the ragnar las vegas race report part 2.

ok im back! so we left off just after our 2nd leg and about 11p, it was time for food and sleep. we decided on buffalo wild wings because it was close and people could get whatever they wanted. we ordered in the bar and it seemed to take forver! we were out of there as fast as possible to scarf it all down at micheles. im pretty sure i was asleep on the floor as soon as my head hit the pillow at about 1a. i was so glad we werent sleeping outside or in the van!

do you think theyll kick me out for falling asleep at the bar??
no really, do you?

2 legs down, 1 to go!

wayyyy too soon at about 315a the alarm was going off again and we were up to head back to the exchange. thank goodness this was our last round cause man was i ready to be done! we were at the exchange by 415a to pick back up. i ran into my friend derrick at the exchange while we were waiting! he used to run with us on monday nights but moved to iowa over the summer. i knew he was coming back to run but i wasnt sure i was actually going to see him.

this last round was my shortest at 5.6 miles and right on time layna came through sending me off down st rose parkway at 430a. the wind had finally subsided and it was actually pretty nice outside. st rose was super flat and i was diggin it until i had to turn up the street into anthem, then we were back to straight uphill, really! the sun started to rise and i was actually feelin good. there were quite a few people walking this leg, you could tell the whole thing was starting to take a toll on everyone.

finally i passed the 1 more mile to go sign and was ready to officially cross of my 3rd leg. the girls were right there ready and i gladly gave fanny the bracelet wishing her off! afterward i felt like a rockstar to be honest! i never thought i would be able to do something like that. in just under 24 hours i ran 19 miles. wow! i finished the 3rd leg in 54:02. we stopped off at a starbucks to get everyone some much needed coffee and i was super excited to have my 1st peppermint mocha of the season:)

the conveted ragnar tattoo.
ended up lasting almost a week and started a few very
good conversations after the race was over...

our van continued on dropping off and picking up for the next few hours. we all had that same super satisfied, exhausted, rockstar look on our faces as we crossed off our final legs. the weather was becoming nicer as we got later in the morning and soon it was time to send michele off on her last leg! we headed out to meet van 2 and gladly let them take over and agreed to meet them at the finish line so we could all cross together. they looked rested and ready to go, more power to you haha.

hey van 2 teammates:)

afterward we headed to the clear other side of town to drop off 1 of our girls then decided we needed to eat stat. again, that being the 1st runner sucks for the food end of things haha. we headed to ihop still all a little in disbelief we were done and STARVING. i think about 4 or 5 bites of food literally fell on the floor while i was eating because i couldnt get them into my mouth fast enough haha. since we were on that side of town we decided to get mine and sandys car then meet everyone at the finish line together. i was going to head home to shower but then made a detour to sandys so we could carpool out to lake las vegas since we heard traffic was going to be terrible.

VAN #1 OFFICIALLY DONE!

when i was sitting on her couch the exhaustion really started to set in. after some confusion about finish time we headed out to the finish line a little early and wandered around only to find them sold out of my sweatshirt. see, i knew i should have bought it earlier friday morning! we found the rest of our van soon and before we knew it layna was running toward us and the finish line. she was like 15 minutes early and the rest of her van hadnt even made it yet. we wanted to wait for everyone so we could cross together! van 2 wasnt far behind and we all hobbled across the line just over 30 hours after crossing the start line the day before.

we grabbed our bling and took lots of team pictures before grabbing some of our free pizza. the original plan was to hang out for awhile in the beer garden really getting to talk. but once we were actually there we were just about all ready to go home. sandy and i hung out for a little bit but headed out soon after. walking back across the bridge to our car i ran into all my runner group friends!! and derrick was right behind us too. it was like a reuninon!!

that night i went to dinner with my parents at bjs and stuffed my belly happy full:) i went home to take a bath in epsom salt and a proceeded to take a shower after before falling into bed at 930p on a saturday night. i slept a total of 14 hours that night and probably could have slept more if i hadnt woken up hungry the next day haha. man i dont know how people do this race all the time! im already signed up for another one next year with friends in cape cod. i think i could do about 1 or 2 of these a year, but thats it haha. i also totally understand now what people mean when they talk about ragnar withdrawl! we were still all talking for the next couple days and it was weird to not all be together. i do have to say that i had an unintentional unplug from just about the world that weekend and it was quite nice. ragnar for sure came at the perfect time:)

team t&a completes in 30:30:54!!

the ragnar las vegas race report part 1.

man oh man am i behind! its been a crazy few weeks with no sign of slowing down anytime soon, but its kind of fun to be so busy:) so lets back up so i can finally tell you all about ragnar! in case you forgot heres the deal: you and 11 friends split up into 2 vans of 6 runners each to cover a distance of 200 miles in a relay sense starting in mt charleston and ending in lake las vegas! each person runs 3 legs and as soon as your leg is finished you hop back in the van while the next runner takes off, almost like a leap frog thing. theres not much sleep (we'll get to that), a constant funky smell, and you are closer to your vanmates in 30 hours than you are with most friends in months!

source

i have been wanting to do one for a few years but was a little chicken to sign up. when this year rolled around i was determined to find a team, luckily my friend sandy had an extra spot on her team which i quickly took. we met a few times as a team to determine a name and coordinate vans, etc. they seemed like a great group of girls and we were all in it for the fun, thank goodness!

november rolled around quickly and it was thursday night before fast. somehow i have had quite a few friends run one of these lately so i had lots of tips and tricks to keep in mind. (take a look at megans awesome list if you need!!) the best one out there for packing...put each outfit in an individual ziploc bag. #1 its easy to grab in a duffle bag. #2 it keeps from stinking up everything else in the bag and van. #3 things get hectic in the van and when your trying to sort out what belongs to who, baggies make iteasier. so i packed everything up and headed to bed way too late thursday night for an incredibly early alarm friday of 415a to get to the meeting spot.

i was in van 1 and runner #1 so we met at a major exchange in town so we could all carpool up the mountain to the start line. the weather had been absolutely beautiful all week until thrusday night when the wind started and the temperature dropped 20* overnight. this was going to be interesting. we quickly set to packing in food and decorating the suburban one of our girls had borrowed from a friend. it was already chilly and we knew the trek up the mountain would be interesting

the start line was at the las vegas ski and snowboard resort about an hour away. we left a little later then we probably should have which meant we got up there a little late. as we were climbing up the clouds seemed to get lower and lower and rain at the bottom. that meant at the top it was probably snowing, great. finally reaching the resort we checked in, got our safety brief, and made lots of new friends as we huddled together in the 27* weather, with 40 mph winds, snow, and a little bit of hail! finally it was time to start so we headed out to the start line after getting a little warm in the car.

the bananas! told you we made friends haha.

really?! 27*.

my 1st leg was just over 7 miles straight down the hill getting down about 2000 feet total before passing off to fanny. it was friggin cold, i was literally wearing 4 shirts, a scarf, a wrap around my ears, and gloves before finally getting warm. the downhill was great for time and i seemed to get out of the snow pretty quickly but that wind, dang. it was gusting so hard you had to really be paying attention or it would literally blow you over.

the 7 miles went really quickly, i think most of it was because i was so excited about finally participating. i found my team a few times and they cheered like crazy every time i ran by. soon i passed by the 1 mile to go sign and was ready to pass off to the next person. i saw fanny just up ahead jumping around with michele and slapped the bracelet on to send her on her way! i was feeling really good and finished the 6.95 miles (apparently it was just short of the 7) in 56:49 making it an 8:10 pace! after passing on i wasnt exactly sure what to do. stretch? am i hungry? can i just hop back in the van? i decided on the last one and we were off to meet fanny a ways down. the hunger didnt come till later and man it came hard core!

yay, 1st one complete!

we continued on down the mountain. picking up fanny, dropping off yumi. picked up yumi, dropped off cindy. it was about this time the hunger hit! finally back to the valley we picked up cindy, dropped off sandy. soon enough it was time to drop off our last runner-michele and meet our teammates in van 2 at the major exchange. up to this point we were just meeting our runners on the side of the road with a few porta potties and people there. the major exchanges are the fun ones where all the teams meet and they have more things going on. i should have taken my money so i could buy my ragnar sweatshirt there but wasnt thinking that fast.

some people come up with the coolest names!

once we finally grabbed michele we were all starving and decided on a local pizza/pasta place to refuel. it was about 1230p/1p at this time. the sucky part about being runner 1 is that you have to wait a really long time to eat, like 4-5 hours. i snacked along the way on bananas, trail mix, etc but its different then waiting a little bit after a run and then eating soon. we stuffed our faces and were glad to be out of the van for a bit. everyone was getting along really well and i was so glad our team was so easy going.

we headed out to our next stop at the jw marriot where we would pick up for the next set of legs. this was also a major exchange and we thought there would be a place we could dip our feet in, but it was more of just hang out on the grass and wait for the runners instead. we spent sometime in the casino wandering around mostly because it was warm and we could use real bathrooms haha. i mean, im all about a porta potties in need but a real bathroom is a better idea to change in! outside i ran into a few girls from my runner group i hadnt seen in awhile and soon it was about time for us to keep a look out for layna. we had heard quite a bit from the other team, thank goodness for cell phones, that she should be there right about 530p. now with the night legs you had to wear a headlamp, vest, and some sort of light on the back to be safe. all runners also had to have on a vest anytime they were outside the vechicle whether running or not. nighttime hours for us were 345p-630a since it was dark so early in november.

the actually runner exchange was kinda a total mess. there were just too many teams in a very small area. right on time layna came in and i was off again. this leg was a little shorter at 6.18 miles but it was straight uphill snaking through summerlin into the 30mph wind. not. fun. this one was by far my least favorite leg. luckily when i was startin to lose it a little bit my teammates found me to cheer me on! im not sure how they did since it was so dark, but thank goodness. and as i got to the end (or what i thought was the end at least) a girl from another team came up behind me and told me i was keeping a great pace and was good to follow! i was so excited:)

wow its dark!

 i crossed the exchange and gladly passed off the bracelet to fanny! the girls had stopped at the dunkin donuts in the parking lot and i gladly accepted the munchkins they had. it was cold and i was super over the wind. the next parts took us up through red rock and it was getting darker and darker plus colder and colder the later it got. i was sooo super glad to be finished haha. my 2nd leg time equaled out to 1:01:39 with a 9:58 pace. not the greatest one, but i was so happy to be done. the hunger started up again and so did the tiredness. finally we dropped off michele to take care of the last leg and end at the m where the next van could pick up. they had an out and back for their overnight leg to jean and back. i was super relieved to not have that leg, its straight out in the desert, yikes.

my cute teammates with donuts!

gotta huddle to stay warm:)

michele came back in right on timeand we gladly peaced out to somewhere warm and hopefully to sleep soon! it was just about 11p and wished the other girls luck as they took off. we had already established that after handing off to the other van we could just grab food to go somewhere and then head to micheles house to sleep since it was so close to the exchange. all of us were wearing fast and starting to probably get a little cranky. plus not everyone was heading out of the van everytime to cheer each other on, it was definitely time for some sleep. check back for all about the final leg and the finish line stuff!!

good luck ladies!
its time for van 1 to sleep:)

the saints & sinners 1/2 marathon report.

so i got a little crazy a few months back and decided i wanted to see how far i could push myself as a runner. that got me thinking about something called the half fanatics, a group dedicated to crazy 1/2 marathoners. this is the one i pursued...

NEPTUNE

1. 2 Half Marathons within a 16 day time frame.

2. 3 Half Marathons within a 90 day time frame.

_______________________________________________________________

there are lots of other options that just get crazier and crazier as the levels go up, like doing 12-18 half marathons in 365 days. wow that makes my body cringe just thinking about it!

anyway. i hadnt really told very many people that i was going to do this in case it didnt really happen number 1. then i didnt want someone to try and talk me out of it so i kept it kind of quiet until friday night when i posted this pic on facebook and twitter...

right away most of my running friends liked it, thank goodness. so i headed off to bed for a very early wake up call at 430am! the race was out near the hoover dam so it would take about 45 minutes to get there plus i was budgetting for traffic just in case. it was set to be a small race, 1st year, small company, and not tons of press. after all the craziness at nike i was more than excited about a small race. it was also right before halloween so they were really encouraging people to dress up for the event. i had found a great set of ladybug wings awhile back at target and decided thats what i would dress up as. so i bought a red team sparkle skirt to complete the outfit. but by the time i went back to get the wings they were long gone and i didnt know what to be! luckily some twitter friends had great suggestions, superman, a red m&m, ladybug, superwoman, and mrs incredible:) i still really wanted to be a ladybug but would use superwoman as my back up just in case. somehow my mom and i found wings just in time in the baby section at a halloween store and antennas to match. phew!

back to the early wake up call, sorry, tangent. i was out of bed pretty quick knowing that i needed to start the fueling process and secure the wings of my costume since my tank top was finally clean. both went smoothly and we were out the door just about on time. the drive was easy even though the sign they kept talking about at packet pickup for the turn was barely visible. my mom came with me and we both huddled in the car as long as possible since the wind was blowing like crazy plus the sun wasnt up so i was freezing. finally deciding to get out and hit up the bathroom we went at the perfect time for just a little bit of a line, but a monster one when i was finished.

mission accomplished!

soon it was time to head to the start line and that meant taking off my jacket, yuck. the start line began at bootleg canyon then winded across to the 6 tunnels and back to the finish line at boulder beach (where i finished my triathlon!). i took my inhaler and lined up with the under 2 hour group. the course was supposed to be super flat and mostly downhill so i was going with my dream goal of breaking 2 hours, but lined up in the back of the group just in case. we sang the national anthem and were off! talk about a downhill mile, whoa. i actually hit a 7:45 minute mile for the 1st one! after seeing that i knew i needed to slow down otherwise i would never make it 12 more, but it was soo hard with all the downhills. there was a pretty good size uphill that slowed me down a little. after that it was pretty flat for awhile.

we weaved our way over on the mostly flat straightaway to the tunnels and passed the relay point which meant we were also halfway! i got to see sandy there since she was handing out glowsticks so people could see each other in the tunnels (ps we really did not need them at all). i kept checking my watch at this point as i had set a goal for my self that in order to hit the under 2 hour mark i needed to be at the 10 mile marker when my garmin said 1:30. this way if I totally bonked i only had 3 more miles and 30 minutes to do it in.

now to get to the tunnels you need to run up a slight gradual hill. its really not bad, gives you a great view, and we ran it last year at the turkey trot so i knew what to expect. the suckiest part is that this portion is all gravel. i mean loose gravel. i hate trails, im not any good at them and am clumsy enough on solid ground, i don't need big rocks to help me take a tumble. luckily we hit the 7 mile marker as we went in and i was still feeling really good. now once we got to the tunnels the terrrain is really packed in there and much finer dust so it's was easier to run on. before i knew it we were at the turnaround to go back through and down to the beach!

i grabbed a gu (that tasted awful) because i knew I couldn't finish 4.5 more miles without some kind of fuel. on facebook the race people kept posting they would do "saint" tables with water/fruit and "sinner" tables with gatordae/donuts. i kept waitin for those darn donuts and never saw 1! anyway when we came out of the tunnels my garmin kept disconnecting of course, so now my mileage was off a bit. but the stopwatch was right on target so i went with that instead. i hit the 10 mile marker at about 1:28 and knew i only had 3 more miles, i could break it.

the last 3 were all downhill and on pavement, thank god. it all looked familiar as it was the same path I ran in april. this time I knew what to look for and knew when I was getting closer and closer. finally I hit the 12 mile marker at 1:48 and could feel myself start smiling. I just had to keep it together for 1 more mile. in the past few miles I had started really feeling how hard I was running and it began catching up with me. but there was no way I was giving this up or letting it slip away in the last mile.

as i turned down the final path i saw my mom who jumped up and started cheering while rounded into the finishers chute. i was able to pick it up that last bit and saw a clock that blazed 1:57:xx and my name as i crossed that line!! i had really broken the elusive sub-2 hour. wow. i got my medal from a super cute girl and hobbled down a bit to find my mom. bonus of a small race she was right there and i was able to celebrate with her right away:) i found sandy close after and then ran into a few other runner friends where we all compared notes as usual lol.

1/2 marathon #10!
1:57:15.

finally ready to refuel i headed over to grab some water and chocolate milk everyone was drinking (yes!) to find it all in a bit of a different container. one of the big sponsors for the race was a mortuary in boulder city and so instead of the standard ice chests keeping things cold, everything was iced down in a coffin. weird. and very halloweeny haha.

my mama:)
such an awesome support team!

we stayed around for a few minutes and the beginning of the awards, just in case, ha! then the hunger hit. my mom and i headed back into town for breakfast at the cracked egg, one of our favorite places and were greeted with this...

pumpkin chocolate chip coffee cake.
YUM!

the next morning/afternoon i woke up super super sore. way more than i was after nike for sure, i think because i didnt walk around nearly as much as we did in san francisco. but i walked downstairs to find these waiting for me:)

soo sweet.

the photo shoot.

awhile back a friend of ours, jesi lee, asked if we would be models in helping to expand her portfolio.  i was instantly excited, i have always wanted to have professional photos outside of a studio.  but wasnt sure if richard would be equally excited.  so you can imagine my happy surprise when he instantly said yes!  we quickly worked out the details with jesi and reserved our date for 3 weeks out.  this of course meant that we got to go shopping:)  we had decided to go with black tees and jeans with pink as an accent color.  richard actually chose pink.

we had agreed on lake las vegas, one of my favorite places, on a sunny saturday afternoon.  the weather was fantastic with just the right amount of breeze.  we stopped by jesi's house to grab her on the way.  she dove into shooting as soon as we got there.  in the beginning it was a little awkward, i wont lie.  neither one of us had ever had a professional photo shoot and wasnt sure how to look like we were acting normally. 

all photos from:  jesi lee photography

after the first few shots and moving to a few different locations we both lightened up fairly easily.  it was a really fun day.  jesi laughed and joked with us the whole time, making it super easy to go with the flow.

 love, love.

 

the way she photoshopped these pics makes them even better!  i love the soft light she added and all the touch up she did.  and it was all so fast!  we had photos on facebook (of course) the next evening.  

richards favorite.

 one of my favorites!

 this was actually the place of our first "real" date.  also the night that richard asked me to be his girlfriend.

everyone that has seen these pictures has absolutely gushed!  they came out amazing.  anytime you need more models jesi, you just let us know!  thank you so much for the opportunity.  now we have perfect practice for the future:)


dont forget...jesi lee photography.  check out all her fantastic shoots!  or become a fan on facebook.