Race Report: Ragnar Chicago

Stats/Goals

Distance: 18.5ish miles, split across 3 legs

Location: Between Madison, WI and Chicago, IL

Goals: Don't get hurt, have fun, handle it better than Gulf Coast 2014.  Team goal 

Result: 29:04:17 for the full course.  88th out of 356 teams in the division 

http://www.ragnarrelay.com/i/Chicago/RagnarRelay_Results.pdf

Summary

Team relays create a lot of unique challenges that have nothing to do with the running.  Logistics, digestion, and sleep all play a major factor.  Either way, the primary goal of the weekend was to go out, run (somewhat) hard, and have a blast.

Details

Prep

We assembled all of our things.  The packing lists we made from the last relay served us well.  I don't think we forgot anything major.

Key Items (not an extensive list):

• 3 running outfits (each in a gallon Ziploc bag)
• 2+ pairs of shoes
• Travel pillow (my neck pillow always outperforms expectations)
• Blanket (used more for padding on the sides of the van than as a blanket)
• Clif bars
• "Bum it" clothes - PJ pants/Hoodie
• Baby wipes (post-run "showers")

Things I wanted:

• A cold weather option shirt.  For this race, a single under armor would have sufficed, but it was warm enough on the night leg
• A pair of swishy pants.  Basically, pants that weren't PJ pants in case the wind kicked up

Start

The drives up and back were fun, but super uneventful.  I'll skip to the race.

Ragnar compels each team who has at least one member who lives within 100 miles of the course to provide 3 volunteer shifts lasting 6 hours.  Unfortunately, the people we had lined up in the Chicago area weren't able to get sites close enough, so we were faced with paying $360 or providing those volunteer shifts from our ranks.

So, Brad, Steve, and I headed to the start line at 0300.  I think we ended up at about the best job.  We were working with the MC who was signing in teams at the start line, announcing them, and waving the start flag every 15-30 minutes.  Tons better than trying to hand out free stuff in a bag.

0900 rolled around eventually and our replacements even arrived early, so we took off to hang out with our team who all arrived in one piece.  To my great surprise, we were greeted by our paper mache mascot, Pancakes.  We ended up carrying this large, pink, elephant head around  the whole course.

Jody got started at 0930 and team Pink Elephants on Parade was underway.  Van 2 (my van) headed back to the hotel so Steve and I could get a quick shower and breakfast.  We drove off to exchange 6 where we would be starting our first legs in a few hours.

Leg 1

Going into the race, one of our runners, unfortunately, had to bow out due to sickness.  Because Steve and I had volunteered  pre-race (and we were both at the highest mileage already in the van), we let the three girls from Chicago split the bonus legs how they chose.  The worst part about this was it created a big of a pace disparity between the two vans.  Our slowest runner was the one who stayed home, so her miles were getting replaced with 3-5 min/mile faster.  This meant that Van 1 saw  less downtime than they might have liked.

My first leg was, in a word, fast.  I didn't intend on throwing it all out there, but I felt good (despite the 0230 wakeup) and was going on two days rest.  I maintained about a 7 minute pace through the first 10k.  For the last mile, I backed off to a 7:30.  While I don't have a chip time to prove it, I'm pretty sure that run was a new 10k PR.  Based on my GPS watch, if I ran the last quarter at an even pace, I ran about a 43:56 (vs 44:07 PR).  Boom.

Leaving exchange 12 (van 1's second leg) was a shitfest.  It was a very long/narrow parking lot with 1 entrance/exit and everyone was trying to get out at once.  We ended up taking van 1's second runner to the next exchange for them because they were blocked in.  Unfortunately, this ate into our downtime at exchange 18.  However, I still managed to get some food in me and a little sleep in the quiet area.

Leg 2

This was our night leg.    Unfortunately, we had a bit of a miscommunication with Van 1 and we weren't ready when their runner came across.  That, plus a separate SNAFU Van 1 had all on their own meant we were 35-40 minutes behind where we should have been.  Oh well.

I ended up running leg 2 on full anger mode.  Sleep-deprived Jerry was irritated, so I started super fast (but still slower than my Leg 1 pace) but still got passed by the fastest team.  Seriously, it felt like I was standing still when this guy blew by me at about a 5 min pace.  Crazy.

I had been a little worried about the leg, because the map advertised it as running with traffic (something I'm loathed to do, even in full sunlight).  Fortunately, I didn't have to do that.  Instead, it took us under the highway to a creepy greenway.  I was happy to always have a few other runners' lights in view.

I managed to sleep for much of the last leg in our van as well as the drive to exchange 30.  It was *very* necessary.  I snagged some pancakes and downed a Clif bar while getting another hour or so of rest.

Leg 3

For this leg, I donned Terry's bright pink Superman shirt.  A woman at the start cheered me on as I left "Go Superman! You're super pink!  And super fast!"  It felt great.  I kept a comfortable pace until half way in where I had to stop to walk.  My abs were quite literally tired and exhausted.  I picked it back up for the last mile and a half, but it was still my slowest leg by far.

Takeaway

I was in a lot better shape this year than last and my body felt it.  Mileage was less, but I think I would have been fine on more miles, so long as I paced myself slower.  At Gulf Coast, I think we valued sleep too highly and food not highly enough.  However, that race was longer (260 miles) so it went through two nights.  I think the #1 issue there is that I don't want to do a relay that goes over two nights.  No digestive issues and no issues with being "unable to eat" like I had at Gulf Coast.

The single biggest thing to do at the next relay is each time a runner is about to start, someone should post a picture, start time, and estimated finish time at the start of every leg to the Facebook group.  This is so people remember what to look for (what color shirt was he wearing?) and so the other van is getting regular updates on the group progress and can prepare accordingly.

I wanted to do a few simulated Ragnars at home (Morning/Evening/Morning or Evening/Morning/Evening training) but I never made the time for it .  I don't feel it's really necessary, so long as I'm getting 25-30 miles per week.