Ragnar Relay from Santa Barbara to Dana Point

This weekend was an interesting one!

I was a member of team MILFs (Mothers Into Lifelong Fitness), what were YOU thinking? ;) My team was one of the 105 teams running the Ragnar Relay from Santa Barbara to Dana Point. The team consisted of 12 runners, divided in two vans, running178 miles in beautiful Southern California over a 24 hour period.

I was runner #6 in the first van. Our van covered legs 1-6, 13-18 and 25-30 the second van covered legs 7-12, 19-24 and 31-36.

Unfortunately, the night before the race, we were told that we couldn't run leg 4 and then legs 19-24, due supposedly to permit issues but I have my doubts that permits were ever issued given the fact that those said legs were extremely dangerous to run (i.e. the PCH in Malibu). As it was, some of the legs we actually ran, were really dangerous! We had different options to make up our "lost" legs and we decided to pair up with a few of the runners in van 2 running their first legs.

My very first leg was running 5 miles into Ventura, CA my "hometown" in the US. I guess I

must have been really excited because I ran my leg at a 7:32 pace. Since my second leg had been

eliminated (I was supposed to run on PCH into Santa Monica), I opted to run with my friend Monica, who was running her first leg in the middle of the fields off Pleasant Valley in Oxnard. We ran 5.5 miles at a nice steady pace. It was nice to have a running partner to chit chat with!

My last leg, was running 6.6 miles on a trail along Huntington Beach. It was beautiful! I was pretty sleep deprived by then and didn't really enjoy the run but I kept my pace steadily a little under 8, which I can't really complain about.

Both my official legs were on trails along the beach and although the scenary was breathtaking, the van with my other teammates couldn't shadow me (i.e. cheer me on, give me

water, etc.) so it was a little lonely but I made it!

It was a great experience and I'll certainly do it again. It was disapointing that they had to cancel so many legs, it gave us a long break in the middle of the night, so I don't feel like we got the full experience but I did log a few miles and I am happy with that! :)