Well hey guys!
I’ve just decided that summer is kicking my butt, lol. 🙂
I’m LOVING summer, the beautiful weather, the fun activities, the warm nights…..everything, BUT MAN, I can’t seem to be a productive human being! I can’t seem to get us on any kind of a schedule and all of the random projects I thought I’d accomplish, just ain’t happenin.’ I really feel like I’m just herding cats all day long.
For reals.
So, I’ve just been trying to embrace my roll as a professional cat herder and not go crazy in the process! Ha ha.
I’m still not ready for school to start, but I’m thinkin’ another month of this and I’ll be ready. 😉
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So, I started the Oxygen Magazine Challenge #4 this week and I’m L.O.V.I.N.G it!!! I’m really trying not to think of it as a challenge, but more as an education. I’m hoping to change some of my thinking patterns and set up some long term healthy habits in the process. I will talk a LOT more about this challenge soon, but TODAY I actually want to talk about the fun Ragnar Relay Race we ran over 6 weeks ago!!
I want to make sure I blog all about it before it gets any later!
K, so we ran this race on June 1-2 and it was a good, yet interesting experience. If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you know this was not the best race for me. 🙁
I gotta say that relay races are not the easiest type of races to run! I’ve now done 3 full relay races (you can read about them here and here) and 2 smaller relay races (you can read about one of them here) and I’ve enjoyed all of them, but I just don’t think relay races are my favorite way to experience running!
They are just very, very hard on the body. AND the kicker is, it’s not the running part that’s hardest on the body….it’s the lack of sleep!!! It took me about a full week to recover. I just felt very run down and blah, kind of like I had the flu.
This race was particularly hard because I also got injured in the middle of it; my IT band started acting up, which was a doozy.
I’ll talk more about all of that in more detail in a sec, but for now I’ll start from the beginning!
Sooooo, I was grateful our start time was much later this year! We started at 9:30 AM, which was so nice! We had some faster runners on our team this year, which helped to give us a later start time. Last year we started at 5:15 AM! We’re also expected to be there an hour before we start running….so last year we were sleep deprived before we even started.
Getting to the starting line around 8:30 AM this year was awesome.
Here we are right before the race started!
We were all fresh and chipper and ready to run at this point! I was a little bummed because I’d realized I forgot to pack my flip flops with me though! That is a huge bummer during a race!!! It always feels so good to switch over to the flip flops after running, but sadly I had to just stay in my running shoes. Boo hoo.
I learned to cope with it though. 😉
Our team name was Twelve Shades of Grey, which is actually quite a funny name for our team! Bwhahahahah!
Ya know, when you hear that team name, you might think we’re bunch of risque rebels, but we were actually quite the opposite! We are all fairly conservative LDS (aka. Mormon) people and we had two father/teenage son duos on the team as well.
I’m not even sure why we decided on that team name. We just came up with it at one of our team meetings and thought it would be kind of funny. We were actually quite a boring team (as far as costumes and car decorations go), although I’m not sure I’d want to own up to any costumes or decor with the “Twelve Shades of Grey” theme, lol.
Anyway, Kev was runner #2 and I was runner #3. My first leg was just over 5 miles and it was around noon. I was so worried it was going to be super hot (I absolutely fall apart in the heat!), but I was so grateful the weather was perfect. It was right around 70 degrees and I couldn’t have been happier about it (last year it was around 90 degrees!)
My run felt a little bit hot, but I wasn’t complaining! I was just grateful it wasn’t hotter! The scenery was so beautiful throughout the entire race. It really is such a fun place to run. I snagged a few pictures off the internet to help illustrate some of the beauty….
It truly is just a stunningly beautiful race course. However, even though my surroundings were gorgeous, I found myself just not loving the running. It kind of surprised me and made me sad at the same time. I could just tell my heart wasn’t into the whole “relay race” thang.
My first leg felt okay. I wasn’t super fast; I think I ran around a 9:30 pace. It was a’ight.
We took this picture after some of us had already finished our first legs (our runner #5 was out running)…
Sadly, the quality of this picture didn’t turn out too well. It was such a beautiful section of the race! I also look like I’m about eight feet tall in that picture!!
After our van all ran our first legs, we were able to take a little break. Ya know, one factor that may have contributed to my lack of love for this race was that we really didn’t get a lot of down time. It seemed like our van had more miles than the other van and our other van also had some really fast runners. We really didn’t have much time to rest. Last year, I was also able to sleep a lot more in the van. I didn’t sleep AT ALL in the van this year. I really only got about 2 1/2 hours of sleep throughout the entire race.
Ya, I think that could have played a roll in why my body and mind just slowly decided to fall apart.
So, I wasn’t too worried about my leg #2. It was only about 3 miles and was around 9:00 at night. I took this “beautiful’ selfie while I was running…
It was actually quite an enjoyable run, but about halfway through, the side of my knee on my left leg started to hurt.
I didn’t think much of it and kept running, but it just kept getting a little worse. I figured I could just stretch it out afterward and be fine. However, when I finished my run and told my team about my knee, my friend said, “It sounds like your IT band.”
As soon as she said that, I KNEW that was what it was! I had that same injury about 5-6 years ago and it was a beast. It took me about 6 months to get over it! I felt a little panicked at this point because I still had my last leg, a NINE MILE UP HILL leg left to run!!!
Auuuughhh!!!
I was still secretly hoping that it really wasn’t my IT band, but I was just so worried about it. After we’d all run our 2nd legs, we stopped off at a little motel to get a few hours of sleep. When we got there, I stepped out of the van and could barely walk. My knee was killing me and was so stiff. I was stressing out and really didn’t know how I’d be able to run.
We were all able to shower, clean up and sort of, kind of get some sleep. I think I “slept” for about 2 1/2 hours, but I kept waking up and never really slept hard.
When we all got up and got ready to run our last legs, I thought, “Welp, here goes nuthin!” I figured I would just run nice and easy and somehow get through it.
Ya know, the thought did cross my mind that I could have one of my other teammates run for me and one of my teammates did actually offer to run, but I seriously thought, there was no way in good conscience I could ask and expect one of them to run my NINE mile UP HILL leg for me. No way. Kev had hardly trained for the race at all and was already feeling quite maxed or he told me he’d run it for me.
Really, my teammates just weren’t in a position to be able to run for me. I wouldn’t have wanted them to do it either.
The other scary thing about my last leg is that it had zero van support, meaning that the members of my team couldn’t follow along in the van and help me if I needed them. Frankly, that scared the crap outta me as well.
But, I realized I really didn’t have any other choice.
So, my friend helped to tape up my knee, and when Kev finished up his last leg, I took the baton (actually the slap bracelet) from him and started my last leg, scared to death. It was about 6:00 AM and was a beautiful time to run. The sun had just come up and the weather was cool and crisp.
I just decided to go very slow; like an 11 minute pace kind of slow. I just shuffled along and just decided to take it one step (or shuffle!) at a time. I got passed by several runners, but I just swallowed the pride and kept on trudging along. I actually saw quite a few runners walking and ended up passing a few of them as I moseyed along. Even though the course was mostly uphill, I was grateful it was just a nice, steady incline and not a steep hill.
It was actually kind of an enjoyable run. My knee hurt the entire time, but it almost became numb. I just settled into a nice, slow pace and got it done. That run felt like the never-ending run though and actually got a little boring at times (I ran for like an hour and 45 minutes!), but I was so happy when it was over!!!
I felt so accomplished and proud of myself that I was able to do it, but I also felt so discouraged and defeated as well. I was ticked that I just didn’t feel super awesome throughout the entire race and that my body decided to fall apart.
Just to compare and contrast, I felt great last year! I ran a similar number of miles (one of my legs was 10 miles) and I loved it! My body worked well, I had a lot of energy, I was able to rest more and I had a great time.
This race….not so much. I just didn’t feel well or strong. My training for this race felt quite a bit harder too. I don’t know why. Running just didn’t agree with me this go ’round.
We took this picture as we were waiting for van #2 to finish their last legs…
I loved my team so much and really love the fun and social aspect of relay races, but I just don’t think my body likes the whole “beat myself up, run myself into the ground, stressful, no sleep thang.” 🙁
In fact, I seem to get random running injuries from time to time even though I’m a very careful, almost anal trainer! I always ramp up my miles slow and never push it too hard. I’m always very careful to train nice and easy. Kev hardly trains and never gets injured. I’m super regimented and my body falls apart anyway.
I was talking with one of my teammates in the other van who is a mega marathoner/Ironman runner and she told me that some people’s body structures just don’t bode well with running. I think that could certainly be the case with me!
I kind of have a weird walk. People have asked me why I’m limping quite a few times over the years and I just say…I think it’s just the way I walk! Kev says I just have a “cute wiggle” when I walk. I think that’s just him trying to be nice to me. BUT, I’m guessing my hips might have a weird structure or something. I dunno.
I’m just crying uncle and feeling quite frustrated! Oh and BTW, I can still feel that injury, although I feel it in my hip now. The IT band runs from the outside of the knee to the hip. I can still feel a slight pain in my hip when I work out, but it’s not too bad. I’ve decided I’m not going to try running again until I don’t feel that pain anymore….then I’ll see how it goes.
Well, our entire team DID eventually finish the race!
We had such a great team! I really wish there was a way that we could have all run the race together because I love all of these peeps! I was super proud of our two super speedy 15 year old boys that absolutely killed the race and made us all look good. We had quite a few speedy “old people” on our team as well!
I wish I could have been one of the “speedier ones” this year, but NOPE. Super lame.
Oh and hey, I shared a lot of things on my Instagram Stories throughout this race, so I thought I’d post them on here as well! Hee hee.
Well, I’m sorry to have such a poopy, negative race recap to share! I really loved the beautiful course and my wonderful teammates so much, but the lack of sleep and my lame body just ruined it for me.
Sadly, I really don’t think I’ll do another full relay race again. I might be able to talked into a one day relay race though…I’ll have to play it by ear. I’m planning on running again after this injury goes away and I’ll just see how I feel!
I may end up just being a leisurely runner who just runs 5 and 10k’s for fun or something. We’ll see. I’d sure love to run another half marathon some day, but I’m really just going to listen to my body. Sigh.
Well, I think that’s all I’m going to say ’bout that. On a brighter note, I’m loving my classes at the gym and my weight lifting sessions in the weight room right now! My body feels great and it’s rejuvenating to my mind as well! I’m grateful my body is cooperating in that respect!
Well, I hope you all are healthy and happy! I love you all! xoxo
Oh man. I’m sorry you had a sucky experience. I know every time we sign up for a relay my husband has terrible anxiety that he’s going to have some injury or another and let down the whole team (he tends to be much more injury prone than I am). We only do them because we have a very organized group and that generally takes a lot of the headache off of the whole thing. But the 36-hours-in-a-van thing does end up being a huge downside for a lot of folks. The relay we did this year was Top of Zion and the heat/elevation combo was killer! Somebody asked me why I like relays and I honestly couldn’t think of the answer! Boo.
Ha ha ha, I’ve had a lot of people ask me why I do relays and why I like them and I can never think of a decent answer either! I do love the social aspect and the beautiful surroundings, but that’s about it. 🙁 This race made me sad. I really enjoyed it last year, but this year just sucked. Dang it.