Oh God, you're kidding me. That's exactly what I thought when I came upon the obstacle.
A large tree had fallen from the right side of the trail and had covered the course completely. It was huge. This wasn't a tree you could crawl under or jump over. There was only one way to get by. I had to run through the tree. I channeled my inner Bear Grylls and threw myself into the foliage. I stepped over branches, ducked under limbs. I snapped a few twigs and came out on the other side with a few leaves on my shirt. The runners before me had beaten a little bit of a path through it. When I emerged on the other side, legs tired and feet pounding, I walked for a few steps to get my rhythm back. Finding your rhythm after bushwacking through a downed tree six miles into a race takes a second. After I locked it in, I ran on. Two miles later I emerged from the woods to a small parking lot for a local park. I spotted Leah in the exchange, handed her the bracelet, and jumped off of the trail. 66 minutes after I started.
Endorphins started flowing instantly. "That was so awesome," I proclaimed to my teammates at the exchange. "Now, I need water, sugar, and I want to sit in the Pain Cave." The Pain Cave is what we called the back seat of the van. Whoever had just finished running had the entire back seat to themselves to recover. We walked back to the van, and I took my rightful spot. I ate several cookies and drank a bottle of water. Leah was in the middle of her run, so we drove to exchange eleven. At this point, my teammates inform me that a tick is loose in the van. To put it lightly, I'm absolutely terrified of ticks. I always have been, those blood-sucking-unsquishable bastards have scared me my whole life. I never knew, however, that my brother was scared of them as well. After they told me a tick was loose, they proceeded to show me a video of my brother.
He's in the middle of changing socks and he looks straight at the camera.
"You saw a what?"
"A tick."
"A tick? Where?"
"I dunno. I lost it."
"You lost it?!" At this point he picks his feet off the floor and proceeds to stand on the seat in the pain cave.
"Find the tick."
They never found it. It's running loose in our van. With me. I'm too tired to really worry, though.
We continued driving. My brother navigated to the next exchange while Matt drove. When we arrived at the exchange, to our surprise, the other half of our team was there. They took some time during their inactivity to come hang out. I was still on an endorphin high, which is like being drunk, but better. So, I proceeded to make several phone calls. Endorphin dials. I called my parents and told them Jon and I are great, we just got done running, and we're having a blast. I called a few friends from home. I fired off a few texts and, of course, some tweets, too. Leah came in to cheers and handed off the bracelet to Dani, she started her run. We said our good byes to van 1. They headed to the next major exchange and we drove to meet Dani at exchange eleven.
Jon navigated and Matt drove again. As a general rule, we did not let the "on deck" runner or the "just done" runner drive or navigate the van. This rule completely went to hell as we got farther into the race. While Jon and Matt drove us, I tried to make room for myself in the backseat among the slowly growing piles of trash.
The van is a haven in Ragnar. It's the only consistent shelter we had. There were rumors of hot showers at certain exchanges, but we never found one. To clean up, we used a bathroom at a major exchange and the toiletries we traveled to Madison with - that we kept in the van. There are PBJ stations at certain exchanges, but I never ate one - we had coolers in our van, full of food and water. Each runner is on the course, depending on the distance, for about three hours. For the rest of the 28 hours, you're in the van or near the van. So, you see, the van is just as much a character in this story as the runners are.
The van got us to the next exchange, Dani got in and our anchor, Seth, got out and ran his first leg. This is the exchange where our battle call was born. My brother, out of no where, screamed "RAAAAAAAGE!" as Seth ran by. It caught me completely off guard. Then a runner from another team ran by, "You can rage, too!" I completely lost it.
At this point in the race, it is starting to get dark. So, Seth was the first runner on our team that was required to wear night gear. For safety reasons, while running between 6:00 PM and 6:00 AM, you are required to wear a reflective vest, a headlamp, and a red blinking light on your back - which we dubbed the "butt light". It makes you look like a runner that's running in a mine, but without a hardhat - and with a blinking light on your lower back.
 |
| Ragnar fashion. A reflective vest. |
We've been on the road and running for a little over eight hours at this point. We felt pretty dirty. My vanmates, which is like your own family at Ragnar, said I smelled the worst. My own vanmates! I will admit, I was quite foul, but I do believe the odor was an amalgamation of everyone's funk and not just me. We were excited for Seth's run for a number of reasons. After he finished we would be inactive while van 1 completed their second leg. There was a rumor on Twitter that there were hot showers at the next exchange, which was a major exchange. We could stop and eat something substantial instead of the food we had in our van. All luxury's you give up while being the active van.
When we arrived at the exchange, it was chaos. We scrambled to find a parking spot among the hundreds of vans that were there. Inactive runners were wandering all over the exchange, people had set up mini camp sites to sleep, not to mention the general excitement of a major exchange. We unloaded and walked toward the exchange to find van 1. We shared stories of life on the road and life on the trail. Both vans have had some pretty good stories up to this point. They would get better.
Seth was fast, so when they called our team number, Jess, the first runner of van 1, moved to the exchange quickly. It was now dark. Seth started as a bobbing light in the distance of a vast field, then gained a form. As he got closer, you could see the reflective vest, you could see him take off his bracelet to hand it to Jess. He's getting closer, he's moving fast, he reaches to Jess, she grabs it and, "RAAAAAAGE!!!"
I completely lost it. I wasn't expecting Jon to do it again, but he did. It actually made Jess jump while she ran out of the exchange. Once we congratulated Seth for a good, strong run, we set off to find these showers. We grabbed our toiletries and a change of clothes from the van and asked around for the location of the showers. People had vague ideas or hadn't heard. So, we started marching to two buildings off in the distance placed between three baseball diamonds. It was a haul. It was dark, we were getting tired, and it was starting to rain. We trudged and trudged and finally made it to the first building. There was a line for the restrooms, but no showers. So, we started off to the second building. Same story. The rumors of hot showers were just that, rumors. We rinsed off int he bathrooms and we all changed clothes. When we all got back to the van, Leah had an announcement.
"Jon."
"Leah."
"I found the tick!"
"You found the tick? Where was it?"
"It was on my knee."
"Oh man. Was it in you?"
The immature ones laughed (read: me and Matt). With the tick saga behind us, we could focus on getting warm food. We hopped in the van and headed toward a restaurant we could all agree on. Applebee's. We had already wasted a lot of time looking for the showers, so we were a little rushed to get to Applebee's so we could sit for two or three hours. Exhaustion was setting in on everoyne by now. It was a combination of being up since 5:00 AM, running several miles, and navigating. Since Seth had just finished running at the last exchange, he opted to sit in the Pain Cave instead of look for the showers. He went to the restroom in Applebee's and washed up. We all sat down and met what had to be the coolest waitress of all time. When she approached the table, we made it clear what our mission was.
"We're in the middle of a race. We need a lot of water and we need the food to be fast."
"You got it!"
She came back with a pitcher of water and gave us a little more time to review the menus. I was so tired, I just picked the first pasta I saw. Chicken Parmesan. We looked like a ragged bunch. Rinsed, but not clean. Covered in dry sweat. Worn out. About this time, Seth comes out of the bathroom.
"When was the last time you were naked in an Applebee's?"
Classic. That would become the quote of the trip. Our food was ordered and came. We ate and talked about the race. Although we were tired, we were all having the time of our lives. We had plenty of time to relax before our next leg. We would regroup and take the time to clear our minds to mentally prepare for the next two legs. We wrapped up eating and continued talking. We had gone through three pitchers by now. We still had plenty of time. Then Leah's phone rang.
"You guys are where? Glenn is next? Okay, bye!"
She hung up the phone.
"Guys, we have to go. Apparently Van 1 is killing it. Glenn is next, then it's us."
We had no clue where we were or how to get to the next exchange. We paid for our food and ran out of the building to the van.
0 comments:
Post a Comment