Sunday, April 25, 2010

More Miles More Smiles

The streak is now five days. The good news is I didn’t have to fight with myself to get out the door. The bad news is that the actual act of running still wasn’t “fun”. I put in six miles on the Lower Back Bay with my running club. I had nine miles on my schedule, but as I said – the actual act itself wasn’t fun. I was overdressed, overheated, and oversore. I went with the flow and made the turnaround with the rest of the Cal Coast runners (most who are tapering for next weekend’s Orange County Marathon). Six miles at an average pace of 10:06 and an average heart rate of 78% of max.

Smiles? Oh. That was later in the afternoon. This weekend the Ragnar Relay made it’s way through Southern  California. For those of you who may not be familiar (I certainly wasn’t), the Ragnar pits teams of runners over multiple days over some pretty incredible distances. It’s not only a test of running ability, but endurance (as in lack of sleep) and teamwork. This weekend, the Los Angeles/Southern California version made it’s appearance with just a tad over 200 miles run in 36 legs over Friday and Saturday.I knew a couple runners doing it, and since the last exchange was happening just a few miles from my house, I headed over to lend some moral support and snap a few photos.

Folks – this looked like a ton of fun! Party atmosphere abounded. It was pretty obvious that these people were having a great time:

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These are people who had slept maybe 4 or 5 hours over the last two days. People who had put up with eating on the run and no comforts of home to speak of (can you imagine being stuck in a van with 6 other stinky runners?). Of course, our wonderfully bright and sunny day didn’t hurt the atmosphere:

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But, the real reason I was there was to meet one of my fav bloggers/tweeps who had come out from Colorado to enjoy our Southern California weather run with Team Sugatorias – Alicia (Confessions of a (Not so) Fat Runner/alitherunner). It’s always nice to talk to an actual person! I met her at the exchange point. She was full of positive energy as she got ready to accept the challenge as the last runner for her team:

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I also got to talk to one of my other fav bloggers/tweeps, JT (notorias.com/notorias), also part of Team Sugatorias:

DSC_0073Then, a few minutes later, the exchange of wristband happened and Ali was off up the hill for the final five miles of her journey:

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And with that, the half of Team Sugatorias that wasn’t at the finish line readied themselves for some well deserved P&P (pizza and partying)! Well done!

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12 comments:

  1. Congratulations on your 5 day streak, Glenn. I am hopeful the fun will find its way back to you very soon. ::hugs::

    I'm so glad you snapped some shots of the Ragnar Relay. I left my camera in my car when we went to breakfast and missed out on some great photo ops.

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  2. Glenn - sounds like you will be doing Rangar next year! :)

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  3. Hi Glenn,
    So glad to hear that the mojo is back!! I got a postcard in the mail about that relay. In the advertisment it talked about stinky vans...LOL:) I think it would be a blast to run in one of those relays:) Great pictures! Also, how fun to meet other blogger friends!

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  4. Ah, can't believe you were at that exchange point. Not sure when you were there but so was I at some point waiting for our last runner to start as well. Oh, what an amazing experience. I can't wait to recap. It's funny how you wrote that people probably sleep 4-5 hours. I only spent about 2 hours and they were not continuous! It was dirty fun...hahaha. So sweet that you went out there to show support.

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  5. How fun to meet up with other bloggers! The Ragnar Relay looks fun (a friend of mine was putting a team togethere recently up here). The only thing is I don't know if I could go on that little sleep and bathing.

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  6. Nice you were close to a Ragnar vista point to watch, support, meet and greet!

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  7. Nice job on the running streak! The relay does sound like a lot of fun.

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  8. nice going on the streak! it may not be fun and it may hurt a little, but stringing a few days together certainly feels like a victory (and hopefully will get you back in a groove).

    i've almost-done two relays, but yet to actually get into one. i definitely want to!

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  9. I saw these maniacs and was like oH! what is this? I want to be apart of it! Thanks for telling me all about it! :) Maybe next year?

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  10. I'm still laughing over the van that says "My drinking team has a running problem." LOL

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  11. I saw a lot of ali's pics on twitter, they looked awesome! so beautiful, that pacific of yours.

    So glad you got to meet some of them in person. Isn't it cool? I had such a great time with Lindsay a few weeks ago. Can't wait to have the opportunity to see her again and maybe even take a run with her then! :-)

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  12. Great pics! (I think I saw them on FB or something)

    Ragnar would be a riot to do...although there was an 18 year old kid who got hit by a car during AZ's this year. sad.

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