If you didn’t know already, Adam and I are running the Ragnar Relay in the Adirondacks this weekend. If you’re not familiar with the race, check out last night’s post or the above hyperlink. 🙂
—————————————————-
2:45pm Saratoga – The starting line was fun, but it was raining and rather wet. We walked in circles for a while, and then Hayley conveniently found a sign that said “Register-Start Here.” Amazing what following the signs does! lol
From there, we got our bibs and shirts, our “baton”, which is actually a slap bracelet (flashback to the 90s, anyone?), and our safety briefing. Because of the decrease visibility because of the rain, we’re all required to wear our reflective vests whenever we’re running and from 5:30pm until 7:30am, we have to wear our head lamps and tail lights. The vest wasn’t a big bother, although it rides weirdly because it’s just too big, but the head lamps will be annoying this evening.
Adam ran his first leg with an awesome pace, finishing his 5.3-mile run at 34:29. While 
he was running, we drove a few miles down the course and waited for Adam to run up to us so we could offer him a drink along the way. Ray got lost. Yep, we took a few wrong turns, and we laughed that Adam would beat us to the exchange point. However, we got straightened around, and before long, Ray took over and ran his 6.2-mile leg in 52:06, at which time I took over and ran my 5.4 miles in 45:56.
It was a wet run and cold too! My hands lost circulation some time in the first few miles, and my whole body was tighter than it should have been. Thankfully, my impatience in training runs didn’t always allow me to stretch and warm up the way I should have, so I’m fairly accustomed to running cold as well as running in all sorts of inclement weather.
I handed off the baton to Hayley, who ran her 4 miles in 39:23. She handed off to Anna who had an “easy” 3.1 miles (and ran it easily in 26:20). Unfortunately, she added a block and a half (maybe a quarter mile) to her leg because of poor road marking on the part of Ragnar. So, she ran in amazing time.
Adam took over from there, running his first “official” leg (his first was the wildcard leg that was up for grabs by any of us because we’re only a team of 10, so each van has 3 wildcard legs that are up for grabs for any of the runners). He got to run through downtown Saratoga, through the residential areas near some gorgeous houses mansions and next to coffee shops, restaurants, and some eccentric little shops like the Saratoga Olive Oil Co. and a Turkish Bazaar. Adam finished up his 5.1 mile run at a time of 34:07.
Thankfully, Van 2 was right at the exchange marker 6 and after some crazy cheering, we said goodbye to Brian, who was off to run his 9.3 mile “Very Hard” leg to start off Van 2’s 6 legs.
We climbed into our van….
Oh, our van. I should let you know about that. We thought that we were getting 2 12-passenger vans from Word of Life. Somehow, we only ended up with 1 12-passenger van and 1 mini-van with hardly any leg room, roll-up windows, manual locks, a rear windshield wiper that does not work, and a few other not-so-great “perks” that we are enjoying laughing about along the way.
3:00 – So, we’re chilling right now in this nasty old laundromat that smells like pee. 
There’s a creepy dude to my left that’s not ceased to stare at us since he came in, and the place is run by an older woman named Sally who has the “magic touch” with dryer 10 and its sensor that says the door is open. It feels like another country.
Ok, we’re off. More to come!
Adam’s Run Times: 23.4 miles
10:00am – 5.3 miles -COMPLETED
2:00pm – 5.1 miles – COMPLETED
12:00am – 8.7 miles
8:50am – 4.3 miles
Ashley’s Run Times: 20.8 miles
12:00pm – 5.1 miles – COMPLETED
9:00pm – 5.9 miles
6:15am – 5.7 miles
I’ll keep you all as updated with news and pictures as I can! Ask any questions you’d like, and I’ll answer as swiftly as possible!
(This post is getting published late ’cause we just got internet.)
For more information on Ragnar, visit: http://www.ragnarrelay.com/about
Making My Boast 