31 Hours Later – A Ragnar Relay Story

What do you get when you take 12 runners, 2 drivers with minivans, fill them full of Gatorade and junk food, and don’t let them sleep while making them run 200 miles in 31 hours? You get the 2011 Ragnar Relay. It was an awesome experience filled with lots of sweat and a little lunacy.

My friend, Jack Pham, turned 30 this year. He wanted to celebrate in style. Nothing simple like wine tasting or even Vegas. He needed something epic. It just so happened that this year’s SoCal Ragnar Relay fell exactly on his birthday. It was the perfect event for him. The rest of us were just along for the ride.

Ragnar is an extreme long distance running event conquered by teams of twelve, unless you’re Ultra crazy and use a team of six, but that’s another story. The race starts in Huntington Beach, heads inland through Anaheim and over to Corona, then turns South through Elsinore and Temecula, before heading West to head back to the coast.  The route heads South again toward the border, and then back up to finish on Coronado Island. Each runner has three legs, varying in length from two-and-a-half miles up to nine miles. We divided our team up into two vans that swapped duties between driving and resting.

We kicked the festivities off with a pre-race pasta party at Jack and Ayelet’s place. There was lots of good food and revelry to fuel us up for the next day’s task. Our team name is “Hit the Road Jacks” in honor of the birthday boy. To identify ourselves, Ayelet made us all sweet shirts that each featured a different “Jack.” We had Black Jack, Jack Knives, Jack Rabbits and more. Once we finished eating, passing out shirts and going over last minute race info, we loaded up the vans and Van one headed up to my house in Oceanside.

Once we got there, everyone sacked out on various pieces of furniture scattered around the house. I was so excited that I hardly slept. It felt like I was checking the clock every 30 minutes. According to my fellow runners, I wasn’t the only one who didn’t sleep. It is always great to not sleep before starting a round-the-clock endurance race. Soon enough, it was time to actually get out of bed and get on the road. We hopped in the van and headed up to Huntington Beach.

This one must have been taken before the race started...

We arrived at the race expo about an hour before our start time, which gave us plenty of time to check in, get the safety briefing and for me to warm-up. I was the first runner on our team so the butterflies were definitely out and fluttering. I was mostly nervous because I had crashed my mountain bike the weekend before and my knee and chest were still sore. No backing out now though! It was go time!

Most races I run start everyone at once, sending thousands of people across the start line together. For Ragnar, they stagger all the starts over the course of the morning so when I started I only started with about twenty people.  Its a shotgun-start that resembles a golf tournament.

There was cheering at the start, but twenty yards down the way it was almost dead silent except for the sounds of our footsteps. It almost felt like I was on a training run by myself.

The first few miles of my initial leg were right along the ocean. The weather was totally beautiful and it made me want to veer off course and hop into the ocean. Instead I followed the course inland along the Santa Ana river, leaving behind the cool ocean for the inland heat.

The run itself wasn’t bad, mostly flat and very straight after the turn. At one point I thought I saw the exchange up ahead and kicked toward the hand off. Of course when I got there it was just one of the other teams cheering for their runner, standing next to a sign that said “one mile left”. Great! That made the last mile interesting.

I had to maintain focus on my pace to keep it up after kicking too early. Keeping my eyes on the runners up ahead of me helped. I even managed to pass two or three people on the last stretch. Before long I was at the hand off point and gave Linda the baton-bracelet for her leg. The Ragnar was on now!

Is That a Slap Bracelet?

Over the next several hours I alternated between navigating the van and waiting at the exchanges for our runners to come in. After my initial run Linda ran 5 miles, Tina ran 5.3 miles, Elijah ran 4.3 miles, Charlette ran 2.5 miles.  Ryan rounded out Van One with 2.7 miles. He ended his run in East Anaheim where he handed off to Christina and the rest of Van Two.

Off He Goes!

Once Van Two took over, Van One got a few hours of rest before going back on shift. It was time for Jamba Juice!

Tina had a clutch “buy one get one free” coupon that helped refresh the whole team. Just the right medicine after running in the heat. With drinks in-hand we loaded back up and headed to Lake Elsinore to rest at my Aunt’s house.

My Aunt Linda very graciously opened her home to us while we were off shift. People crashed around the house while my aunt prepared us a glorious spaghetti and meat sauce dinner. Ryan and Elijah even took showers. Apparently they didn’t get the memo that there’s no showering in Ragnar! Dinner was fantastic and everyone was extremely thankful for my Aunt’s cooking and hospitality.

Thanks for the great food, Linda!

During the break, we were in contact with Van Two. They were having a rough time out on the course, bearing the brunt of the day’s sun and heat. Being the first runner in Van One I started to get antsy around 5:30pm. The other van was still on the road so I just needed to relax. Soon enough, the call came from Van Two to come meet us at Exchange 12.

Up to this point the race was just a standard run for all of us, a day-time race of medium distance. It was no big deal for anyone on the team. The start of my second leg changed that. Instead of starting a run fully rested and prepared, I was already tired and sore from the first run. And it was dark. That changed things significantly.

I took the hand-off from Jack at 7:45pm just as the sun was setting. The race requires safety gear so, decked out in a bright reflective vest, head lamp, and a tail lamp, I started down the road. The first mile felt good. Nothing like an adrenaline burst to get the body moving. That wore off pretty quickly as I all the aches and pains from the previous week’s mountain bike crash and the morning’s run came back. Right about when full dark came on.

The darkness took the race to a new level

Running in the dark was a lot harder than I expected. The street itself was barely lit and was still quite dark, even with my head lamp. Running against traffic, I would periodically become blinded by headlights. That, coupled with a shifting, uneven shoulder and encroaching dirt and plant life made for a treacherous run. At least the day’s heat had dissipated, leaving a cool and very dry evening.

My run was 5.5 miles. It seemed longer. I was really feeling the fatigue from the earlier run by the end of this one. At the point that I thought the leg should have been over, I hit the “one-mile to go” sign. Better than a poke in the eye, I suppose. I mustered up a little kick to get me to the end where Linda waited to start her leg. She took the hand-off and was off on her leg while I stumbled back to the van.

With the ebb of adrenaline in my chest, my knee started tightening up. After changing into dry clothes and watching the girls goof off with the flags, I ceded navigator duties for Elijah and climbed in the back of Van One to rest. Linda had a long leg, so we stopped midway to offer her water. She was a trooper, running one of the longest legs through the dark while sick. She even threw in an extra mile or so for the fun of exploring dead end streets in the middle of the night. I think she inspired the rest of us to give a little bit more.

Yay Linda!

We made our way through the night, runner-by-runner. Tina ran through Murrieta, followed by Elijah and Charlette down I-15 through Temecula, ending with Ryan at Fallbrook.

Exchange 18, where Van Two took over from us, was a mess. Both vans from every team were meeting there and by that point people had been racing for well over 12 hours.  There was some crankiness around that ended up manifesting in road rage while trying to cut lines.  It ended up in overall unpleasantness.

To try to avoid this, as soon as our van made it into the parking lot, Charlette and I jumped out to find the other van while Ayelet turned the van around and headed to the exit. Once again we had hoped to hang out with the other van for a bit but instead had to immediately leave. As they were heading out we managed to find Van two. They were refreshed after some pizza and rest. Christina had already headed to the start line so we gave Jack a birthday hug and set off to find her.

As soon as we found Christina at the hand-off, Ryan arrived in a blaze of speed and sweat. They made the hand-off and she was off. It happened so fast I didn’t even get my camera out. With Ryan in-tow, we started walking towards the exit looking for our van. It was good that we had headlights because even with all the vans around it was completely dark!

We located our van and, with Elijah at the wheel and some creative maneuvering, we made it out to the highway. It was about 1:30am and everyone was exhausted. The next major exchange was in Carlsbad at approximately 5am so we headed back to my house in Oceanside. People passed out as soon as we got through door. I crashed into my bed and fell in the deepest, darkest sleep I can remember.

This was until 3:30am, when my phone went off. It felt like I had been slapped. Hard! Jack was calling to let us know that Sam was on the road and that Susan would be starting her leg soon. I went around rousing the troops to get ready to head back on shift. Everyone fell asleep clothed, so at least no one had to change clothes. We grabbed a quick bite of tortillas with Nutella and peanut butter and piled back into the van.

Wakey Wakey

There is a saying that the night is always darkest just before the dawn. I’m going to go with true on that one.

It was dark and cold at 5am. As per his style, Jack flew in to the exchange, so fast that the volunteers couldn’t announce his number, catching us literally half-asleep. When he frantically started calling for me, I jumped over into the start area, grabbed the baton, slapped him on the back and was off on my third and final leg of the relay.

Did I mention it was cold? I couldn’t just see my breath, it was pluming. I entertained myself for a while pretending I was an old school locomotive chugging along. Give me a break. It was 5:30 in the morning and I was slightly delirious!

The run wasn’t bad. It was mostly on the sidewalk so was better lit than my run through Elsinore. Too bad they didn’t let us run though Legoland because that would have been neat in the dark.

The sun came up when I had about one mile left to go. This became a mental battle.

I had to focus my mind and force my body to keep moving. This was working pretty well until I started hitting stop lights. Up to the last mile of my last leg I had not hit any stop lights, but then I managed to hit three of them. I passed the same two people three times at each of the lights. I swear the last one took five minutes, just trying to taunt me.

When you’re that far into a race and the finish line is within sight, the hardest thing to do is to not move. Every fiber of my being wanted to go, go, go and finish! Finally the light turned green and we dashed across the street — only to stop again and wait for the light so we could cross to the left hand side. Painful! The second the light turned green I let out a war cry and put on a mad sprint to the end.

And there it was, my final hand-off. I relinquished the baton to Linda and I was finished. My part was done but the race was far from finished. There were still hours of racing to go. Duty called and I resumed my role as van navigator as we headed to the next exchange.

Go Tina, Go! Nice socks...

The next couple hours are pretty much a blur to me. We stopped a few times to give Gatorade and support for Linda and Elijah on the ridiculous hills they had to run up. Tina had a great run through Solana Beach, where we almost missed her because we were on the wrong side of the station. Charlette crushed another hill. Ryan finished off our van by absolutely owning the Torrey Pines hill. Everyone did a fantastic job and stayed strong despite the exhaustion we all felt.

Hit the road... Elijah!

At the last major exchange at Torrey Pines Glider Port we were able to hang out with Van Two for a little while before they started their shift. As Ryan was coming in we snapped another group picture before Christina headed out. Everyone loaded up and we headed back to Ayelet and Jack’s place. It was in Van two’s hands to bring us to the finish line now.

Two Vans in one place

There’s really only one thing to do after a race like that. Eat a burrito. So after cleaning up a bit, dropping Linda off, unloading the van and an aborted attempt to eat at a diner, that is just what we did.

A burrito has never tasted so good! Pure heaven. Once we finished our meal we dropped the van off and parted ways with Ayelet so she could go to a wedding. Tina, Charlette, Elijah, Ryan and I loaded up in Tina’s Mazda and headed down to Coronado to see the finish of the race.

Van Two was still midway through their legs when we got to Coronado so there was some time to kill. We relaxed a bit and got some free noodles. I dipped my feet in the ocean and Tina fell asleep on the concrete. While we were waiting for the rest of the team, we watched several other teams come through the finish chute. There was a big orange arch set up on the sand and whole teams waited just around the corner for their final runner to come in.

The second half of our team showed up just in time. Jack was blazing down the chute and we could barely get him to slow down so we can join up. He paused for half a second to remove his shoes, because, well, I’m not sure. Maybe his feet were on fire from his speed.

We chased after him through the sand and under the orange arch. We were done. Done. Done! DONE! Thirty-one hours and 200 miles from my start in Huntington Beach, Jack completed the 2011 SoCal Ragnar Relay, finishing our team’s journey.

Shoeless Jack Pham. If you build it, he will come...

The whole team got medals so we held a mini-ceremony where Jack presented them to each of us. Everyone was in elation to be done. Tina presented Jack with a special birthday cupcake we had made to celebrate, and he ‘nommmm’ed’ it down on it at the finish line. A delicious end to the day.

Completing this relay was quite an experience. I am glad that I took part in it and got to share it with all my team members. Through the course of the race, everyone in our van bonded together. We all wished to have been able to spend more time with the other van but unfortunately it just didn’t happen.

31 Hours. 200 Miles of Smiles

Jack picked quite a celebration for his birthday. Already people are talking about doing it again. We are all crazy for doing it the first time, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find myself stretching the boundaries of both myself as well as the California Coastline once more next year.

HIT THE ROAD JACKS:

Van One Driver: Ayelet Ruppin
1    Chris Manuele
2    Linda Lobbestael
3    Tina Yuan
4    Elijah Nicolas
5    Charlette Buchan
6    Ryan Borchard
Van Two Driver: Liz Kee
7    Christina Hennigan
8    Matt Hennigan
9    Andrew Wood
10    Susan Friedman
11    Sam Thomas
12    Jack Pham