Ragnar leg two: After my hand-off I directed the van into Mount Vernon, where I grew up. Here's where being a local paid off: I knew where Denny's was. We skipped sleep, Mark and Craig grabbed some food there, I jogged five minutes in a parking lot then stuffed a bunch of snacks down my throat and we drove out to the major exchange. I dozed for 20 minutes on the grass until van 1 showed up. My leg picked up at Washington Park in Anacortes. After Andy and Craig ran long legs in this set Mark and I both pulled doubles. When Mark handed it to me we had stretched out under our prediction again, so things were going well. It had cooled down but was warm enough for short sleeves. The double of 23-24 put together a very hilly 6.3-mile leg with a 3.6-mile leg that was mostly downhill. I started 23 knowing it would be the bear of my race, so I pulled a little mental trick and ran blind, no looking at the watch. I didn't want to focus too much on "how much longer," at least that was the theory. I tried to maintain a solid pace up the hills, since there were a few major ones to start the leg. Again, I felt really strong on them and was passing a lot of teams (This was my training -- and where my house happens to be located -- finally coming through. I run hills every day, I have no choice.) I must have went by 20 teams this leg. There were some lonely parts though, which were exhilirating in a way. Middle of the night, trees so tall and near the road I couldn't see the moon, and just bombing along the downhills with no teams or cars in sight. It kept my mind busy, although the drivers using their brights on a skinny road gave me something else to think about. Jerks. I worked a few more hills, then with what I though was 1.5 to go glanced at the watch. I was right on target and still feeling pretty strong. I went through the exchange in good spirits -- and good time, 42:30 for a tough 6.3 (6:42) -- actually kind of excited to ultra the leg. One more climb and I was at Deception Pass, with the downhill lurking. I was smelling it. The bridge was tricky, it's a tight running path up really high, you're right on the edge of the bridge. I looked right at the start and almost lost my balance, really weird. I had to slow my stride down because the sidewalk was really inconsistent with little step-downs and slight turns, didn't want to sprain an ankle. But it was good -- when else will I run that thing at 3 a.m. and not be on LSD? (I'm kidding.) When I stepped off the bridge I got going again. I was pulling runners in pretty fast at that point, which had me jazzed and pulled me to the finish. There was a small hand-off snafu (see Dale's entry) but it only cost us a few seconds. 22:38 by my watch for 3.6 (6:17) . I was glad to be done, but fairly pumped for 3 a.m. or whatever. Total for the leg was 65:08, about 6:35. Ragnar leg three: We drove to Coupeville, the exchange was at the high school. I showered and the other guys crashed. When I was showering the fire alarm went off. Awesome. Since it's 4 a.m. there's no janitor there to turn it off (or firefighter, I suppose, if something was burning) so the thing blared for like 20 minutes. The four of us left and were driving to a quiet field when the alarm shut off. So we went back in and got about an hour and a half of sleep. Woke up to the sunrise, I drank a little coffee and ate a granola bar and then Andy took off on our last set. The last legs were nice, we had some good scenic stopping places. But people were feeling worn down. Andy doubled again and took 35 so I could just focus on the last one. I appreciated that. I got the baton after we'd watched two teams go through the exchange, we figured there were four ahead of us. I started off quickly, trying to pour it on for the last four miles. I was moving alright but could feel the fatigue. There was a hill from 1-2 miles and I did my best to keep the pace up. I passed a girl headed up, which helped for a little confidence boost. At the crest I knew I was within 2.5 and tried to get a good clip going. The downhill was very slight, but it helped. I caught the other guy with 1.5 left or so and moved past him. I was pretty cooked and just trying to stick the pace. I got into Langley and looked at my watch, hoping I could get 28 minutes for the leg. I thought I had it, but that last hill (starts at the 4 mile mark) was a pretty steady climb and I just couldn't hurry up it, the incline lasts until the chute. I was pushing for that finish line and was really, really excited to see the guys waiting. Got under 30 minutes for the leg (29:30/6:42 pace) which was good enough at that point. Overall, Ragnar NWP was a wonderful time. Different than other Ragnars I've run but with some other benefits like a moderate overnight temperature and some beautiful hilly and wooded terrain that was fun to run through. And great teammates, in the end I think we enjoyed the challenge of running short a few people. Makes it memorable. We were a little disappointed when the ultra team showed up just before noon to knock us into second, but we got over it pretty quickly. It would be cool to have the first place, but I'll take what we did with the guys we did it with. I figure I ran about 2:16 total for 20.9 miles, a 6:32 pace overall, and I'm excited about that. I feel great today and my legs aren't sore at all, 11 hours of sleep last night and two great meals -- Mexican food in Mount Vernon on the way back and breakfast with Cody today -- took care of that. So that's it.
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