Ragnar #4

I love running in Ragnar Relay races. My very first "race" was a Ragnar. I remember I had always talked to Alan Bird about his marathons and the next thing I know he had invited me to join his Ragnar team. Spending thirty hours straight in a car with six people cheering on your team mates makes for a very close group of friends by the time you're done.

In my last Ragnar Mom, Kira, Ben and Sharley ran with us. It was so much fun and I think Kira must have convinced Justin how fun it was because apparently his family planned a Ragnar this year. At the last minute two of Justins cousins were unable to participate so lucky for Alex and myself, we were invited to join. I of course didn't hesitate. This Ragnar was in Las Vegas.

Justin created a "whatsapp" text group so everyone on the team started checking in on Thursday announcing their departure plans.

 Justin, Chelsea and Dallin were chilling in the first class lounge at the Calgary airport.













Alex was still at work but looking forward to catching a late flight to Vegas.

Chelsea and Justin on the plane.  I should point out the "creeper" who was sitting behind them. 

 I was the first to arrive in Vegas and let everyone know of my arrival.

Brian checked in from Phoenix letting us know that he was getting ready to leave.

There is that creeper "again".

 Teresa, Andrea, Dallin, Jason, Katie and Curtis were in van #1 and got up at 3:30 Friday morning to get to the starting line for a 5:30 start. The poor guys. Van #2 was sound asleep.

The starting line was in the mountains at the Ski and Snow Board resort. 

Curtis in his pirate outfit.

















Maybe Van #1 had to get up early but their reward was a long down hill run. This is Curtis handing off to Jason.



















Do you see the shadows cheering Jason on?


















Jason handing off to Andrea

 Does Andrea look excited or what?


















And then Andrea hands off to Katie to bring the baton into Van #2.














Meanwhile we are starting to get moving at the house looking forward to an exciting day.














Justin, Alex and myself in the middle seat













Chelsea and Angie with Brian in the back seat. Heading to our starting line.

Katie after her leg.













The entire team except for Angie who is running to bring the baton to Van #2.

Justin, Brian, Craig, Alex, Fred, Chelsea Sarah, Andrea, Teresa, Dallin, Katie, Ryan, Curtis, Jason










Van #2 is at the starting line ready to relieve Van #1. Brian, Alex, Angie, Justin, Chelsea, Fred

The kiss that started it all. When Teresa brought it in for Van #1 and handed off to Chelsea she gave her nice peck on the cheek. By the time this run was finished we decided to change our name to the kissing cousins. You will see why.















Chelsea started out for Van #2 and then handed off to me.

Hanging in there. 

Chelsea enthusiastically cheering me on. 

I then handed off to Alex

 Brian was next so he decided to stretch.


















Alex drew the short straw. He had a long five mile stretch that was all up hill. It was a trough run but he ran well.

You gotta love our tattoo's

We had made a bunch of stickers with our team name and we would stick them onto as many cars as we could. While we were waiting for Alex; Angie and I walked past a police car. I told Angie that she should stick one on the cop car. To my horror she proceeded to do just that. As I walked away pretending not to know her I heard the cop yell at her asking her, "what do you think you're doing?" When she explained he gave her a bunch of police badges. Pretty cool.




And here comes Alex into the exchange point.

To Alex's great surprise he was greeted by Brian with a big wet kiss. 

Brian handed off to Justin.













Justin then handed off to Angie but of course he can't hand off like a normal person but to her shock she was greeted with a big wet kiss. She shouldn't have been surprised though because he had been threatening to do so all morning. Between Chelsea, Justin and his dad, the kissing cousins was becoming a movement that ended up renaming our team the "Kissing Cousins". We became well known among our team mates.

When we were finished our first round we went back to the house to chill. I actually had a nap but everyone else was downstairs having a good visit. I suffered a minor bought of FOMO but feel asleep before I could do anything about it. Not long before midnight we were once again on the track. Chelsea led the way and then handed off to me with a kiss on the cheek.

When I came in to hand off to Alex I was a bit surprised to see that Alex had a horn. Angie had brought along a unicorn horn so Alex had to run with that.

Justin had what may have been the most beautiful of all runs. Between  Las Vegas and Boulder the road goes over a small pass. Justin ran on a trail that roughly paralleled the road. It was out in the boonies so there was no light and Justin decided to turn off his head light and run in the dark. He took this picture of the city lights. He also claims that the stars were exceptionally bright and he witnessed no less than 12 shooting stars.

Justin handing off to Angie and Sarah to finish off Van #2's night time run.
















Angie had the last night time leg for Van 2. She was nervous about running alone at night so Sarah ran with her to offer moral support. This leg ended only blocks from Sarahs house so she knew the area well. She may have shown Angie a few shortcuts.












Curtis must have had a good nap, he looks rather chipper.













Julie was actually signed up with the team from the beginning but an injury late in the training forced her to give up her spot. That is how I got on the team. Well an injury in Van #2 gave Julie an opportunity to run this one leg. She looks quite exited don't you think?








Jason comes in and hands off to Julie


















A sample of the view that we had along the run.













Teresa and Natalie

On Angies night time run some jerk ran past her and did a karate chop and yelled out "kill". It was rather rude but of course the rest of the race we were karate chopping all over the place.

Chelsea, Angie, Craig, Alex, Justin and Jason

Most of Van #2.

clockwise from bottom left, Katie, Teresa, Dallin, Curtis and Julie

Uncle Craig saved the day. Teresa was nursing so she couldn't be too far from her baby. Uncle Craig basically followed Van #2 with the baby in tow so Teresa could nurse him as required.

Craig, Alex, Angie , Fred, Brian, Julie, Curtis, Chelsea, Dallin, Justin, Natalie, Teresa

I didn't want to freak Chelsea out too much so when she handed off to me next I picked her up and swung her around. I figured that would be less traumatizing that a kiss.

When I handed off to Alex next he was wearing a sombrero and greeted me with a kiss on the cheek. Apparently as I was out running they came across a garage sale. Alex picked up a sombrero.

















And Angie picked up this weird beaded head covering. I'm not quite sure what she's doing here.

When Alex came in to hand off to Brian he was greeted with a bear hug. We were truly getting cozy on this run.

Brian picking up refreshments and cheers along his run.



















And then the ultimate was the full on lip-lock between father and son.

We were racking up the kills.

















Teresa coming out of the tunnel we all formed for her.

Early on our leg Justin was waiting for Brian to come in when he saw a man come in but he had no one greeting him. He then started yelling for "Brooke". Justin then went looking for Brooke. He was in a crowd of people yelling for Brooke when the girl next to him said, "I'm Brooke". Justin told her that her Dad was waiting for her on the exchange point. During the rest of the race we met up with Brooke and her family at least a dozen times and every time we did everyone yelled "BROOKE".

The funniest part was that in the evening, after the race was over we were in a buffet eating dinner and there was Brooke and her family.

This is a picture of some of us with Brooke.





Angie went in the porta pottie to do her thing when Brian thought it would be fun to trap her inside. She was quite concerned when she tried to exit the porta potti and the door wouldn't open.

















These are some random pictures that I pulled off the Ragnar web site.

Here are coming across the finish line

Receiving my medal

















Cheering our fearless leader Andrea with gratitude for all the work she did.

Go Team










Team Palmertoe

Celebrating at the end

Brian, Chelsea and Justin Palmer. Thank you for letting me run with your family.

Breakfast the next morning.

The Hash House has big servings of really good stuff.

Taste testing at the Coke Place on the strip.

And poor Justin had to go home to looking at this outside of his office window. Poor guy.

But he had a very cool medal.

We all wandered around the strip the next morning but Alex was hitching a ride home with Julie so they missed out on this cool roller coaster. Justin got yelled out for snapping this picture even though there was a big sign saying NO PICTURES. You can see Justin and myself in the front car holding our hands in the air. Chelsea is hidden behind Justin and Brian behind me.












Alex had too much excess energy so him and Julie went home and partied up a storm at some dance.

--------------------trivia--------------------

human beings can run farther than any other animal on earth

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