Running and Ragnar just seem to go hand in hand or rather, one foot in front of the other.
When I put #11 – Ragnar on my list at the beginning of this year, I never dreamt I would have the opportunity to participate in this event so soon.
For those of you who have never heard of Ragnar, it is a 196 mile relay race. There are 12 Ragnar races held around the country during the year. The one I will be a part of is the Northwest Passage–Blaine to Langley, WA, July 19-20, 2013.
Blain to Langley, WA (click to see whole map)
Why do this you may ask? Besides being part of a great team of women and maybe a male or two, Team Pipulsion led by Susan Howard Wade gives me a great opportunity to push myself.
Running for me has always been about competing against what I have done and how can I do it better or faster. I completed a 15 mile run during my training for the Pasadena Rock’n’Roll Half Marathon in February. Now it is, can I run 15+ miles broken up over a 36+ hour time frame with little or no sleep?
So I’ve changed my training schedule around a bit. The Seattle Rock’n’Roll Half Marathon, June 23rd, will “just” be one of my long runs. It has been incorporate into my overall training for Ragnar over the next 3+ plus months. My new training will consist of doing several 3 runs a day, morning, noon and night, besides kicking up my weekly mileage. What that means is my weekday 3 – 4 mile runs will be longer and my Saturday’s long runs will have several more miles added to them. I will also have to be sure to do my strength training, not once or twice a week but several times a week.
Yes, this is crazy. But that feeling when we all are at the finish line can only be one of awesomeness. And “WOW…did we just do that?!?!?!”