Gearing Up for the Ragnar Relay

Next Friday and Saturday, I will be running the LA Ragnar Relay as part of a 12 girl team.  The relay starts in Ventura Friday morning and ends in Dana Point some time on Saturday depending on your pace, totaling 199.9 miles.  Each person runs three legs, with each leg ranging anywhere from just over 2 miles to just under 10 miles.  The minimum total mileage any one person will run is 12.4 miles and the most is 21.3 miles.  There are 282 teams registered this year - which include all girl teams, all guy teams, coed teams, old people teams, corporate teams, and there are also the crazy people who are on "ultra" teams of up to 6 people, who then cover about double the distance!  You'll also see the occasional nut case who decides to run the entire thing by their self - no thanks.

Since this is all taking place the week before my first marathon and I will be deep into taper madness, I opted for lower mileage and will be running a total of 14.7 miles - with individual legs of 2.8 miles, 6.2 miles, and 5.7 miles, which will take me through the cities of Camarillo, Beverly Hills, and Seal Beach at various hours of the day and night!

I'm super excited for this relay, but the whole thing is more complicated than you'd think, and has involved a TON of organization.  Props to our team leaders!  We've had to rent 2 vans and find van drivers, adapt to multiple changes in the route (which involved losing people, and finding new people last minute due to mileage increases), find ourselves 3 volunteers so we didn't have to pay extra money, organize all of our safety gear (reflective vests, headlamps, tail lights, etc.), find places to "sleep" along the course, determine an accurate estimate of how fast everyone will be able to run, and so on...but most importantly, we had to get our costumes all figured out!

My team decided on the theme "Jungle Janes" and we will all be dressed as a different jungle animal.  Now you don't have to dress up for the relay...but who wouldn't?!  Boring people, and we're not boring :-)  Also, when you're running, and sleep deprived, I bet watching monkeys and tigers and frogs running through neighborhoods at all hours of the day will be quite entertaining (it's not a closed course, and we probably won't be running with a ton of other people at any given time, so I hope to attract some awkward stares).  So please keep an eye out for a monkey, tree frog, butterfly, zebra, giraffe, peacock, turtle, avatar, lion, cheetah, tiger, and, my costume, a PARROT!  I'm not entirely sure if a parrot is a "jungle animal" but it sounded like a great idea at the time.

Last night, I realized I better get going with this whole costume making business and went to the local Jo-Ann and picked up some stellar supplies.  A few creative hours later, the parrot was born!  Feast your eyes on this epic creation.  I just realized I actually ate some crackers while wearing this, too.  How fitting!

Anyway, yes, it is ridiculous, but I'm okay with that!  The best part, is that the parrot masterpiece is not quite done!  I'm brainstorming ways to make "wings" and haven't quite figured out what color shirt I'm going to wear, or if I'm going to wear my black compression socks to look more like parrot legs.  You will just have to wait for the relay recap to see the final design!  In the meantime, I'm thinking about buying a webcam and wearing my masterpiece while I hang out on Chatroulette.  Might be a good warm-up for the reactions I'm going to get while wearing it running through Beverly Hills at midnight :-)

One day into my taper, and I may have already lost my mind.  Oh well.  Can't wait to share how the relay goes!