Ragnar Relay Race, 203 miles: We did it!

My friend talked me into running in a relay race across the state of Florida. Running is really the only sport I play on a regular basis b/c for 1, it's free, and 2, I can take both kids with me. The relay race gave me good motivation to really do it b/c I have a lot of excuses not to run. This way, I have 11 other faster people counting on me. I need my health to be a priority.

Our results:
We took 37th out of 105 teams overall finishing in 31:06:47.
We took 16th out of 60 teams in the open-mixed division. Yay!!!!

So we had team meetings, team 10K runs, and I even ran that half marathon as preparation. Then dumb daylight savings time came and made it too dark to run in the evenings. I didn't let that excuse keep me from running, I went to my friend's apartment's gym's treadmill at 10pm some nights. I didn't run nearly as much as I should have, but enough to be able to hold my own in our big race.

So, last weekend, I got up when it was still dark, and met up with half of our team. Our team's start time was at 9am. The slow teams started at 7am, then every half hour, teams started until as late as about 3pm on that Friday. (Each team submitted their estimated time using a pace calculator.)

We decorated our car. Our team name was "We're Probably Cheating . . ." The reason for that name is that our team captain and her husband were going to get us their dad's company's energy drinks and energy goo stuff. (Mona Vie). The ironic thing, is that we didn't get any. I've had the energy drink before, and it's pretty good. Lots of fruits! My friend Sarah, is a real triathlete. I'm so glad she joined our team last minute as a stand in for Lindsey (who is the one who talked me into this, but had a good excuse). Here she is with her friend, an ultra runner. Their team only had 6 people! So they each ran 3 half marathons, basically!
Alisa's husband and 2 of her kids came to see her off b/c she was our first runner. She nursed her little tiny baby one last time.
We saw her off with the rest of the 9am start group then got in our car to go ahead of her about a mile so we could get out to cheer her on as she ran by.
There were exchanges set up along the side of the road where one runner would pass the slap bracelet (baton) to the next runner.
At one exchange, Fox news 13 interviewed some of us! Did anybody see us?

I was the 6th runner, so the last one for our van. Here I am with my little pace calculator watch thingy. I ran much faster than normal b/c I could check my pace and could push it! (Much easier w/o pushing a stroller too.)

I handed off the baton to the first runner in the 2nd van, then we went to eat Publix subs. I had stopped to pick a flower for my hair. It was a real quick reach down. I really wanted to pick up all of the litter along side of the road. Then we drove ahead to the next big exchange where we freshened up a little - camping style. We weren't tired yet, but the freshly cut fluffy long grass was tempting so we stretched our legs. And we roasted marsh mallows and made 'smores they had for us.

Then it was time to wait for our 2nd turns of running!Then the 12th runner relayed back to our first runner. We wore mandatory head lamps, reflective vests, and red flashy lights on our backs. We ran right next to oncoming semi trucks! We would drive up a mile, then wait for the runner to pass, then we would go up another mile to pull over again and again. When it was my turn, I only had a 3+ mile run, so the van just drove ahead to the exchange point. I started out with a huge smile on my face and I was loving the coolness of the evening. But then, I almost got lost, and although I was sprinting down hills initially, I got slower b/c I lost some of that confidence when a sign had an arrow that said to turn left when the map of my leg I had studied didn't have any turns. I didn't see any cars at that point, and I had passed some runners (that's called road kill) and didn't see any more red flashy back lights ahead of me. I'm so glad I had looked at the map. I later realized the arrow must have motioned me to go over to the side walk instead of on the narrow shoulder of the road. I still managed to be faster than expected b/c our next runner wasn't waiting at the transition for me. I finally saw him running over there. Everybody in our van had run twice, so it was time to try to sleep. I took a cold shower (A sprinkler head on a hose draped a changing room type curtain thingy) then we drove to the next main transition so we could try to sleep.

That was by far the worst part for me. I couldn't lay down, and some body part kept falling asleep while leaving the rest of me awake. We had the windows cracked and had a good breeze, but then the church lot's sprinklers came on! It got so stuffy in that car that I couldn't even try to sleep at that point. We hadn't had dinner, and had only had snacks, so by the time the next van caught up with us I felt nautious. I ate some food and felt better. I was fine by my last 6+ mile run, but I took it easy. It was so beautiful, running along the side of a lake and through a cute clean town. I passed 2 people, but then like 3 passed me. I didn't have any motivation to run fast, I was enjoying the run. I just wasn't in a hurry. The other team has mentioned how tired they were and told us to run slowly, so that didn't help.

Here's a photo of giving one of our runners some water as she ran by. Here's our last transition. (I was going to run behind the truck, but they signaled for me to run ahead instead.) We really did it, we ended up all the way across the state at Daytona Beach! We drove there after I ran, so we had lots of time to kill.

First, we got our free pizza. Then we waited in line for massages. Maybe that's why I wasn't that sore after (or b/c my fast run turned into just a jog that last stretch.) I got to know our runners in our "Van 1" and they even put up with me and my picture ideas:) I'd consider doing it again, but I'd rather do the one from Miami to Key West so we could make a vacation out of it. We all ran through the finish line together to get our medals. Our team shirts were Clearwater Beach shirts. That's where the race was scheduled to start initially. I'm proud of us!!! Nate, Lindsay, Brandon, Katie, Sarah, Tiffany, Jaynee, Jason, Christina, Alisa, Katie, and Lori.

Isaac videos

Isaac was loving the merry go round at Busch Gardens. He was saying "UP . . . down . . . UP . . . down ..." then he started making the noise that horses make (you know, blowing through your pressed lips) and pointing where they were.

He is so cute when he sings the ABC song. For a long time, he has known the tempo and the melody, but only annunciated the "eeeee" sound at the end of each phrase. I figured out that there really is an "E" sound at the end of each phrase. He would really be on key too! So instead of

ABCDEFG, he would sing

"Ay uh, uh uh, uh uh Eeeeeeeeee (A B C D E F Geeeee)

uh uh, uh uh, u,u,u,u, Eeeeeee (H I J K LMNO Peeeee)

uh uh uh, uh uh Eeeeeee (Q R S T U Veeeee)

uh uh, uh uh Eeee" (W X Y and Zeeeeeee),

and now he adds "No-why no-why, A Ee Eeee, uh uh meeeee" (something like now I know my ABCs, next time won't you sing with meeeeee).

He was tired and was watching a movie here, but I finally got some of it on video. Just enough so you get the jist of it. He was so sleepy though.

I'm off!

I and some of my soon-to-be-closest-friends are running accross the state. Then we'll drive back from Daytona Beach. Our team name is "We're probably cheating . . ." We have 6 people to two vans and we're taking turns running from 3-8 miles at a time, even over night. Should be fun, except it's supposed to rain today . . .

Van 1
1- Alisa: 15.3 total
2- Christina C 14.3 total
3- Sarah 13.1 total
4- Katie T: 13.6 total
5- Lori: 17.5 total
6- Tiffany: 14 total

Van 2
7- Brandon: 22.3 total
8- Nate: 21.4 total
9- Katie C: 16.9 total
10- Lindsey G: 14.7 total
11- Jason: 18.4 total
12- Jaynee: 20 total

Dylan learned how to pump his legs!

He's the one who requested that I go get my camera to take a picture of him.

The next day, they were on the swings again. By on, I mean Dylan and Malia. Isaac fell off just as I was taking a picture of him! Good thing his swing is so low, poor baby.

Saturday Morning Stroll

I can't think of the name of this park, but it's really close, and I've never been there before. That's dumb. Steven has taken Dylan before. There are gators there! See this baby aligator? I made it color around it b/c it's hard to spot.
We saw two turtles below us when we looked down from a tower.



Awesome wooded walkways.
A perfect place for a little boy who just needs to RUN!
And for looking at nature and picking up leaves.
Isaac doesn't suck his thumb. He must have touched something sweet. Odd, but I liked trying to get it on film (card.)
Isaac liked clearing the walkways of leaves. One. By. One. He picked them up and threw them through the slats. Then he discovered that he could put them in his pockets. That took some quality time. I love when kids discover new things they can do.
That was taking a while, so Steven scooped him up. He got Dylan too and they had fun walking back.
Maybe they liked hitting Steven's hat b/c it was so funny the first time.

Trick-or-Treating

We went to my mom's neighborhood to go trick-or-treating so the kids could knock on her familiar door first. My mom was in the back yard doing yard work though, so they didn't open the door for the kids. They still gave the little superheros candy. We didn't go to many houses, just a quick trip down the street and back.
They were so good, saying "trick-or-treat" then "thank you, Happy Halloween!" We didn't have to Carry them either.
Then my little sweaty heads went back to show off their goods to Grandma.
My favorite thing the kids got were ACT II popcorn balls! I loved having one when I was a kid, that my mom made. There's also a Primary song about a popcorn ball smelling so sweet.

By now, the kids have eaten or shared their candy. I, sadly, have no self control, and ate a lot too. Since we weren't home to pass out candy until the last hour, I had a lot of good leftover yummy candy (which is now hidden).

SO, on Monday, I decided to go on the NC diet. My brother Matt is its founder. Basically, the rules are, No Crap. I wrote "NC" on my hand as a reminder; (smaller than Matt did.) From what I've learned about food to this point, I am not eating any crap. (I'm still eating a lot though.) But then today Steven made some delicious cookies and put a perfect one right in my hand assuring me it's ok to eat. Well, the cookie must have been poison, b/c I later ate a bite of the cookie dough, destroying my NC diet. I'm back on it though. I'm eating a lot of fruits, veggies, nuts, and juices. I'm only eating natural, organic, or 100% stuff. Everything else really is crap, you know. I'm telling you this so I will keep up with the will power and I'll pack my carrot slices and apple slices instead of my purse full of candy. Oh, and I'm running a RagnarRelay.com race accross the state of Florida in about a week. I'm only running 14 of the miles, broken up into 3 legs. I'm pretty sure I'm the slowest runner, but I didn't want to be the unhealthiest, hence the NC diet.