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:

 

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:

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:

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

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

 

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!