Ragnar Northwest Passage Relay Recap - Part II

Where we last left off (in Part I), we had just finished our 1st set of legs, driven to Burlington, and eaten some delicious hamburgers.  And then before we knew it, Van #2 was texting us saying runner #12 was off and on his way to us! 

But before that, I FINALLY got to meet up at the big exchange with Laura.  We've tried to meet up at both Portland Rock n Roll AND Seattle Rock Roll and both times it just wasn't met to be, but we were finally united (at the port-a-potties of course) and it felt so good:

But then we were off!  Kevin and JMan started us off again:

We saw even MORE beautiful views, though the sun was just not cooperating with us today:

And then it was Jordanne, Andrew, & Kasi's turn:

Then things REALLY started getting crazy, with glow in the dark axes, glow bracelets, glow necklaces, and all that jazz.  I tried putting on chapstick with the lid on and other ridiculously funny (at the time, clearly, not in recapping!) things happened.  During relays - everything becomes hilarious.  When you recap it though - it just sounds dumb. 

It got a little scary there for a bit after I accidentally threw away our LED taillight and our head lamp, and had to go digging through the trash not once, not twice, but THREE times to find it (and the glow axe I accidentally threw away while I was LOOKING for the other lost items!).

But then it was time to go again on leg #2!  I was none too pleased that my van-mates got away without running in the dark for the most part, except for me.  I was also quite cold by this time. 

That headlamp bothered me every step of this leg.  It would NOT stay in place.

And then they were calling our number!  Kasi came in and told us she'd lost our very important official Ragnar snap bracelet baton - oh no!

This is high quality photography.

And then I was off again on a 5.6 mile jaunt through La Conner.

Friday at 10:56 pm
Total Distance: 5.58 miles     Total Time: 55:56      Average Pace: 8:08
Splits:  8:23, 8:20, 8:27, 7:58, 7:54, 7:27 (.58)

Another quality photo

The first 3 miles of this leg were SO boring.  It was so freaking dark, so freaking flat (see elevation map below!), and so dead straight on the straightest, flattest road in all of Washington.  It was along farmland, there weren't many people out there, so there was not much to look at or think about.  It felt like I was NEVER going to be done.

Total elevation gain was LITERALLY 0 feet.  How is that even possible? 

After those 3 miles I decided that with 2.5 miles to go it might be more entertaining to walk the fine line of "can I keep this pace up for the rest of the time?"  It's a risky little game.  So I picked it up a bit and suffered through to the end.  And success - a few more miles in the 7's!

 

And I was all done!  Check out my sweet "animal print pants out of control". 

And it was finally time to sleep.  But first we had to get lost a few times on our way to Oak Harbor High School at the next big exchange, getting there around 1:00am.  It was so lovely that Ragnar has indoor sleeping arrangements at many high schools in the area.  It would have been lovelier if there had been mats.  But beggars can't be choosers, can they?

It doesn't sound that interesting when I write it, but it was actually VERY shocking how when I went to sleep the gym was empty and looked like this:

And when I woke up a short 2.5 hours later the gym looked like this:

Jordanne, Kevin, JMan, and I were sleeping in a row, and it was so packed that there was actually a new person now in between JMan and Kevin and another new person in between Jordanne and Kevin!  I tried to go back to sleep until 4:00am (our scheduled wake-up time) and couldn't, so I just packed up, then woke up the others, and we were off to meet our runners and start leg #3!

Ear plugs and eye masks: I cannot say enough good things.  Those are freaking necessities.

Come back tomorrow for the final conclusion in this epic trilogy!