Ragnar Vegas Pre-Run

Our plan was to drive with our team organizer to Mesquite the day before the race since we were in van #1 and needed to be on the start line at 8:30am. So, I took the day off from work to spend time with the boys. At 1pm, we all piled into the car and headed to SLC to meet our driver. Yes, meet. We had never met him before. In fact, Carol and I had never met ANY of our teammates before but we did know their brother, Brian. We figured that he is a very nice and decent guy, so his family must be the same. Luckily, we were 100% correct.

After meeting up with Dave, the organizer of two different teams (including rental cars, hotels, and food/drinks), we hopped in the car for the five hour drive to Mesquite. He had been up since 1am, and I’m sure he was very tired, but the conversation carried us all the way there. It was fun getting to know him and hear of some of his running exploits. He is an ultra runner who seems to never spend a weekend at home. (In fact, the week before Ragnar Vegas, he ran the St. George marathon. The week before that, he and his sister ran 75 miles in Oregon. He’s a big crazy!) He managed to work out a few kinks with the hotel, and then we were in our room and getting ready to sleep.

We knew that we would be sharing the room with other people, and since we were last minute tag-alongs, Carol and I found a couple of cozy spots on the floor and drifted off to sleep. I remember waking once during the night when people arrived, but not for long as they were quiet and I was tired. Carol and I were the first up the next morning so we tried to quickly and quietly get in and out of the bathroom before the others needed to use it. As we packed our gear, we were greeted by the morning sounds of men.

Yes, men. I have lived in an all-woman household for 20 years. Granted, I grew up with brothers, but I had forgotten how noisy they can be. (I guess it’s something that I need to remember in 10-ish years as the boys become teenagers!) The guys were nice and very polite, but the symphonic range of their snorting, coughing, and hocking up phlegm was amazing. I must say, however, that none of them snored, and I swear that I only counted one toot during the night. Dave introduced us to Beau, Joe, and Levi – all members of the fast team – and then we took our leave for a cup of coffee.

We then met the members of our team (the slow team) in the parking lot where we learned of several changes in plan.

First change: we would be the drivers of van #2 which, by the way, is a cargo van containing only a driver and passenger seat. The other team members would be illegally sprawled out in the back with no seats or restraints. “Just don’t get pulled over.” Hmmmm… OK.

Second change: we were in van #2! We had planned all along to be in van #1 with relatively easy legs (since we were last minute teammates). So, I spent a good deal of time commiserating with another co-worker about how hot and difficult his runs were going to be since he was a van #2 person. I suddenly knew full well how difficult our experience would be, and I’m not sure that I was ready to mentally accept it!

Third change: our team captain says something along the lines of “We’re missing a runner, so we only have 11. We (van #1) will try to make up those missing legs, but we’ll just have to be flexible.” Uh, yeah. So far, flexibility is the name of the game!

Fourth change: we meet more substitute runners, one of whom is finishing up a cigarette.

Fifth change: team captain unloads another little bit of information on us by asking “Did you know that two of your van mates are male strippers in Vegas?” At this point, Carol and I could do nothing but laugh. Who would have thought two weeks ago when we agreed to this craziness that it would get even crazier? But, it turns out that the dancers didn’t actually ride in the van with us because they had to keep going back and forth to Vegas to work. They drove the course in a separate car usually going far ahead of us and parking in order to get some sleep. It’s tough to dance all night and then run all day!

Finally, we were off to the races, and none too soon. We arrived at the start line with barely enough time for our first runner to get his bib on, smoke one last cigarette, and take off. (And in all fairness, Greg-the-smoker was VERY fast, limited lung capacity and all!) We misread our van directions, so we followed the runners for a little while before getting our bearings. We then drove past the first major checkpoint and waited for van #1 to arrive.