I’ve wanted to do a Ragnar event for years and I finally got the chance last weekend! I used to read a lot of running/triathlon blogs in high school and college, and they all made relay events sound like a blast. The Ragnar Northwest Passage race starts at the US/Canada border and goes 196 miles down to Langley on Whidbey Island.
When someone at work mentioned that they had open spots on their team, I jumped at the opportunity. One woman on our team ended up with a swollen ankle the week before and had to drop out, so I volunteered my husband. We’ve been running quite a bit lately so I knew he’d be fine, although it was his first actual race!
We were both in van #2, which meant we could sleep in on Friday. Our van #1 started at 6:00 AM (we were not a fast team so we had the earliest start time). Blair had to work on Friday so we planned on splitting his leg between those of us with shorter first legs.
The first van exchange is at Bellingham high school, which is also where they have the expo and where van #2 signs in. Luckily we got there early, around 10:00 AM, so we had plenty of time to register, watch the safety video, and buy some Ragnar gear. I was the first runner in our van so I got ready to head out.
One of my least favorite parts of a relay is the anticipation of waiting for the previous runner to come in. I was all amped up to start running but I had at least 30 minutes of waiting, not knowing exactly when she was going to arrive. Finally I saw her (I’d never met her before but we all wear the same bib number) and I was off!
My first leg was through downtown Bellingham and along the bike path, so it was an awesome run! Unfortunately I didn’t take a lot of pictures so I don’t have many good ones to share here.
My plan had been to run a bit faster than normal since my first leg was only 3.7 miles. I was fine for the first few miles but towards the end it was unexpectedly uphill, which in addition to the heat made for a miserable last 0.5 mile. Normally I wouldn’t consider low 80s with low humidity to be “hot”, but when you’re used to running in 60s/70s weather it’s tough!
The next two legs (runner 8 & 9) were around 6 miles each and our teammates thought that they would be fine without water, but they both definitely underestimated the heat. Looking back we should have stopped halfway along the route to give them water. Ragnar races definitely expect teams to support their own runners so they don’t provide water stops, plus they went “cup free” this year so you had to have your own bottle anyways.
Amber was runner #10 and she had a 4 mile leg; after that was the 6.8 mile leg that we had to cover for Blair. I started off for the first half, which was downhill for a mile and then completely flat. I settled into an easy pace and I felt so great that I just wanted to keep going! Amber took over for me at 4.3 miles in to finish the rest of the leg, which was probably for the best since we still had a long ways to go until the finish. Then the last runner had about 4 miles until the exchange at Burlington’s local high school.
After passing off back to van 1, we went to Panera for dinner and then headed to the next van exchange at La Conner high school. I’ve never been to this small town before but I was pleasantly surprised at how beautiful it is! My husband was able to meet us here and we tried to get some sleep before our next leg that would involve running through the night.
Around 11:00 PM the runner from van 1 was approaching and I got ready for my 10.5 mile leg. This was my first time running with a headlamp! I’ve run in the dark plenty of times, but always where there were streetlights. I had thought that this would be the most difficult leg, but it actually flew by! Wearing headlamp in the dark seemed to create a tunnel-vision effect for me and the miles flew by.
I ate a caramel macchiato gu around mile 5 and that was seriously magical! I felt great after that until the giant hill at mile 9, which felt cruel but once at the top it was all downhill to the finish. I knew the exchange was at the casino and it was encouraging to see it from a mile away! However, once I stopped running, my body woke up to the abuse I was putting it through and my legs were not happy with me. I had done 18.5 miles so far and still had 6 more to do!
The next leg went past the refinery and across the pedestrian bridge, and then the two following were short legs through Anacortes. Those all went by quickly; then my husband, B, took off for his 9.8 miles heading south and across Deception Pass bridge. It’s unfortunate that most people cross the bride at night because it’s definitely the best part of the whole race!
While we were driving to find a spot to pull over to give B water we encountered a few vans that had stopped in the road. We quickly saw why they had stopped – there was a man dressed in all black walking along the road. It was super creepy because why on earth would someone be walking along a rural road dressed in a black costume at 3 AM? When he realized he was being trailed he stopped for a minute and then ran off into the woods! We reported it to the race officials via the app and needless to say, we were glad B was running this leg and not one of the girls.
Anyways, since this was B’s first run of the race he took off and pushed himself hard; we barely made it out with the next runner in time! He also got a special medal for completing this leg since it was so tough. Anastasia was the next runner up and we were all a bit worried for her since it was 9 miles and she seemed very tired. She proved us all wrong though and did fantastic, however we misinterpreted her request for water as a request to have someone pick up the last few miles for her.
So B took over the last 3 miles of her leg and it was rough for him since he’d blown himself out with less than an hour of rest. Funnily enough the last section of this run is a route that we run all the time and the exchange was very close to our house!
Finally we exchanged with van 1, realizing that although they had to wake up early Friday morning, they were able to sleep through the worst part of the night (our van ran from around 11:30 PM to 6:00 AM). To add insult to injury, van 1’s last section is also really short, meaning we had about 3 hours of a break until we had to meet up again. Luckily we are local to the area so we went home to take a shower and nap.
I wasn’t really able to sleep much but it was nice to just lay down for a few hours. Pretty soon we met back up and drove to the next exchange. I think I misinterpreted the messages van 1 was sending us and I underestimated the time the next runner would arrive by about 40 minutes.
Besides the lack of sleep, my least favorite part of a Ragnar race is waiting for your runner to arrive and having to be ready to run at a moment’s notice. My next leg was a really beautiful section through Ebey’s Landing historic area. I was fine for the first few miles, but during the last 2 I was ready to be done. 6.3 miles later and I finally handed off to the next runner! I had run over 24 miles in just about 24 hours!
Being the first runner in the van is nice because you get your section over with quickly and can relax the rest of the time. We had another few 7ish mile legs, then a few 4ish mile legs until the finish. By that time it was around 5:00 PM and we were all exhausted and ready to be done.
At the end the whole team is supposed to run in with the last runner, which is cool but also like… I didn’t want to run another step! They also had gear for sale at the finish and probably other activities that I was too tired to notice. They give each team 2 pizzas (which are cold by the time you get them), and they had some other typical post-race food. The entire race is very well-run, though, especially considering the magnitude of organizing a 196-mile route with 36 exchange points along the way!
I am also super proud of B for completing his first race and running 9.8 miles straight, the farthest he’s ever gone! Maybe we will be back next year….
