To The Left....

To the left, to the left.... Every turn you make is a turn to the left....

(If you didn't, please go back and re-read that as Beyoncé. I'll wait.)

What A Ragnar That Was!! It is no joke that I love relays, and I pretty much have glowing reviews for 80% of the teams I have run with. This year's team was just freaking dandy! I wish I could have somehow cloned myself and been in both vans. I just adore you all!

For the sake of this blog (i.e. my public journal where I write down things so I can go reflect on them later), this post will be random little musings on the 2019 Ragnar Northwest Passage and life with Glory Daze!

• Why is it every turn is to the left? For reals. We made so many left hand turns.
  
   
  
• Big vans are the way to go! We even had room to save our bottles and cans for fundraising. At least in van 1 everybody just had their area they mainly kept to. I did invade the back row apartment during the ferry line, but I never got kicked out so I guess it was okay!

  

  Leg room for days!

• The smell ... man, it can be brutal. ZIP LOCK BAGS ARE A MUST!!! Slide a fabric softener in there and you're golden.  I nearly got sick a few times in that van. The air freshener I picked up at the dollar store became my buddy and I just kept it right next to me for a better part of the relay.
  
  
• Seriously - hit up the dollar store before you go! I made each van a bag of "essentials" that aren't exactly essential. Contents included: rice krispy treats made by me, phone charger things for the cigarette lighter, the cord to hook your stuff to the radio so you can hear normal music, toilet paper, baby wipes, makers, pain relief, band aids, safety pins.... there was more. I can't remember.
  
  
• The magnet game this year was pretty weak. Other teams were slackers. I'm glad we came to play and had an awesome one, if I do say so myself. In 2017 Tabitha and I had TONS in our collection by the end of the relay. May 2020 will have a resurgence of magnet van tagging!
  
• As per usual, texting in the van was a thing. Sometimes you just need to have private conversations with someone you aren't sitting next to! Happens every time!
  
  
• Shawn got lucky. . . I forgot to make him wear his track suit! We had it packed. Dang.
  
  
• Dan is probably not a serial killer?
  
  
• Here's a BIG tip... make sure multiple people have keys to the van and never leave them behind!! You do NOT want to be stuck in a field locked out of your van with your fastest runner out on the course!
  
  
  
• I love the support we all had for each other. We stopped for every person in our van - whether they wanted us to or not. I know that even if I'm feeling like I am set with water, it is still nice to see your team go by or have them pause to cheer you on when maybe mentally you're dying a bit inside.
  
  
  
• Sleeping on the floor of a high school cafeteria can be surprisingly comfortable if you are tired enough.
  
  
• Fact: most normal people sleep more in a single night that we do total from Thursday morning to Sunday evening. I wish I was joking. I'm not.
  
  
• Relays are such a great way to make new friends! I mean this whole team started from a random meeting in 2006 at a football game, and here we are now! It seems like I always form a new bond with a complete stranger in my van, and this year did not disappoint! Stay tuned for wedding invitations and baby announcements. I mean we are almost Facebook official. *Baby Boomers, please don't read this literally. Ronda jokes around a lot.* But you can definitely expect to see us together again, possibly in the near future!
  
  
  
• If you're curious about ever running a relay, consider this ... eating and sleeping and being clean are pretty much not things that work into the equation. We did eat at Red Robin after our first round of running. That's it. The rest is kind of just grab something if you even remember that food exists. Brushing teeth, fresh deodorant, maybe a baby wipes wipe down - that's the extent of bathing. I DID re-braid my hair in the dark in that high school cafeteria. Did I brush it? Um, no.
   
  
• Relay races are expensive... but think about it - you pay for race fees consisting of the standard shirt and medal - plus essentially running 3 races on your own. Plus you have van rentals and hotels. Totally worth it!
  
  
  
• Motel 6 is NOT the Ritz Carlton. But it IS a money saver! Maybe just leave your shoes on the whole time you're in your room.
  
  
• I still say the Chawel is the best invention for a relay. I always had on fresh clothes which made me feel better and less stinky. Never did I have to worry about when or where to change thanks to my Chawel!
  
  
• Eye candy.  Enough said.
  
  
  
• Pistachios - the key to Shawn being an awesome runner unexpectedly!
  
  
• Speaking of Shawn, when a finish line party is struggling, you can count on him to keep it going. I lost track of how many games he was involved in. He even chose the winner on a game. Thanks to his loss in a final round of Musical Chairs we went home with a Ragnar lanyard. Thanks to his inability to be shy I was able to recruit a bunch of people for a photo that got me the stuffed Ragnar doll I had been eye-balling since Thursday night. He seemed to be everywhere!
  
  
• Ladies left alone can get shit done!! That blog post is next, but let's just say Jenn, Dustin and I handled what could have been a race destroying situation with absolute calm and ease... and still managed to find eye candy in the process!
  
  
• I'm sure I have A LOT more to say....