The Ragnar Relay SoCal seriously crept up on me. I have no idea where time went or why I didn’t bother looking at training schedules, but before I knew it race weekend had arrived. Even now I can’t believe it happened 10 days ago. But on that Friday afternoon, me and 11 others started a 200 mile (ish) journey From Huntington Beach to San Diego.

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In case you aren’t familiar, this is how Ragnar Relay works. You create a team of 12 (awesome) people to run 200 miles from start to finish. Everyone has three different legs so each person’s total mileage ranges from 11 - 23 miles. The team is split into two separate vans for exchange purposes and comfort. (We rented a 14-person van so basically everyone had a row to his/her self.) Van 1 carries the first six runners and Van 2 carries runners 7 through 12. So once Van 1 has completed running their first leg they will tag Van 2 for the remaining runners to complete their first leg, and the process repeats until both vans have completed all three legs.

I have to say I don’t recommend not training for a Ragnar and that you should definitely try two-a-day runs for a slight idea of what to expect. As the third runner I had running times at 130pm, 12am and 8am. I’ve worked out twice in a day before but never at such odd times, and certainly not in the pitch dark where I needed to rely on a headlamp to see my feet.

Overall the race was an incredible experience. It’s crazy to see what you’re mentally and physically capable of when low on sleep, lacking hygiene and delirious from exhaustion. But it’s also a fun time to get to know people, grow closer and just have good fun. During and even after the race I really didn’t think I’d do another Ragnar, to be honest. But now that I’ve had some time to recover, I actually think I would do one again :)