Ragnar Relay SoCal

Communication:

Communication was a plenty. Lots of info via email and Facebook. A website dedicated to the race with lots and lots of info/updates. Bad part was they kept having to change things due to unapproved routes. When you see your already high mileage go up a mile or two, it brings tears.

Packet Pick Up:

Pick up was a check in before the start time. Also a virtual goody bag, which I am not a fan of. I like tangible loot. Which they had that too.... So best of both worlds I guess. Actual bag contained stickers, tattoos, bio freeze, blocks, a bag and a sweeeeet shirt.

Course:

The course was scary at times, beautiful at others. Depending on what runner you were. You cover a lot of ground in 195 miles... Along the beach was beautiful. I mean, of course, unless it's your last run and you’re about to accident in your pants or barf.

Course Support:

This is where I am miffed. I was scared for my life running by myself at 1:00 a.m. in the morning.... Running for almost 3 miles with no sign, no support, nothing. I had tears in my eyes not knowing where I was going... Homeless and random men on the streets, it was an inner city traffic area. Come on Ragnar, you can do better! Same thing happened on my third run. They seriously skimped on the signs and I learned my lesson, I am going to put GPS coordinates in my phone next time. I was really actually pissed about it.

Medal:

Sweet medal... See?

After Race Support:

After race was cool. Lots of hype, lots of freebies. Monster muscle milk? For free? Yes please.

All in all a fabulous time with friends. Party on, ragnarians!!! Always seems like a good idea... Then it doesn't... Then it ends up being a great decision. I give this race 4 shoes!

Red Rock Relay Dixie 2014

What can you say about St. George, Utah in March! Coming from a snow storm and 30 degree temperatures to sunny St. George was spectacular. It certainly brought on the spring fever, especially once we returned to the 30 degree climate.

 

Here is my disclaimer for this race, my team did not finish first. We finished 19^th. But, since we crossed the finish line first I am going to refer to it as our first place finish for the remainder of the review. (Whoever the team is that actually finished in first place; please don’t hate me, you did after all get to sleep in longer than us and were not forced to wear a head lamp on your first leg.)

Red Rock Relay Dixie was a one day relay race put on by the same company that does Red Rock Relay Zion, which was a two day relay that we previously reviewed. The communication was really great from the beginning. The race guide was very detailed and was great on race day for driving and running directions. Their emails were comprehensive and just frequent enough to not cause anxiety. 

As an added bonus, we got free hoodies based on the weekend we signed up. The hoodies were ones that didn’t sell from the previous year races and there were not a lot of size or color choices left. But I am not going to complain too much about a free sweatshirt especially considering what the race shirts looked like. One of the great things about doing races are that you get race shirts that you can run in. The shirt that we were given are not shirts you can run in, they are designed to be a shirt that you would wear after you got cleaned up from your run. Let’s just say, it has been given a better home.

Like all relay races, the course support is provided by your team. At the finish line there appeared to be some food. However, it was all wrapped up and while there were people there, they made no effort to offer us the food or unwrap it so we could get our own. It’s completely possible that the food wasn’t there for racers but rather the volunteers for the race. It was okay though, because St. George has a Swig! We headed there for our after race drinks and snacks. Seriously, could be the best chocolate chip cookie ever! (They have fantastic sugar cookies and drinks too. And no this post is not sponsored by Swig, but I would seriously run in a Swig shirt if they would give me free cookies!)

Oh the medal, (insert long pause here). Well, it was pretty unremarkable. Not good or bad, just a medal. Of course, I am super happy to add another one to the collection. 

I forgot to mention the port-a-potties. This was the best part of being in first place, we got the use of unused port-a-potties the majority of the race. The only bad thing (keeping in mind we are talking about mobile toilets) is a few of them were place precariously. There were two exchanges where the wind was really strong, one wrong step and the potty was going to tip over! Really though, when you have to go you just take that chance. Logically, this was an issue with the company that dropped off the port-a-potties for not securing them properly. However, the race director probably should have checked each exchange and let someone know of the hazard. Is this a little nitpicky, yes. But, would you have ridden in the van with me after I got soaked in a used port-a-potty?

Overall, I am giving this race 3.5 shoes. This is another of those low key relay races that can be really fun with the right team. It’s not highly competitive and it’s great training for those longer relays. The best part of the race by far is the team you run with.