February is here!?!

I can’t believe we’re already into February! January was packed full of activity and I didn’t realize just how much until I completed my calendar for the 30-day Ragnar Training challenge. Ragnar provided a calendar and asked everyone in the challenge to submit a picture of their completed calendar for a sticker touting their accomplishment. I’ve been playing with a lot of digital pictures lately on another project and decided to fill out my calendar digitally as well.

I definitely had fun looking for pictures to differentiate the things I did in January, especially the tongue-in-cheek nature of the 50’s woman cleaning to highlight all of my January Cure work. I ended the month having completed 9 of the 20 January Cure assignments, so that will certainly roll over into February before I can completely check that off my list, but it’s going to get done! I’ve also really ramped up my training as I count down the days (77) until the Blue Ridge double marathon. I ended up running just over 136 miles in January which is 50 miles more than I ran in any month in 2016. I’m still feeling really good on my runs, though the early mornings are a little bit of a struggle.

My biggest time suck over the last week was completely re-building the Charlotte Women’s Soccer League website. We’ve used a few different platforms over the past few years and had moved to a system that allowed us to handle all of our registration, team building and basically all of the league management electronically which was great for me and the team captains, but the website user experience wasn’t very good, especially for anyone trying to access the site via a mobile device. So, last weekend I started building a new website based off of WordPress and as of the wee hours of Friday morning, the site went live and is so much more aesthetically pleasing and easier to navigate for all of our existing and prospective players. It was definitely a love-hate relationship building that site. It reminded why I got into playing with computers in the first place and also why I decided that a career in IT was not how I wanted to spend 8+ hours every day.

Today kicks off my first long run of February with 20 miles on the schedule. Here’s to another great month of getting outside and getting stronger!

Ragnar Relay – Key West part III

Check out part I and part II here

As we were preparing for our last legs of the relay race, we knew Van 1 would have a rough morning. They started their last legs around 8:30am (about 2 hours behind original projections) and they had 33 miles to cover before we would start our legs, including two runners with 9.5 mile legs – talk about rough! Our longest leg during the heat of the day was my 8 miler the day before. Luckily, our team was able to camp out at another school, grab some food and take advantage of the nice weather to get in another nap. As we expected, the other team struggled as much as we did with the heat (low 80’s), so our van started about 3 hours behind schedule. Our goal for the day was just to make sure that everyone stayed safe and would be able to enjoy our time in Key West. 

I had the shortest leg of our van for this portion, with only 1.8 miles to cover, so around 3:15, I started my last leg of the race with the temperature hovering around 82.

  • Mile 1 – 10:12
  • Last .77 – 9:21
I felt really good during this leg. I kept up the 3:1 ratio again and was even able to get 1 kill, bringing my total up to 13 (6 in both of my other legs). 

My three legs totaled 15.9 miles, with an average of 10:22 pace. Considering I’ve been focusing on longer, slower runs, I’m really happy with that pace and it turned out to be a lot faster than I felt when I was actually doing the runs! 

Our last runner had 5 miles to get to the finish line and we almost missed being able to cross the finish with him! As we got into Key West, we were trying to find parking and ended up having to circle the block to be able to get into the parking area – which lead to an unfortunate incident where we ran over a chicken that was being chased by a dog into the middle of the street (roosters & chickens roam free in Key West). After all of the chaos, we were finally able to park and hurry to get to the finish line to await our runner. We only had to wait about 2 minutes before we saw our runner coming in and we all finished together! Ragnar provided us with the awesome photos below for free (who doesn’t love free race pictures)! 

Even though we finished about 3.5 hours after we expected to, our team had a ton of fun and we’ve already started discussing what our next relay should be!

Have you ever done a relay race? Does my experience entice you to try one or scare you off altogether? 

Ragnar Relay – Key West part II

Check out part I here


When we finished leg #12, we decided to try to find a grocery store on our way to the next exchange zone. While we were there, we ran into another team, Running Wild, who helped us decorate our very plain, though easily findable, red van (98% of the other vans were white). Their dinosaur inspired us to find our own markers to keep track of the legs we ran as well as our kills. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, kills are counted when you pass a runner from another team.  We didn’t end up finishing our decorations, but we did keep track of the kills for each of our Van 2 members and it added up to 86! Most of the teams had at least partially decorated vans and at each major exchange zone, they would spend time “tagging” other vans. A few, like our grocery store friends, would tag other vans with markers, but a lot of teams had magnets that they would put on other vans. One of our teammates actually had some magnets made up for our team as well (that’s the little white circle in the middle of the dinosaur tag) which we were able to put on other vans. Here’s a few of the vans that we saw on the trip:

  • Top left: We ran with your mom last night – Your mom has skillz
  • Top right: Beach slapped – Olympic jokes are Sochiesey
  • Middle: Jurassic Parkour – the front of their van had a city on it with magnetic dinosaurs
  • Bottom: our van after getting tagged and posting our kills after our first set of legs



My second leg was originally supposed to start around 1:30am, but with the heat we ran in during our first legs and Van 1’s second legs, we ended up a bit behind our original schedule. With the extra time, I was able to get dinner at the school that was hosting us at exchange zone 18 followed by about an hour’s nap on the grass and even a shower! An hour isn’t a lot of time, but some of my teammates only got about 10-15 minutes at a time, so I’m definitely grateful for the sleep I was able to get. 

Luckily after the sun went down, it did cool down a bit, but it was still 75° when I started leg #20 around 3:15am. My goal for this leg was to keep a 3:1 run / walk ratio, and I did much better at keeping this pace throughout the 6.2 miles. 

  • Mile 1 – 9:53
  • Mile 2 – 10:17
  • Mile 3 – 9:25
  • Mile 4 – 10:38 
  • Mile 5 – 9:40
  • Mile 6 – 10:09
  • Last .15 – 7:47
I love the overnight portion of these relay races – there’s nothing like being on a course in the middle of the night and while I couldn’t see any of the water as I was going over the bridges, the stars were amazing! The highlight of this portion of my leg was seeing Ragnar, Ruh Roh! (team #96) with The Mystery Machine (their van) parked beside the road blasting music, projecting disco lights into the trees and all of their team members outside dancing – it was a great inspiration to keep running. During one of my walk breaks, I came across another team who told me “Don’t walk in the dark” to which I responded “Yeah, you never know who you’ll find!” 

Running in the dark this time was much less creepy than during the Tuna Run – we were in a more residential area and there were no dogs / coyotes howling during my run! I did get a little spooked by what I thought was a guy standing beside the road at one point, but as I got closer, I realized it was a manatee mailbox holder (still a little disturbing in the daylight). 

I felt really good when I finished my run, but I was definitely tired. As we were heading to the next exchange zone (about 8 miles away), I fell asleep riding shotgun and then once we got to the exchange zone, I jumped into the back seat to grab some more sleep, which turned out to be a bad move. I woke up as the last runner in our van was starting leg #24, so I probably slept for about 2 hours, but I was disoriented when I woke up. I grabbed a Clif Bar because I hadn’t eaten anything in the last 12 hours and almost immediately started to feel nauseous. I think the problem was not eating after I ran and not staying hydrated enough – after staying in the shade and drinking 2 bottles of water, I felt much better. That’s definitely something I’ll have to keep in mind for the next time I try something like this – staying well hydrated has never been a strength of mine, so with the heat, it was definitely something I should have been paying more attention to.

Tune in tomorrow for part III.

Ragnar Relay – Key West part I

Our team flew into Miami on Thursday, February 6 – most of our team was coming from Charlotte, but we also had team members flying in from New York City, Chicago and Louisville. For the most part, it was an uneventful trip into Miami, with the exception of our team member, Craig, who flew into Fort Lauderdale and took the train to Miami. He was delayed when there was a shooting at one of the train stations. Luckily, he made it to us safe and sound and we were able to head out for a team dinner.

I was in Van 2, so we were able to sleep in on Friday morning while Van 1 headed to the start line around 6:00am for a 7:30 start time. One of the guys on our team put together a spreadsheet so that we could track how everyone was doing on their legs and know when to expect them at the major exchange zones. Van 1 finished their legs (1-6, 23.16 miles) within 2 minutes of our predicted time and then it was time for Van 2 to get started, right around 11:00am. I was runner #8, which meant I had to run second in our van. Runner 7 had 4.2 miles to run, so after about 35 minutes, it was time for my longest run. I knew that I wanted to continue my run-walk-run training throughout this race, but I also wanted to increase my running time to increase my speed, so I opted for a 3:1 ratio. What I wasn’t counting on was the heat! It was about 8-10 degrees warmer than we originally expected, so it hit about 80 while I was running. This part of the race was still through Miami and it was open to traffic, so there were some times when runners would have to wait at stoplights until they could safely cross the street and that definitely happened to me at least once if not a couple times. 


Mile 1 – 9:06 pace <– too fast, but feeling good
Mile 2 – 10:30
Mile 3 – 11:12 <– waiting for stoplights
Mile 4 – 10:30
Mile 5 – 11:24 <– really slowing down
Mile 6 – 11:17
Mile 7 – 11:28
Last .98 – 10:33

I ended up changing my run / walk ratio around mile 5 because of the heat – I would run for 1:00, walk for :30, run for 1:30 then walk for 1:00. My overall pace for the 7.98 miles was 10:46, which was definitely slower than the 10:00 pace I was hoping for, but considering the heat, I felt it was a good pace for me. 

Overall, Van 2 had 35.93 miles in legs 7-12 and while we definitely were slower than we originally expected, we kept moving and finished around 5:30pm. Once we finished our legs, we headed to a grocery store to stock up on some more water, Gatorade and peanut butter and then headed to the next major exchange zone to grab a hot pasta dinner and showers at the school who was hosting us. This is also where we were planning to grab some shut eye before our next legs which were expected to start around midnight. 

Tune in tomorrow for part II.

Nike Women’s Half Marathon
Interested in trying to get a free entry for the Nike Women’s Half Marathon in DC? Nuun is hosting a contest for 5 free entries – follow this link and help me get some extra entries in the process (you’ll get your own code to share with friends after you register). 

Ragnar Countdown – 1 week to go!

With only a week to go before the big race, I’ve started to plan what I’m going to pack. Here’s a couple of my must-haves:

  • 3 full race outfits – most likely chosen from my favorites
  • 2 pairs of shoes – I’m sure the weather will be great, but I would hate to get soggy shoes and then have to run in them multiple times
  • Zip-loc bags – the relay runner’s best friend. They’ll keep all my gear organized and keep the van from becoming too smelly after all 6 of us have run a few of our legs!
  • Flashlights / blinking lights and a variety of glow in the dark paraphernalia – I’m taking my blue blinking lights from the Santa Hustle race and some glow in the dark necklaces. Last time we used the glow in the dark necklaces to decorate our van as well as for our runners. 
  • Sunscreen and visor – I burn pretty easily, so I definitely want to make sure I’m covered for my first venture into the sun this year.
  • Quilt – I’ve got a quilt that I made in high school that’s lap size and will be perfect for snuggling up under in the van at night and spreading out to take a nap on between my runs. 
  • Chargers – pretty self-explanatory, but I forgot my computer charger the last time I went to PA, so I will be double and triple-checking all of my chargers this time! 
Now, here’s some questions for you:
  • I’ve never been to Key West, so what should I make sure to see while I’m there?
  • What are your best solutions for staying hydrated and cool when transitioning from training in cold weather to running a warm weather race?
  • What other must-haves do you make sure to take for out of town races?

Ragnar Countdown – 2 weeks to go

So you want to run a relay race? 



I will say I’ve definitely had this conversation before! We’re a full 12-person team and expecting to run for about 33 hours, but everything else is pretty much the same! On a more serious note, if you’re interested in trying to figure out how to actually train for a relay race, Runner’s World actually has some really good tips. The biggest one is to try to do some double running days. I haven’t done that quite the way they describe it, because most of my weekly runs come from my soccer games, so what I usually do instead is play a soccer game at night, run the next morning and then play a soccer game that night. It worked really well for me last time, so I’m hoping it will work for me again this year. I’m running longer legs this time, but overall I’ll be doing fewer miles. Given the training I’ve been doing for multiple half marathons last year and my current marathon training, I think the distance should be manageable.

Have you ever done multiple runs in 24 hours? 

Ragnar Countdown – 3 weeks to go

My first race of the year is just 3 weeks away. For those of you who aren’t familiar with a relay race, it’s a pretty simple concept that at first glance, most people consider completely crazy! We have a team of 12 competing in the Ragnar Relay from Miami to Key West. The good news is that 9 of us did a similar relay race together in 2012, so we have a good idea of what to expect and what will be different. Here’s a quick comparison between the two races and what I expect to be different this time around:

Tuna Run, October 2012: 200 miles from Raleigh to Atlantic Beach, NC
Ragnar Relay, February 2014: 196 miles from Miami to Key West, FL

  • The Tuna Run was within driving distance for most of our team so we were able to use vans owned by team members and stuff them full of all of our gear, food, water and anything else we could think of before we headed to the start line. This year, we are all flying into Miami and we’re renting vans once we get there. We’ll also have an additional team member in each van this year, so we need to be more aware of how much we are all packing. Everyone is planning to get everything they need in for the race into a carryon bag. The best lesson that was passed onto us was to put a full outfit for each leg of your race into a ziploc bag and label it so that when you’re in the middle of nowhere trying to figure out what you should wear, you’ve already got it in one handy place. The bag also serves as a great place to store your smelly gear once you finish with your leg and are ready to change into some clean, fresh clothes. 
  • The rules of the race are also a little different than our first race. During the Tuna Run we had a team member who got injured while running their second leg, so we had to shuffle around some distances to cover his third leg. We were allowed to shuffle around however we needed to for this change, with the only rule that runners could not run back-to-back legs. For the Ragnar Relay, we are officially a mixed division team which means if one of our runners is injured and can’t run one of their assigned legs, their leg must be filled by someone of the same sex. Probably not a huge issue since we have 6 men and 6 women, but it does narrow down the field of eligible people to take on the extra leg.
  • The Tuna Run had less than 75 registered teams (only 49 teams finished) while the Ragnar Relay has over 500 registered teams! There was a lot of time where we were completely alone on the course for the Tuna Run, but we will definitely be in more of a race atmosphere with the number of teams participating in the Ragnar Relay.
  • With a bigger race comes more amenities. The Tuna Run exchange zones were often at churches or schools which would occasionally allow us to use their indoor restrooms, but often our only option was a porta potty. For this race, there will be exchange zones that offer showers and some of them will feature live bands!
Have you ever done a relay race? Do you think we’re crazy to sign up for a 200 mile race?


30 days to Florida!

With all the talk of the “polar vortex” yesterday and today, it’s a good time to start thinking about my upcoming 200 mile relay from Miami to Key West. Today there was over a 50 degree difference in temperature from Charlotte to Key West (70 degrees for our runners from Chicago)! A quick look at current temperatures shows that it has evened out a little bit, at least in Charlotte, but most of my family is still dealing with below zero temps up in Pennsylvania. Stay warm everyone!


How are you distracting yourself from the freezing temperatures?