Thursday, July 19, 2018

Ragnar Northwest Passage. Leg 8. Hills. Hills. Hills. And some Sun.

If you go to the Ragnar website and view photos for the Northwest Passage, this is one of three that pops up. All 3 are at this beautiful location. Runners going over water? I never saw water last year on any of my legs, where is this water??

So when the opportunity to run Ragnar NWP again came about, and I wasn't assigned a leg, I was determined to find one that gave me some water! Yeah, I didn't really even look at elevation for anything. I saw the distances, knew I could do those with no problem, and chose to be runner 8. I would be the one running over that bridge right above the water!!

I would also be the one scaling the mountain of the elevation chart.


And that ridiculous mountain is how I began my Ragnar adventure!

I had my water, my music, my Garmin with a signal, sunblock all over me, a Summit print RunningSkirt to inspire my climb. I was ready. Right?!? No, really, I was. 6 miles for me on this first leg. I'm a long distance runner so that wouldn't be an issue. The really concern? The heat. And oh boy did the heat win this battle!!

Heather came flying in for our hand-off, and excitedly I set off down a neighborhood road, to my first short, yet steep incline. Got up that no problem. I actually ran for quite a while, but I swear every time the team van passed me during any of my runs I was walking. I swear I DO run!! The course turned a corner and signs started to seem a little confusing and placed in strange places that made me question what I was supposed to be doing. A runner had passed me near the next corner, which is when vans were also making a turn. Who turned and shouldn't have? That runner and myself. The vans on the road were blocking the poor sign placement telling runners to go straight, so that other girl and I were adding even more distance and incline to an already challenging run. Fortunately runners behind us and approaching vans saw our error and shouted to us to turn around. Thank you!!!

Getting back on the path brought a most welcome sight. A trail with shade! It smelled so good in there. The path was easy to run on, the sights were easy on the eyes. I was loving it!! I fully admit I stopped for a selfie. I was the happiest runner being out on another relay, running in nature, being all alone. I had to capture this moment!


It was as if I was seeing a mirage in a desert appearing before me. Was this what I thought it was? Yes! I was seeing water!! At the top of a slight incline Lake Samish was coming into view, and what a view that was! The temptation to go touch the water was strong. I'm shocked I didn't do it. Kids were playing in the water, women in bikinis were working on a tan, people were fishing, renting kayaks, getting their BBQ on... It was a Pacific Northwest paradise!


And it was hot.

Just after the 3 mile mark I met up with the Mofos to refresh my water bottle. I was soon to be on the long stretch where I wouldn't get any van support until basically the end of this leg. And the hardest part was yet to come! After some gels and the water refill I was back on my way out of the shade and back to the hills.  The rest of that run was just that ... blazing sun, no shade, hills. The photo to the left shows was the entire thing was like. A 2 lane highway and orange cones urging runners to stay inside of them out of the roadway. I'm not gonna lie. It got HARD! I would try running and then feel like I was going to collapse. My heart was doing some crazy hard beating thing that I had experienced a couple of months ago on a training run where I was sure I was having a heart attack. I had to force myself to stop and relax for fear that I would be the person that would need medical attention. Like Heather said later, it is faster to slow down and walk than to have to get First Aid. To top it off, I was having a mile Meniere's attack. Any form of attack in this situation is just plain scary. To keep with tradition, I called my mom while walking up part of this hill and chatted with her to help the distance pass and help my heart rate get back to something that felt safe. Other runners were great with their support. We were all miserable out there, so even though I was sucking hard core, hearing positive words was great.

I was so excited to see the One Mile to go sign and send the text to the team that I was on my way. I had to warn them that I wasn't feeling well, so sadly I wasn't going to be hauling ass down the slight hill like I had planned. I did the best that I could. Again, I just had to set my ego aside and take care of myself. The end brought me the biggest challenge. I could see the exchange. On any other day I'd have been flying down and passing off that bracelet feeling on top of the world. But instead I had to walk for a while. Why? Look at that photo to the right. That is I-5. I had a narrow sidewalk to try to run on. Well, running on that means running with this right below me as I was dealing with vertigo. To top it off, bridges make my vertigo worse. Did I want to balance on that little sidewalk, feel dizzy and topple over to my death by those vehicles below? Um, NO!

Once across the bridge I happily ran to Jayme who was waiting for me in the finisher chute. Seeing her pink top was something I had been fantasizing about for quite a while!!

As soon as I was cleared of the running area Shawn was at my side to hold me up since I almost went down. After sipping on some cool water, shedding a shirt and compression socks and sitting down I was feeling so much better.

Could I have run this leg better? Sure. Not this day. I did the absolute best I could. I ran a lot of it. But I had to be smart and walk a lot too. More than I would have liked. Not every run will be a winner, but Ragnar isn't just about individual legs anyway. It is the whole thing. Van life, new friendships, sight seeing, no sleep, cheering for strangers, freezing, sweating. So I'm happy with what I did. I saw water, I pushed myself up hills. I battled Meniere's Disease... again. AND.... this is the run that resulted in my new Runlebrity status!

Ragnar Relay shared a few photos from this weekend, and whose picture was used as the headline photo?? That would be mine!! I took this photo of our sweaty band while I was walking up that hill... and now my hand is famous! Winning!




No comments:

Post a Comment

Thanks for reading my little blog, your comments rock my compression socks!! ºoº