Ragnar Relay Complete!

Ragnar Relay Chattanooga TN to Nashville TN is over!  I have never been so tired or had so much fun in all my life (okay that might be debatable  however it is the funnest thing I can recall in the last year!) So here are some fun pics of our trip! We headed out from Mississippi Thursday night, with two vans, 12 girls, tons of food, and lots of fluids!  Here is van 1, this is where we ate, slept (tried), changed, cheered, laughed, and lived for over 30 hours! Stupid you say, absolutely! Fun? Hell yeah! (Make sure to read on, the good stuff is toward the bottom!)

Here we are are, still looking all perky and fresh!  Just before we head out from Starkville, Mississippi!

We decided to stop in Birmingham AL for dinner and ended up spending way to long (people couldn't make up their minds on where to eat!) in Birmingham! We finally decided to eat at P.F. Chang's, I swear we were there for half the night, okay maybe two or three hours... here we are waiting ............................................... ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

...the funniest part of the evening; when one of the girls at my table asked for her red velvet cake and got this instead! It's so big, it's invincible!

and after 30 seconds (because that was eating it slow) this is what was left!

I know your wondering what in the world.... that's what we thought too!  What she was expecting was one of those larger than you could possibly eat slices of heaven!  Instead, she got this, a shot glass of two minuscule layers of cake and whipped cream. I almost peed my pants when my friend looked at the waitress and said "Really? Really, this is it?"  We were all laughing so hard, apparently P.F. Chang's is not the place for Red Velvet Cake! Just FYI!   So much for sharing, Misty and her tiny spoon gobbled it all up, in one bite I might add! And then she asked the waitress for the glass, figured that would at least cover the rest of the cost! Again, I'm amazed I didn't soak myself! (Misty, bottom picture, middle row on the right!)

Once again we hit the road, arriving in Chattanooga TN around midnight (I can't remember if that was MS time or TN time?) it's all a little fuzzy now.  That's what three hours of sleep and 26 hours of wake time mixed with running at all hours of the day & night will do to you (not recommended)

So we arrive at the hotel, and of course the anxiety of it all hits.  It is nearly impossible for me to sleep the night before a race.  Why I can't just sleep is beyond me! I mean, I NEED MY BEAUTY SLEEP PEOPLE! I think I may have gotten 3 hours, but really, I have no idea.  It's hard to be sure whilst drifting aimlessly in and out of sleep, and then the girls starting getting up at 4:30 AM! HOLY FREAK GIRLS, and they do this on a regular basis :( Insane in my opinion!

Here we are at the starting line!

Misty, Tangela, Me (Audra), Carey, Jennifer, Kacey

My running, sleeping, pooping, driving buddies for the next 30 hours!

Kacy took leg 1, we were so excited we were like little kids on Christmas morning... I think we stopped to cheer her on every mile! Needless to say we eventually realized we were being a little over zealous and slowed our momentum down!

Here is Kacey going up a beast of a hill! You go GIRL!

I think she is getting tired of us at this point! Sorry Kacey, we're just a little excited if you can't tell!

This is where Kacey finished her first leg, so incredibly beautiful!

And Carey was off, leg 2 was one of two hardest runs of the entire route... the first two miles gradually inclined, and then all the sudden it was 4 miles up a mountain! Carey was a freight train, she just kept going and going... no stopping for this girl, she doesn't know the meaning of the word!

Still has a smile on her face! 

Here's iron man I mean woman... 

Our Mascot!

Here I am getting ready for my first leg!

Checking my music and making sure mapmyrun is ready to record my run... no paranoia I assure you!

What goes up, must come down! Here comes Jennifer finishing up leg 3...

 Run Jen Run! Dang she looks good :)

another check, just in case... there is no OCD here! None, whatsoever!!!

Just keep running, just keep running, just keep running, running, running, what do ya do, we runnnnnn!

I am still a little excited can ya tell?  Obviously this is the first run, our tenacity starts waning as you will see :)

Misty rocked her first leg, leg 5!

We decided to surprise Misty with a little silly string, go SUPERFLY!

Don't we have a cute van! Thanks Jennifer, you made us look gooooood!

Here comes Tangela, leg 6!

Doesn't she look tough! 

Whoot whoot!

And then things become a little fuzzy, wake time (11.5 hours, or longer if you don't include the 3 lousy hours of sleep we got the night before), ...again, fuzzy!  

On top of that, after our first major exchange and getting some much needed food, we somehow managed to park our butts & beds 10 yards from a active train track, 3 trains later + Mexican music playing in the background = NO SLEEP! Son of a gun, not again!

Don't we look fresh and beautiful! No sleep deprivation whatsoever!  

Damn we look good :)

Hello we are starving people!

And then the pictures become few and far between. Our second leg begins sometime after 6 pm.  I think my leg (leg 4) began sometime around 10 pm, although, it's all a little foggy, something akin to coming off of anesthesia, and you feel like your head weighs 50 lbs and the world is spinning off it's axis!  All I remember is running 4.3 miles  in complete and utter darkness (thank heaven it was my shortest leg).

One thing I'm trying to get used to here in the south is the tree's. They are everywhere, they line the streets and go for miles and when your running down a road lined with tree's, dogs barking, cars trying to run you over.. weird things start to creep into your head.  I'm pretty sure there were points in that run where I could have been considered for a loony bin, you know, talking to myself, singing childhood songs, looking behind my shoulder, looking to the right and the to the left; wondering when the psycho would jump out of the tree's and grab his next victim and how I would kick his ass with my superwoman capabilities if he tried!  

A few pep talks later with yours truly, a couple little prayers, and a few primary songs later, my nerves calmed down and once I hit the down hill, the legs started cruising and I was sure I was SUPERWOMAN...  I went from an 8.32 average per mile to 7.2 average at the finish line.  I love hitting a good down hill run at the end of a race, you know that point when your legs start to feel like jello; the amazing part is that whether you like it or not, your legs begin to move without you actually telling them to. Superwoman, in all my glory; cape, boots, boobs and all!  Well, minus the boobs and add the trickle effect, you know the effect that comes from bringing 3 little aliens into the world, damn you kegel muscles!  Apparently, anytime I run uphill, downhill, or speed up (so basically most of the time) I leak.  Good thing only one of my pipes was leaking! Or that could have been really bad  :/ if you know what I mean?

We took another break and then sometime around 4 am I hit my last leg, the longest of the three and hardest of the three.  Running on fumes, exhaustion and fatigue were definitely a worry for me.  About 30 minutes before taking off I made sure to take a Energy pack and a few electrolyte chews.  

Well, amazingly enough I started out and I felt great, in fact this run was the best of the three.  Insane I know!  I took another goo about 4 miles into this run, which was good considering it was hill after hill after hill and they only seemed to get worse.  Just after taking this little magic pack of goo, I hit the largest hill and passed three people including the lady who zipped past me a mile and a half into my run... sucka!  Don't people know you never start out strong! People... start out slow, ESPECIALLY considering this was the last leg, your already tired, you've been up for over 24 hours, and you don't know what your body is going to do come mile 5 or 6.  Well, I kicked all their butts! That's right, I'll trash talk you into tomorrow all y'all!

We finished 2nd place in the All Women's Division only getting beat by 14 minutes! Our time 29:34, not too shabby for a bunch of 30+  rockin women!

We make this look gooood!

I was told IHOP was delicious... do you think they had any Diet Coke?  NO! Misty, not cool :<

However, I've never seen a girl eat so many buttermilk pancakes! 

Here are our shirts, they turned out Great! Thanks to my idea of the girls, and my hubby, Jake's fabulous graphic design skills, we looked fab running across the finish line!  Thanks babe :)

What an insane, crazy, exhausting, fun, crap shoot of a weekend (literally, don't you know that's why they have all the port-a-potties)!  Doesn't it sound fun?    

Can't wait to do it all over again!

If you want a good laugh, check this out!