Ragnar Del Sol 2010

Imagine yourself and 11 of your best friends hanging out for more than 48 hours straight. Then imagine that within that timeframe you each run between 14 and 24 miles for a total of over 200 miles. You barely eat. You barely sleep. You rarely shower. You use port-a-potties, when you can find them. You live in a big, smelly van. And you yell and cheer and ring a cow-bell almost continuously.

Oh yea, and you paid to do this.

This is Ragnar.
And the French Toast Mafia from Tucson, ROCKED IT!

You may be wondering where our totally awesome name came from. We started out as a Breakfast Club; just a bunch of friends who would meet on Saturday mornings to run and then eat.

The team of 12 was broken into 2 sub-teams. Each with their own van and own running routes. The majority of my pictures are of my van: Van #2.
Van #1 started in Prescott and each of the 6 runners did a leg. Then it was our turn. Chelsea got us started with about a 5 miler. Well done, Chels!

She handed it off to Scott, who then handed it to me, I gave it to Kristen, Kristen gave it to Karen, and Karen passed it onto Jeremy.

Each leg was a different length with varying degrees of difficulty.

I wanted to sit on the side of the road and cry during my first leg.

Here is Karen, our team captain and running machine.

Kristen and Scott who are husband and wife. Aren't they the best looking couple you've ever seen?

Here is Jeremy with crazy Ninja Guy behind him. Jeremy is displaying our French Toast Mafia gang sign as he runs by. If you look close, you can see that it's in the shape of toast.

Kristen, Alexia, Kim, Karen, and Tessa as we were waiting for Scott to finish the 35th leg of the race. By this point, although everyone was tired, we were excited for the grand finish.

The handoff and butt-slap from Scott to Jeremy as he headed of on the last leg.

For those of you who are careful readers, you may have noticed that our order switched. Although I don't think this is technically allowed, we decided that many Ragnar Rules could no longer be enforced after what happened on Saturday morning:

Chelsea's 2nd leg was a flat 8 miles that she took like a pro and around midnight Friday. She handed it off to Scott who took of like a wild banchee. He was on pace for 8 minute miles and was about 1 mile from the end of his leg when we came across an accident. A fellow Ragnarian had been hit by a car on the Carefree Highway. He is, thankfully, alive but it shut down the highway for well over an hour; this was at about 2:30 am, Saturday morning. The Race Director decided to cancel legs 21-24 and have all Van #1s take over at exchange 24. This meant that mine, Kristen's, Karen's, and Jeremy's 2nd legs got cut. Hence the reordering of our 3rd legs and the idea that the rules no longer applied.

Regardless of all that, we finished in grand style! Here is Andy giving Kristen her medal!

French Toast Mafia forever!

From left to right: Scott, Brian, Jessica, Jeremy, Tessa, Kristen, Alexia, Kim, me, Chelsea, Karen, Andy.
And me and Chelsea, post-race, waiting to be seated at CPK!

Ragnar was a truly unique and exciting adventure!

Thanks FTM for being so totally cool!

Thanks, Mom, for paying for me and Chelsea to partake in the shenanigans and have this sister-bonding time!

Thanks, Stevie, for taking such good care of Shyla all weekend. Although I missed her (and you) like crazy, I knew she was well taken care of. Thanks, also, for the funny texts. Thanks, also, for supporting us by eating french toast, not waffles, for dinner. Thanks, also, for letting me come home to such a picked-up house. Thanks, also, for letting me nap/recover on Sunday afternoon. Thanks, also, for bringing me a yummy and healthy lunch. Now if only I could get you to read the blog...

Time to pick what's next and gear up for it! Next time, I promise to train on hills!

Happy Rodeo Weekend, everybody!