ACL and she’d now reduced to walking as well. So we’re now down to 3 folks who are still reasonably able to run and two walkers, and we’ve still got the double 9’s ahead of us. We find some ice and an ace bandage for Meredith’s knee and continue forward- taking yet another look at the upcoming legs to see how we can reshuffle things to get it done.
When I wake Beth and tell her she’s on deck and needs to get ready for her 9ish mile leg, she looks totally dazed and confused! But within moments she’s with the plan, pulling on her running gear, and filling lots of water bottles to carry with her. As we help her prepare for the big run, we find a pair of Michele M’s arm coolers somewhere in the van and Beth decides to pull them on and give them a try. Arm coolers are those white sleeves you see triathletes wearing in races like the Hawaii Ironman. I’ve always thought they were just a gimmick and never purchased a pair, but in the Florida heat I thought it was worth a try. So I told Beth that when she handed off to me at the end of her leg, I wanted her to decide if they really worked or not, and if they did- she was to just put them one me in the exchange and I’d accept them without question.
We were actually able to check on Beth about 2 miles into her leg before she hit the 7 mile bridge where her “no van support” section hit. We topped off her bottles and then returned to the previous exchange parking lot to rest a bit before heading to the next exchange. The one up-side to these long “no van support” sections was that the folks in the van actually got just a little bit of a break.
Beth had a strong leg running over the 7 mile bridge and looked fantastic when we passed her. We made sure to hang out the window ringing our cowbells and cheering for her as we passed to show her some support. The nice thing about this race is that all the team vans are very supportive of each other. They cheer for anyone they pass (not just their own runners) and if you are in need of something and find another team van stopped on the side of the road, all you have to do is ask for whatever you need and they will hand it over freely. It’s really a cool vibe.
When Beth meets me at the exchange she immediately pulls off the arm warmers and puts them on me saying “these rock, watch!”. She then pours water from her water bottle onto the arm coolers and I say “holy cow- where did you find ice water on the bridge?” to which Beth responds “I didn’t, it’s the arm coolers!”. OK- so I’m totally buying a pair of these things before my next hot weather race! I head off (almost forgetting to get the slap bracelet from her) and settle into a comfortable 10:50 pace for the 9.4 miles.
It’s not until I’m a few miles into my leg that I realize I’m going to get to run over Ohio Key and Bahia Honda. These are places Joe and I have vacationed at several times in the past and so they hold nice happy memories. Running across the bridge looking at the campground at Bahia Honda brings a smile to my face and I am feeling pretty good. The feeling is further elated when I spot a pod of dolphins swimming under the bridge! I point and cheer for the dolphins and thank them for bringing me what I decide to take as a sign of good luck. We are going to finish this thing- one way or another.
About one mile from the end of my Leg, another runner, Ruth, catches up to me and we run together for the final mile. This is the first and only time during the race that I have the opportunity to run with someone and I’m very thankful to have someone to talk to. As I head into the exchange my legs are still feeling pretty good, but I’m tired and grateful to see Michele there ready to take the bracelet from me. Jo walks me back to the van and again it’s a quick chocolate milk and potato chip recovery meal while we drive ahead to the next exchange point. At this point I don’t bother to change into dry cloths because the legs are so short there simply isn’t enough time to bother with it. Instead I pull on sweatpants and a fleece top to stay warm in the van. Yeah, I know that doesn’t sound like it makes sense. But even though it’s hot outside to run, the minute I stop running I start to get cold- so temperature management is always something I need pay attention to.
We start rotating through the legs rather quicky since they are so short and eventually reach exchange #30, another major exchange point and an opportunity to use real bathrooms. Things are looking good with only about 20 miles to go when suddenly, with no earlier signs or warning, Beth vomits in front of the parked van leaving behind what appears to be everything she has eaten in the past 12 hours. Now there are two possibilities that run through our heads: 1) this is your standard endurance event “reset” moment and she’ll actually be fine in just a few minutes or 2) she’s got whatever the heck it is that Michele M has, and she’s down for the count. It doesn’t take us long to determine that what we are facing here is possibility number 2. Beth is down for the count and out for the remainder of the race. We reshuffle the deck again to figure out how to cover her legs and continue forward.
As Michele C comes in from one of her legs, the look on her face is absolute agony. She’s giving us everything she has at this point and it’s really starting to show. I start trying to figure out how I can take on more turns to help out. We are so close, and yet so far.
The car traffic driving on the single lane highway down the Keys is stop and go the whole way. In fact, we joke that our runners will likely beat us to the exchange points. But the slow traffic offers a nice way to support the runners along the way, and that support is very much appreciated this late in the race. In fact, as we wait for Meredith to come in from one of her legs (while keeping an eye on Beth who is still hovered over a barf bag), I hear a familiar voice behind me. It’s Dock and Robin- friends from the Outer Banks who are in Florida on vacation! They saw my posts on Facebook and decided to brave the traffic to try and find me! It was such a nice treat to see familiar faces from home at such a tough point in the race. How they found us amongst all those other team vans and traffic is beyond me, but I’m very grateful they did!
My next leg is short, just 2.75 miles. But when I get out of the van to start, my legs seize up in pain. I run easy through the stiffness hoping things will loosen up and feel better soon, and sure enough, about 1 mile in I am feeling OK again and can manage to maintain an 11:10 pace. When I reach the next exchange and see Michele standing there I tell her I want to just keep running through. Stopping and re-starting just sounds horrible at this point and I know the pain Michele is going to suffer. But she and Jo tell me they need me to be able to run the longer leg that comes up after this one instead. So I agree to hand off the bracelet to Michele and hop in the van for a short leapfrog to the next exchange point again where I hop back out to put in what was supposed to be my final 3.5 miles of the race.
Once again, the starting is painful, but within a mile I’m feeling ok and moving forward, feeling drawn ever closer and closer to the finish line as the sun sets over Key West. When I reach the end of my leg I see Meredith standing there and again, I say, “just let me keep running”. But Meredith says she really wants to do this final part and she won’t let me continue past her. So I hand off the bracelet and allow her to go. I regret that decision almost immediately. Meredith is now barely able to even walk. Her limping is absolutely painful to watch. So I turn to Jo and say “we have to take her out- let me do this”. We hop in the van and drive up to the limping Meredith and this time I don’t give her an option- I just tell her to get in the van. I’m so determined that I start running and nearly forget to get the slap bracelet from her.
My legs don’t feel nearly as bad re-starting this time and I finish out my last 6 miles of the race at a 10:45 pace. When I finally see Jo for the very last exchange, I’m completely spent. We’re supposed to drive to the finish to meet up with Jo so we can all run across the finish line together, but all I want to do is lie down. When we see Jo coming down the finishing shoot we yell at her to slow down since none of us can possibly keep up with her- but she keeps on going! We all eventually walk, crawl, and hobble across the line after her to receive our metals and to get our finish line picture taken together. The poor photographer- you could see by the look on his face he was thinking “how am I ever going to make this group look good!”. HA!
If you want to see the finish photos, try this link- it might still be up there:
http://www.marathonfoto.com/index.cfm?action=site.login&RaceOID=25622012W1&LastName=BRAUCH&BibNumber=411&spMAILINGID=36518508&spUserID=MTU1MjI2NDgzNTQS1&spJOBID=126376583&spREPORTID=MTI2Mzc2NTgzS0
And now you’d think we were done, right? Time to celebrate in Key West and have a drink, right? Uh, wrong! It’s now about 8:30pm on Saturday and several members of our team have early flights out of Ft Lauderdale on Sunday! So we have to pile back in the van to drive back to Ft Lauderdale, stopping along the way in Homestead to pick up Michele M (remember her?). The drive back to Homestead is pretty rough, especially on Beth who is still feeling very nauseas. But Michele C and Jo take turns driving which gives the rest of us a little time to nap. When we pick up Michele M in Homestead 3 hours later, she offers to drive the remainder of the way back to Ft Lauderdale and I agree to stay awake in the shotgun seat to keep her company.
By about 1:00am we are finally back at our hotel for the night, but we still have another job to do. Clean the van! And oh…….my…….God, this is no small chore! We did an exorcism on the van by basically dumping everything out onto the sidewalk into one big pile and them sorted through the pile to figure out what was trash and what belonged to someone. Michele M then takes the van to a 24 hour carwash to have it cleaned up while the rest of us headed to our rooms to take showers and repack for the trip home (or for the cruise for those lucky dogs who were smart enough to make that choice). Finally, by about 3:00am, I was tucked away in my hotel bed and I think I fell asleep before my head even hit the pillow!
The next morning felt very anticlimactic. I woke up, had breakfast alone, and drove the van back to the airport. My biggest regret in this trip was that I didn’t have the opportunity to celebrate the achievement with my teammates. There were a lot of challenges for us to go through over this 48 hour period and having people on my team who I could trust and who would work together to get things done when things turned ugly was the only way I made it through all the adversity. People keep asking me if I would do this race again, and I guess my answer is “maybe”. It has to be the right team and the right situation. But if these 5 ladies asked me to be on another Ragnar team with them, - Hell yes- in a heartbeat!
If you made it this far, perhaps you should consider signing up to do Ragnar Relay with a bunch of your friends- you obviously have some serious endurance!!!
Comments
Wow, what a crazy situation! Very impressive how you all pulled together and pulled it off. Way to go EN Chicas!
I'm up for an Ultra Relay this summer (Cascade Lakes) and I'm hoping it is much less eventful.
ha ! This, I suppose, is what Ragner is all about. An experience that you will talk about forever. I've been asked a few times to join a group for Ragner but scheduling was always a problem, but intend to do it sometime. Was actually in Key West at the finish last year. But your experience is pretty much what I would expect - just be ready for anything and everything.
Fantastic teamwork and individual effort. Well done.
Nemo & the 5-0 gals - Michelle x 2, Jo, Beth, Meredith - I'm in awe. Teamwork, endurance, humor, just enough drama; simply EPIC.
I can't find the "bowing down/we're not worthy Smiley" - imagine it here.
PS- I don't know why this came out with such funky margins. If anyone knows how to fix that, let me know!
Outstanding job completing the race given all the challenges. As you say it definitely is a race you would want the right team members especially with only 1 van.
Gordon
Nemo's report is dead on. It was my honor to race in the company of these women -- and I look forward to doing it again.
This iwas the first race where I can honestly say I left everything on the course. And truly know pain really is temporary.
EPIC!
Anyone from the team in?
As for "Captain Nemo and the Hawaii 5-0 girls". We've all pretty much comitted to each other that we are going to return to Florida in 2012 for a do-over.
And this time, there WILL be much drinking and celebration at the finish line!