RAGNAR LAS VEGAS

Attempting to spell RAGNAR

DATES: October 8-9, Friday & Saturday
TEAM: Mighty Mandelbaums #37 (aka Mighty Muffin Tops)
RUNNERS: Van 1: Amy, Tracy, Jason, Kristi, Joe, Hillary, Van 2: Jaren, Doug, Michelle, Brad, Roger, Tracy
START TIME: Oct 8, 9:00 am
FINISH TIME: Oct 9, 12:30 pm
LEG 6: Valley of Fire, 5.3 miles, Hard, 90 F, mid afternoon, 62 min
LEG 18: Lake Mead Trail, 5.4 miles, Hard, 58 F, midnight, 67 min
LEG 30: Vegas Suburbs, 2.9 miles, Easy, 60 F, early morning, 32 min

AMY'S NOTES: 171 miles. The first 12 hours of the race were pretty great. You run your first leg, support everyone else running their first leg. Carry water, spray your teammates down, spray strangers down, crack jokes, cheer for other runners, keep a running tally of all the honey pot stops, and generally have a good time. The next 12 hours are a little more interesting. Your normal bedtime hour comes and goes, the honey pots take on a certain rankness, the temperatures cool, people's eyes start to glaze, night settles in on the course, runners pass as bobbing flashing lights on the asphalt, and the legs become a journey of solitude through an unfamiliar desert landscape with only a few feet of headlamp illuminating the way. The final hours are another story entirely - it's more like survival mode. On my third leg, shortly after dawn, I joined the "god job, keep it up" club. I stopped counting after the 10th time and started laughing after each proclamation of encouragement. You have to look pretty miserable for perfect strangers to be repeatedly telling you "good job, keep it up." Not the fastest times in the world, but I ran the whole way despite being ridiculously sick all week long, and I'm shamelessly proud of myself.

To see several ridiculous videos of the adventure go to: http://www.youtube.com/remoteindustry