Ragnar Napa

Oh my goodness, where to start?!  Ragnar Napa was so much fun and I had such a great time with my amazing team. This post is simply going to be about the legs I ran. I am going to do another on all the fun we had before and after the run and any shenanigans that went on (hint there were a few).

Team Beef Montana/The Montana Running Ranchers at the start

Run 1

Leg 2 of Ragnar Napa . As soon as I took off I realized I had not turned on my Garmin. Eh. I hit the button, but it took a long time to find the satellites. I had my music on, but it didn't take me long to take out my earbuds as I was running near the ocean and I wanted to listen to the waves crash on the shore. Pretty neat sound for an inland girl to get to listen to while running. This was a beautiful beautiful leg to get to run, I so enjoyed the lush greenery, trees and that were foreign to me and the smells of the ocean. I almost felt like I was in a whole other world with the misty fog and trees and are so different from where I live. This leg if the relay was 5.5 ish miles and most of the first part was on trails.


some of the beauty I saw on leg 1

The last part was running across the Golden Gate Bridge. It was pretty foggy out so the views weren't super awesome, but just knowing I was running across it was sweet.

my team mate took this photo, I love how happy I look!

 

Thoughts, it was a lot harder than I thought it would be with lots of stairs, hills and running on sand. And the humidity made the air feel so thick. Running across the Golden Gate Bridge made it all worth it though. There were a lot of pedestrians on the bridge, I didn't expect there to be so many.

Run 2

Leg 14 4.7 miles

It was just getting dark when I took off out of the exchange. I was feeling pretty good and passed 27 people on this leg.!it was fun to see all the blinking lights up ahead of all the other runners. This was a pretty uneventful leg with a little bit of a hill. Since it was dark I have no idea what the scenery was like, but I do know we must have run past some livestock at some point. I could smell them!

running across the bridge

I remember having a "I am so happy to be here running" moment in the dark with all the other blinking lights up ahead, knowing they were all runners and this was fun!

Run 3
8.3 miles.  When I left the exchange for this run it was still dark, but I knew it would get light as I ran so I was happy about that.  The last leg is always the toughest mentally I think because I am tired physically and mentally and it always seems to be my longest leg.   

This run was along a busy busy road and I did not enjoy all the traffic, but I did enjoy being able to see the scenery and the vineyards as it started to get light out.  I did not carry water for this leg and was grateful for the water stops. I was also very grateful for LuDawn (spelling?) who I met along the run and we ran the last 3.5 or so miles together and had a great time visiting.  She really helped the time pass fast.

Before I knew it we were at the exchange and I was done! 

Overall impressions of Ragnar Napa.. it was beautiful.. all the vineyards along the way, but it also felt like we were running with busier traffic and through more towns than past relays I have done.  The humidity in San Francisco was out of this world.  I loved meeting all the runners from all over. 

the girls of Van 1 doing a little celebrating after the relay

I even convinced my husband to fly down and meet me after the relay for a couple fun filled days in the big city after the relay :)