Part II: 2015 Ragnar Vegas with Team Nuun

Ahhh, so where were we…. Yes, 2015 Ragnar Vegas with Team Nuun.  As I mentioned in my last blog post, thanks to the time change coming from the East coast, I woke up at 4:30am the morning of Ragnar Vegas.  This is not good when you have an overnight relay ahead of you!  I embraced it and since my roommates were in Van 1, I went downstairs with them to grab some breakfast and say hello/goodbye to Van 1 before they made their way to the start.

With several hours before we needed to be at Exchange 6, Van 2 did what anyone staying in Vegas would do and HIT THE BUFFET!  Okay, so we really did not hit the buffet like your average tourist but we did sneak in a little bit of those adorable mini desserts at 10am.  They were too cute not to give them a taste!  We also saw the beautiful Flamingos!  We were staying at the Flamingo so it was only natural to check them out while we were waiting to get ourselves organized and off to the van.

When we got to the Exchange, we noticed how windy and chilly the race would be for us.  With check-in and our safety briefing behind us, we met up with the rest of Van 1 at the Nuun tent as we waited on Evelin to make her arrival.  

The best part of major exchanges is getting to hang out with the other Van {see below – no explanation needed!}!

Our first runner up was Eleanor, Nuun’s finest from Texas!  Eleanor passed the slap bracelet on over to Melissa, who tackled some lovely gravel from her first leg.  After that, Jenny cruised uphill for a few miles before she passed off to Carrie.  I have to say I loved looking for Carrie’s awesome hot pink fanny-pack as she made her way into each exchange!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Leg 11 | 5.30 Miles | Moderate

As Runner 11, my first leg starting along the paved Angel Park Trail, was down right gorgeous.  From the start of this leg, you could see the Las Vegas Valley, the Red Rocks, the La Madre Mountains, and the Spring Mountains.  I stepped into the relay last minute so I did not have the luxury of selecting my legs and to be honest, I only looked at the distance before hopping on the place to Vegas.  Well, I was a wee bit surprised by the steady climb this leg offered me.  It went pretty well and I used one person in particular as a guide from Miles 3 to 5.  It was nice to have someone to focus on since the views went from gorgeous to residential around the time the inclines set in.  After I passed him, I tried to pick it up and bring it into the shoot as strong as possible.  Considering the steady incline, I was happy with my leg and wanted to save myself for the next two legs. From there, I handed off the Lauren and she brought it home to Van 1 at the next major exchange!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

It’s always an amazing feeling to finish your first leg in a relay.  After that, we headed out to dinner.  I opted for some pizza and a beer.  I thought this was a pretty mild choice for dinner but shortly after, I really started to regret this decision.  Having experienced issues with my stomach at a relay in the past, I was really worried about my night leg.  I tried my hardest to rest and avoid the rumbling in my stomach.  And, at one point in the night, it was so bad that Eleanor had to make a pit stop for me to dash into the M Hotel to prevent some major Code Brown action from happening in the van.  Yea, it was ugly.  At the next major exchange, we attempted to get some rest before our night legs.  The school offered a place for me to continue to use the bathroom and change outfits.  It was nice to catch up with Brian and Sean while we missed Evelin getting into the exchange.  Whoops!  And, with that Van 2 was ready to take over for the wee hours of the morning and our set of night legs.  Yea, not a lot of photos here thanks to my stomach and the dark!

Leg 23 | 8.10 Miles | Hard

The night legs are hard.  And, since I wasn’t feeling 100%, it was a struggle.  With my stomach super angry, I knew that my night time miles would be a challenge.  As runner 11, I felt like I had to wait all of eternity for my turn to run.  Thankfully, Jenny waited in the exchange with me for Carrie.  Carrie got lost on course so she was out there longer than she anticipated.  So the eternal wait was probably a good thing for my stomach because I no longer felt like I was going to explode by the time I received the slap bracelet.

The first few miles, it was really hard to get my legs under me.  There were not very many runners out as we made our way through the residential streets of Henderson.  My favorite and least favorite part of my three legs were during my night run.  At about the three mile mark, I realized that I was no longer going to be running on roads as we made a turn for the River Mountain Loop trail.  Let me just say that I was about an hour shy of running at sunrise.  To the runners that were lucky enough to run this leg around that time, they were probably treated to some fantastic views.  I could see the outlines of the mountains as the humming of the electrical lines brought an eery vibe to this uphill climb to Bootleg Canyon Trail Park.  Also, it was very cold and windy at this point.  I tried to maintain my heart rate during the slow climb and slowly tracked down one blinking light in the distance after another.  This helped keep me motivated as I struggled to get to the top.  And, despite feeling like I was running through molasses and the splits to prove I wasn’t far off, I still managed to pass nine runners.  This was definitely one of the more challenging legs of all the Ragnar races I have run to date.  I was never so happy to see Lauren in my life!

After our night legs were completed, we stayed at the next major exchange for a little while because of the most magical sight you will ever see in the wee hours of the morning…. hot chocolate and muffins.  Jenny had a moment at this beautiful sight and we all snagged a seat in the cafeteria to enjoy our night run reward.  These were some of the amazing volunteers that served lots of very hungry and tired runners!  Thank you volunteers!

After the most magical muffin of my life, we opted to drive straight to the next exchange to change and get some sleep!  Changing into fresh clothes at this point felt amazing.  After that, I took out my contacts, busted out the inflatable neck pillow, put on my eye mask and said goodbye to the world for about two hours.  I felt like a new person when I woke up!  I finally felt like I could stomach food and ate a banana and granola bar.  I didn’t want to risk anything else causing more or worse digestive issues.

Van 1 rolled up with plenty of time to hang out and make our way to the exchange to wait for Evelin.  The rest of Van 1 was in awesome spirits since they were done with their legs.  Later on they would rub it in even more as they ate breakfast and even had some hot tub time!

For our final set of legs, Eleanor made sure that we were all taken care of and had a post run treat of our choosing.  I opted for a pre-run treat of Imodium from Walgreens.  Winning!  With that, we rallied hard to complete our final set of legs.

Leg 35 | 4.10 Miles | Easy

My last leg was really boring.  Oh, and Ragnar was on course attempting to run ahead of us to redirect us around traffic.  This was incredibly confusing and they were not moving fast enough.  Several of us almost made a very wrong turn because they were not quite fast enough during the redirect.  So after two gorgeous runs, I guess I was bound to have one filled with unattractive roadways.  Plus, the main road for the final stretch of this leg was super dangerous to run along.  There was no shoulder and cars were not moving over… Ugh.  It was a grind and this leg calculated a bit longer than anticipated – probably due to the redirecting that was happening.  And, to boot the length of the stop lights on this leg was the worst of all three legs.  I’m just thankful I had two gorgeous runs to balance this lackluster leg.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

With Lauren on the run, we made our way to the finish line at Red Rock Casino and Hotel.  And, with that, it was so hard to believe that Ragnar Vegas was officially in the books!

Let’s just say that running the 2015 Ragnar Vegas with Team Nuun was an amazing experience.  I’m very thankful to Nuun Hydration for treating us to such a fantastic weekend in Vegas.  It should be no surprise but I can’t wait to run another relay and already have my eye on a few in 2016! Viva Los Electrolitos!

PS.  If you would like to be a part of the 2016 Nuun Ambassador program, application are being accepted until November 22nd {https://nuun.com/blog/2016-applications-open}.  Trust me, as a Team Nuun member since 2013, I have nothing but positive things to say about this company!

Lisa