Ragnar Trail Experiment

Last weekend I ran the newest Ragnar race, a trail run.  I had most of my stuff packed and then the weather turned, for the worst.  It got chilly, it started raining.  So I repacked. 

I ran a ten mile trail run the week before the race. But it was a dry trail. 

Driving to Zion's on Friday morning, I ran through rain, more rain, more rain, oh, and then some snow. 

The camp was nothing but mud.

Our race started, but one car of our runners hadn't arrived yet (wrong turn.)

About 8:30pm they closed one of the trails due to mud and weather.

I was supposed to run my first leg a little after 7pm, mud and weather slowing the pace. I left around 10:15pm.

While the next runner was out, they announced that they were going to stop the race until morning (so un-Ragnar like.)

We got 8+ hours of sleep.

Most the teams just went home when they woke up.

Did you know it was the most awesome weekend?  Let me tell you the real reasons why...

I made cookies, lots of cookies.  Our team was called Ragnar Zombie Apocalypse.  So I got some cool cookie cutters.

I took a picture of some of them. Here are the cookies shaped like ninjas ('cuz you gotta have skilz to fight off the zombies) and unfortunately some victims of the zombies, missing their heads, or their arms, or their legs.

Here are the cookies

 And here are what all the cutters look like themselves

Isn't the Zombie awesome?

I didn't take pictures at the race, but luckily we have a Facebook page for those of us who ran to share photos. I thank the other runners for many of these awesome shots. I think these show off the aweseomness of the weekend.

The beautiful, inviting view arriving at the race

The amazing view from one of the trails

You can sort of see the trails along the tree line in this shot

And you can see the mud on the trail shot below. That is actually a pretty mellow spot.  And, it is a bit deceptive as well. Though I never bit the dust, the mud/clay was quit slick.

Here's our team

Though they canceled the race after our first run through, we woke up on Saturday and finished the race out. We ran our three legs and had a super time.  We got muddy, I worried I didn't bring clothing warm enough for the elements, I was perfect.  I didn't bring a beanie nor gloves, but Zion Ponderosa Ranch Resort (the host of our event) has an awesome gift shop and I only had to pay $7 for each.  We earned our medals. What kind of gift shop offers reasonable prices? The best one of course!

Here are some I took, after the fact. I do love running in the rain, maybe not so much the mud though. I didn't take pictures at the race (too cold) - but here are pictures of my shoes two days later before I cleaned them. These are my awesome trail runners.  They are totally water proof, well at least until you slip into a knee high puddle, and they fill with water.
 

I did hit them on rocks to clean off most of the mud at the race.

 And so I used my road shoes for the last trail.

Here is my medal.  It's carved of wood.

One unfortunate thing is when you slip into a knee high puddle and get your feet wet with about a mile and a half left to run, you end up with lots of blisters, big ones. I had them on some of my toes too.  Fun, fun!

I can't wait for the 1st official Ragnar Trail Run, which they say will be in May.