Run, Drive, Sleep? Repeat

A few months ago, a friend of mine invited me to join her team in the first ever Las Vegas Ragnar Relay. Here is the online description that hooked over 100 teams in accepting the challenge. . .

Two vans, 12 runners, 171 miles. . . .
The first vehicle will drop off the first runner, drive ahead a few miles, cheer the runner on, and provide them with water, snacks, and plenty of love. That vehicle will then drive ahead to the first exchange point to drop off the second runner and pick up the first runner when that leg is complete. They will repeat this pattern for six legs until they hand off to their second vehicle. This leapfrogging pattern will continue all the way to the finish line.

So I took the day off work Friday and met up with the five other strangers that I would be spending my next sleepless 28 hours with. We were part of van 2, meaning the first half of our team (Van 1) started the race for us. Upon arrival at the entrance of Valley of Fire located north of Las Vegas, our van realized we got their a tiny bit late and I was practically thrown out onto my feet (pretty much not prepared) for my 8.7 first leg run located in the middle of a hot, dusty desert. It was a painful experience, and I was not happy. . . but my new friends brought me water, cheered me on, and it was over before I knew it! We then spent the next couple of hours cheering each other on and getting to know each other. By 10:30 at night we had "lost" two of our runners (It was REALLY dark out there) and had become fast friends with each other saying things and letting things "out" that you would never do in front of some new friends. We spent our small break in the middle of nowhere snacking a bit, and attempting to sleep. We got less than an hour of sleep before we had to head out to meet with our other van to begin leg 2 which we began at approximately 2 in the morning? (My times could easily be off though because it was such a blur). Leg two did not start out as we would of hoped however because our first van people got us a weeee bit behind and then our first runner got lost by basically running up the wrong mountain (our 3rd "lost" runner of the night). He eventually got a ride back down but now we were REALLY far behind and a little frightened of sending our fellow runners off alone in the dark dark night with a pretty poorly unlabeled course. So we made an executive decision to "cheat" just a little bit in order to catch us up. This is how we worked it out.... Runner comes in. . . checks in. . . next runner leaves. . . runs around the corner. . . is picked up. . . and then dropped off 1/2 mile before check in so they can check in and pass off to the next runner, who would promptly do the same thing. Luckily we did this because driving around on our second "cheat" run we drove in circles looking for the check point which was basically not there. If our runner had actually been running, we could have possibly not found her! So because we couldn't find that checkpoint, we could not drop off our third fourth runner. . . so we drove along and miraculously found the fifth leg of our run even though it had been detoured (turns out a runner on a different team had been hit and killed by a car in the dark and therefore the road was closed off). At this point, it was about 7 in the morning, it was light out, and there were several other teams in view, so we dropped off a runner who finished this leg and continued and finished the next. Our baton was passed on to van 1 again which gave us a few hours to hit one of our runners houses to get a few hours of sleep before we headed back out for the last legs of the race.


















The last legs went very smoothly and we cheered each other on, didn't get lost, and finished the race! Van 1 decided not to come to the finish line, so only our van actually crossed the finish together.

It was a great experience. . . and I decided that knowing how everything worked and what I would do different next time. . . I have already (easily) convinced both my sisters to join me next year in creating our very own team! If I could have this much fun with a group of strangers. . . I can't even imagine the possibilities with 12 friends that I know and love! So give me a holler if interested. . cuz next October. . . 12 Kelly friends are going to be on the run of a lifetime!!