Ragnar Wrap Up

This one is long over due as it took place back in May...I think. Anyway, the reason for this adventure was because it isn't an Ironman year so I try to say 'yes' to as many things as possible as I tend to do the complete opposite when training for an Ironman. I have my good friend Tom Shea to thank for this one. He put together a team of 12 people, 5-6 of which are seasoned runners, the remaining members were either new to the sport or just good friends looking for a good time. Either way multiple emails were sent out and Vicious and Delicious was born! We figured our team pace would even out to about 8:30s per mile so we began on Friday morning at 10:00 (or was it 11:00? this really was a while ago so some of the details have escaped me). Before I go any further, I should explain what the Ragnar Relay is. It is a 198 mile running relay completed by teams of 6-12 people over the course of 2 days. Each team has a specific rotation and you keep following that rotation until everyone runs 3 times and you arrive in Harvard Stadium in Cambridge MA. Appropriately enough we began at Yale in New Haven. Our team got off to an AMAZING (sarcasm) start when Van 1 (the first 6 runners) left the start and went to exchange #2 where they would wait for runner #1 to complete his first leg. The only problem was that they forgot all about exchange #1 (location between legs 1&2). After about 30-40 minutes of scrambling, Van 1 got this squared away and we continued the relay. While all of this excitement happened with Van1, Van 2 was more concerned with tattoo placement. After tattoos were applied and food was consumed, Van 2 headed to the first van exchange (the end of runner #6, the final van 1 runner and the start of runner #7 or the first van 2 runner).
We had to arrive early in order to complete our safety training and check in requirements. The safety talk took longer than expected and being that I was the first runner to go for van 2, I was ill prepared when Allison arrived in the park for the hand off. I threw on something real quick (alright so I was actually kind of prepared) and off I went... in the wrong direction.

After a quick redirection I was off on my first of 3 legs, this one consisting of 8.6 miles of primarily flat terrain. In addition to being Vicious with tattoos, a number of us were also dressed "deliciously" in speedos as we all swam together in college (those that wore the speedos anyway). This fell perfectly into my movement towards increasing the presence and popularity of the good ole grape smuggler, because face it, as uncomfortable as they look they make people laugh (even if its at you and not with you). In total, there were 4 speedo studs on team VD..or rather team V&D: Tony Brothers Tom and Brian and Me
Whether others will admit it or not, I think they were happy to see us out there because for just a minute they forgot about the fatigue and laughed at us. The event as a whole went amazingly well for our rookie team (I think Allison was the only one that may have done one of these over night relays before). We ended up finishing 10th in our division, 38th overall (out of 190 teams) with a time of 27:13:57.35! ...and that includes the time lost losing a runner, missing a handoff, and running in the wrong direction :) < There were plenty of amazing and hilarious moments that I can't include them all here. I tried uploading some videos but it didn't work.

On the other hand, if you are a data nut then you may enjoy the garmin files for my 3 runs. keep in mind the second took place at 2:00am

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/90885824
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/90885817
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/90885811