O Captain! My Captain!

July 15, 2018. We were driving home from Seattle, hashing out the disaster that we just experienced that pretended to be the Ragnar Relay. I've always said I don't think I could be a captain for a relay team. So much work! Gathering people, getting commitments, finances, ideas, lodging, vans... there is a lot. But last year was so effing bad that somehow on the way home we decided GAME ON!

We brainstormed a quick idea of starting people for a team and that was that. I was going to captain a Ragnar team!

This last year has been a whole range of emotions and stress levels!! In 2018 people were so excited and eager to say Yes to joining the team. Psh, this isn't gonna be so hard after all.... or is it?!

Definitely getting twelve people to commit is the hardest part. I had 12 people multiple times. And once it seems all is good to go, someone has to back out. Fill it again, lose someone else. At the very end we lost three runners, two of them back to back. I can't even explain my stress level when it came time to fill the final two spots. I was even plotting how we could do this race with just 10 people and split up the empty legs among those of us left on the team. I couldn't sleep. I couldn't eat. I was too stressed to even run. But man, when it was full each time - that was a great feeling! I let out a HUGE sigh of relief (and almost a squeal) at work when our final runner said he would in fact be able to join us. Hallelujah!!

Getting vans is the one thing I did assign to Shawn. He knows vehicles, he'd be sure to get us the most comfortable vans for the best price. He did an awesome job. We secured those vans as soon as we were allowed. I didn't even have a solid 12 and we had our vans.

But with vans comes the logistical part of figuring out where to meet and where to park. I got so lucky that one of our runners lived maybe a mile and a half from where we rented the vans. 4 of us rode up together in my car, 1 drove from out of town to meet us and the rest were picked up on our way north. Together we pulled it off!

I immediately got us hotels at the start area. I totally must have had a brain burp when I booked Motel 6, but hey - it was cheap, we all had our own beds to start off in, and we were close to the start. My brain started leaking and I lost track of all things, so I slacked on our post-race hotel. That was a tough one. I was on Expedia and Orbitz, searching for any hotel that could hold 12 of us anywhere between Whidbey Island and Seattle. Fail!! In the end I started going directly to hotel websites and I was able to find one where I could book 3 rooms. That was a freaking close call!!

Registration was simple. Shawn had an email with a huge discount, so once registration opened I was signing us up and putting down quite a chunk of change to cover all 12 runners. I was so fast, we were team 28!

Money. I'm good at Excel and tracking and keeping it straight. But I HATE asking people for money. I know it is expensive, and some make it very clear to you that they think it is spendy. I fronted $1,559.16 just for registration, so I know how much this is. Add in the vans and hotels and it grows. Fortunately our team was awesome and everybody handed over cold hard cash and it is all going to be paid off as soon as the last hotel charges hit my card! Because I'm over an over planner of fun, I did add in a ton of fun team things that I just paid for on my own. I didn't feel like making everybody cover the cost of fanny packs they didn't ask for.... but I still made them wear them!

I had way too much fun coming up with ideas once we voted on our team name. So many ideas on my spreadsheet and so much fun organizing and packing. Katura and I went shopping to make each van some survival kits including: earplugs, air fresheners, charger things, music cord things, toilet paper, band aids, safety pins, fabric softeners, magnets, markers, rice krispy bars and who knows what else. I loved it!

At times I was certain I was cursed and shouldn't be a captain. We really thought maybe we were just made to be the last minute team fillers and not ones putting together a team. But it all came together! And I really think help from teammates is what helps it all end up a success. Once we are going I consider us all equals. I definitely don't try to play the "I'm Captain, I'm in charge card." That's just not me. I'm the same as everyone else, I just have a little more info all in one spot to help us stay coordinated. 

And then the one thing that happened that made me thing that maybe I CAN do this was the mishap that happened so early on in the race when we had our keys locked in the van. That will be its own blog post coming soon. But the way it all rounded up gave me the utmost confidence in myself and in our team as a whole.

So thank you to all of you that ended up in this final version of Glory Daze! It was a lot of hard work. It was incredibly fun. I seriously did focus diligently on it pretty much since last August. I hope everyone enjoyed themselves as much as I did. And then the card signed by some of the team... you guys made me have the happy tears. Thank You to Sara, our Lady Storm Squad captain and member of Glory Daze. She was definitely an inspiration as I started really delving into this. Will I do it again in 2020? I'm down for it if you are!

But how did I never once make any sort of reference to Captain Tew?? I slacked!  *Captain Tew was an actual pirate captain. and I freaking run in my pirate headband for every single relay!!