Ragnar Relay - Team "Better Off in the Long Run"

     Well, it's all over...the most fun, meaningful, and special race I've done to date.  I want to thank all my friends/teammates for coming aboard and making this happen.  Thanks to Chrisy and Maureen from team "12 Drink Minimum" (my former team from last year) for getting a good deal on the hotel and for beating my work's discount on the vans, Melissa Pizarro for bringing me to Costco and for making the race bible binders, Marty for being my right hand man in planning the trip.  Thanks, of course, to Dan, Derik, and Quinn for all the comic relief before we headed out and help with picking up the vans before the race, Ramen for being such a beast of a runner and getting us tons of roadkills, Lisa for bravely joining us last minute (I can imagine Ragnar is a tough last minute decision!), and Katie for keeping our competitive spirit alive.  Definitely a big thanks to George for keeping us entertained and for being an awesome map reader and not getting us lost once!  Thank you Jonathan for coming along and being our cheerleader, next year you're running!  And last but not least, a special thanks to Lindsay and David Mast for coming all the way up from Atlanta to do this with us and for making that awesome video!  I think that each of us watched it at least three times the day you posted it up!

     I'm telling you, there really isn't anything like Ragnar and I don't think I'll have another race compared to this one in terms of how fun and special it is.  All the races I've done are primarily individualistic in nature (sure you can do a triathlon relay, but then you really didn't do a triathlon).  They are serious races where I'm focused on a serious goal.  If that goal isn't met I'm sure to be disappointed.  But with Ragnar, the goal is to have fun...which is pretty hard not to do!  Ok, we also want to have a lot of roadkill (people you pass) but in the end...that's just for fun, too.  I'm not saying it's easy either, there is definitely a test of physical and mental endurance.  It took us just over 32hrs to finish...that's 32hrs mostly in a van with very little sleep and running anywhere between 13-20+ miles.  Believe me, it hurts!  Especially that third leg when all you want is for it to finish.  Well, it did finish and all our team can think about is next year.  Some of us, including myself, are experiencing a little bit of post-race blues coming way down from the 32hr high we experienced.

     On top of all that, it's hard for me to believe it's over because of the time I put into it with all the planning.  I was also privileged to be chosen as a Ragnar Relay Ambassador which it was my job to create awareness of Ragnar by running with groups and doing clinics with Q&A sessions.  Then I also volunteered to help manage the race at the start line giving each team their race packet, shirts, and goodie bags.  The experience has really made me feel that Ragnar Relay is a part me and if there is something I'll be doing every year...it's this.  If you're a runner and you haven't done one yet, I highly encourage it.  Many of us take our endurance sport hobby way too seriously sometimes, but in the end it really just is a hobby (a healthy one at least) but we still get caught up in finishing times and places that we forget to have fun, which is what hobbies are for.  Ragnar Relay will definitely remind you, or even renew why you run.  Don't simply run to be faster than the guy/gal ahead of you, run because you love it, enjoy it, and live it!

     Honestly, what beats doing something you love with those that are close to you?  And if you just met someone on your Ragnar team, you're sure to bond well enough!  I remember thinking to myself before it was our vans turn to run, "I wonder if they would be on our team next year?", referring to those whom I just met (Lisa, George, Lindsay, and David).  After our 2nd leg we went to this little breakfast shack in Racine, WI and I asked all of them if they'll be with us again next time.  We made such fast friends an were having a blast that they all agreed to come back...even Lindsay and David coming from Atlanta, GA!  As of right now, barring any crazy circumstances, everyone will be back next year.  The team has already begun some planning, I brought up shirts, Dan bought a camera so we can make sure both vans get part of the video, and we are also in the process of making two teams with one of them being an ultra team (6 or less runners). Team "Better Off in the Long Run" is a family, you just don't come away from an experience like this as anything less!

     Ok, I started out thinking I was going to tell you the crazy details of our journey from Madison, WI back to Montrose Beach in Chicago, but that would have been just another boring race report.  Instead, and I'm guessing it's because all of the emotions we're going through since we finished, I decided to show you our passion for this race.  Well, we'll be back next year most likely with two teams and possibly doing multiple Ragnar Relays. Question is, will you be there?

    

 Now presenting:

Team "Better Off in the

Long Run"

(Mostly Van 2)

To the team,
     I can't wait to do this with you guys again so keep your eyes toward next year's race.  We'll come back stronger, more prepared, and ready to rock it!  Until then, I'm sure I'll see, run with, and drink with most of you anyway!  Congrats and awesome running to all of you!

RAGNAR!!

     It's been a while since I posted something up so I'll recap the little that's been going on.  Since transitioning to Ironman training, workouts have been more enjoyable since I get more variety with swimming and cycling.  I'm actually enjoying swimming this time around because even though there was about a 6 month period where I didn't swim at all, I feel I'm almost back to where I left off.  I think this comes in part from doing way more swim drills and working on form for 800yds every workout (2500yds is a typical workout for now).  What sucks about swimming is it takes up so much time, from driving to the pool, changing, swimming, changing, and driving back.  A 50min workout can pretty much take up 2hrs of my day.

     Cycling is a different story.  I'm not that great of a cyclist in the first place (my fault since I don't put that much mileage in), but I haven't gotten back to where I was in October.  Actually I never really know how well I'm doing until I race anyway since riding streets and paths there is so much stop and go that looking at my average speed means nothing.  Oh well, I'll just keep at it, can't go wrong with being consistent!

     We did have a half marathon a few weeks ago in Rockford (Chrisy, Marty and I) that went as well as it could.  It was a warm day and I doubt that neither of us were acclimated to running in warmer weather yet, but we toughed it out.  Anyway, everybody else racing had to endure the same conditions.  When I finished I waited a little bit for Marty and when he got there I went to see if they had times/places posted.  I looked at my age group and my name was on the top!  Hey, it goes as they say, you never know who shows up on race day.  Luckily for me there weren't any especially fast 30-34 year old males running that I was able to get the age group win with my 2nd slowest half marathon time!  I'll take it, hardware is hardware.  Marty did an awesome job and ended up 7th in his age group (25-29 males), yeah...I think he's catching up!  Chrisy came into this with a goal just to finish.  She's had a few half's within the past month with a pretty good PR 2 weeks prior so I think this is a good add-on to her being a Half Fanatic (a group of crazy people who do a ton of half marathons haha).  She was walking at some point taking pictures and posting them up on Facebook!  That's awesome, and no matter to me because when most people were sleeping she traveled 13.1mi on her own legs.  Good job Chrisy and Marty!

     Well, as the title says, Ragnar Relay is this week.  Races are usually pretty serious events for me as I train hard for them so I try to give it what I got to see how far I've come.  Ragnar can be another serious race if you want it to, for me I feel it's a break in my season for some fun.  Not that other races aren't fun, they're usually tons of fun!  But Ragnar Relay is on a whole different level.  Wait a minute...you must be thinking, "What the heck is Ragnar Relay?".  It's a ~200mi relay that's done with 12 runners.  There are a bunch of them across the country, but we are doing the one around here from Madison, WI to Montrose Beach here in Chicago.

     How it works is we have two 15-passenger vans, each with 6 runners.  Van1 starts while Van2 heads up to the 7th leg which is the first major exchange.  During Van1's turn the first runner heads off to start the 1st leg and the van drives up to the exchange at the 2nd leg.  The first runner hands off to the 2nd runner and the process repeats.  Once all 6 runners in Van1 run, the 6th runner hands off to the 7th runner which is in Van2 and they repeat the same process as Van1.  Van1 will drive up to the next major exchange (leg 13) and get to rest until Van2 gets there.  Each van will go 3 times so each runner runs three separate legs running a total of 14-20mi (all legs are different mileage).  At the end, as the last runner is within about 100yds to the finish line, all the runners get together and crosses as a team.  Then it's time to gorge on burgers, pizza, beer, etc.!  As crazy as it sounds, it's a really fun race.  I may try to make two teams next year, if you're a runner and you want to be crazy like us let me know and you've got a spot!

     So yes, this is my fun race for the season...I did it last year and it was a blast!  It's only a few days away but I still can't wait.  Well, I'd like to mention everyone on the team so here's our team name and our roster in the order we are running:

Team Better Off in the Long Run
1.  Derik Pham
2.  Melissa Pizarro
3.  Dan Ly
4.  Marty Bernardo
5.  Quinn Huynh
6.  Ramen Tomaneng
7.  Lisa Chavez
8.  David Mast
9.  Lindsay Mast
10.  George Drase
11.  Katie Villacres
12.  Tim Bernardo

We'll most likely be posting live updates as the race goes on.  I'll have details about that soon!