A few days ago Ashlie and I got to run in the Southern California Ragnar Relay with "The Big Kahunas", a great team of family and friends, many of whom you may recognize (or be!) in the photos below.
Starting Friday morning, our team ran the 200 miles non-stop in 31 hours and 55 minutes (First Place did 22:35! Last was 40:02). The course started in Ventura and ended at Dana Point. James put together a map of the course and exchange points. The route was divided into 36 legs and each person was assigned 3 legs that fell in the same order throughout the race. I was runner 9, so I had legs 9, 21 and 33. Ash had 11, 23, and 35.
Each team was also divided into two vans. Van 1 took the first six legs, then our van (which I drove most of the time) took the next six, and then we traded back and forth. We tried to get rest while the other van was on, but that didn't always work out so well and by the end we were pretty fried and tired. Saturday night we slept very well.
It was so fun to spend time with everyone, see the creativity of all the teams, work hard and play together. Ashlie and I both thought it was a great experience we would do again.
The Big Kahunas just after finishing
Nemo was the mascot for "The Big Kahunas". We traded him off at the exchange points. We didn't carry him throughout the race, because he needed to get dressed up for his photo shoots, like this one in night gear showing what we needed to wear when it got dark.
Megan passing the baton (slap bracelet) and Nemo to Ashlie
Teams decorated their vans (and bodies) with names, logos, funny phrases, taunts, and all sorts of mischief. Here we have boxes we checked off after finishing our legs. "Victims" or "Roadkill" tallies marked other racers we passed during our runs.
The runners (plus some little helpers) joined in on the last part of the final leg to cross the finish line together.
Ashlie and me with her sisters Nikki (who turned 18 the day we flew out) and Megan. Kyle Beck, on the left, came in at the last minute to sub for someone else who couldn't make it. His brother, Nathan Beck (who can be seen in the far right of the finish line shot) rounded out our half of the team.
