Cape Cod Ragnar 2015

This Ragnar was so much fun!  We had such a blast this year, running with a team full of friends.  Despite the eternal winter that feels like it ended a couple weeks ago, we all trained hard and killed it.  Our team, The Rhode Runners, finished in an impressive 55th place out of 500 teams but that doesn't really matter.  The point is we had a ton of fun and I didn't die when I had to run the very last leg, in the heat of the day, for a brutal 9.8 miles.  We saw scenic beaches, quaint towns, ran through Plymouth, ended in Provincetown, and ran 192 miles total.

This year we decided on team hoodies rather than t-shirts and it was the best idea.  Matt and Alysa designed them and came up with nicknames for everybody.   

The Ragnar takes more than 24 hours to run and only about 3 of those hours is spent actually running.  The rest of the time you're either waiting to run or trying to sleep.  Trust me, the sleep never really happens so it's inevitable that when you get a bunch of sleep deprived people in a car for hours on end, you're going to come up with a lot of inside jokes.  I laughed until I had tears in my eyes over and over again and I get the giggles just thinking about it.

The Rhode Runners

At the beginning of the race as we were decorating the vans, somebody mentioned we should run for a cause, then out of the blue someone suggested we run for rabies and it stuck.  Forever more I will look back on this race as the "Race for Rabies."  I thought it was funny because rabies isn't something that needs funding and already has a vaccine but my team reminded me the idea came from an episode of The Office. Anyway, every time we cheered on one of our runners we shouted, "Run for rabies!"or "Rabies Kills!" or "Rabies:  We are All Affected!"  It's okay if this doesn't make you laugh because I'm laughing so hard right now I can barely type. The best part of it all was the reactions we got.  Some people were sympathetic, some skeptical, and others just thought we were stupid.  Whatever. 

Our rabid Rhode Runner

Can't run a Ragnar without lots of support and flag holders

We passed a lot of old, historic churches

Plymouth Main Street.  So quaint!

As you can see, we take this verrrrry seriously

Randy rocking his 12.8 mile leg with a 7:22 minute pace

Thamina, my BYU roomie who flew up from DC to run

The Cape Cod Canal where I finally got to run for the first time at 7pm

That's me after running up and over that bridge.

Trying to catch some shut-eye at the hotel.  No tents for us.  For $35 per person we opted for hotel rooms!

That's me after I got back from my 2nd run at 4:00am where I got lost and missed a turn.  Luckily it only added a half mile to my run.

The girls the next morning as van #1 finished their final leg and we started ours

Dallin, our 19 year old trak star.  He's wondering how his parents ever convinced him to run with us slow, old people.  He ran 6:30 minute miles for a total of 21 miles!

Alysa relieved to be done!

Matt rocked his 9.5 mile leg with nothing but rolling hills

Only at the Ragnar can you go from this

to this in seconds!

I needed extra inspiration (and help  from Above) to get through my last leg.  It was brutal.  I even had to run uphill in sand.  Sand!

While I was running 9 miles my team celebrated that they were done by playing at the beach

We were a little obsessed with rabies at this point

I love this

Here's me plugging along through Provincetown

Here I am coming around the final bend.  Hallelujah!

Our medals

Rhode Runners forever!

Signing the wall

Our celebratory lunch of fried seafood at our favorite joint in Plymouth

Ice cream makes everything better