Race Report: Ragnar Chicago

So during a seven-day span in June I:

• Moved from Oshkosh to Madison on a Tuesday;
• Unpacked an entire apartment;
• Left for Milwaukee on Thursday afternoon;
• Picked up a swanky 15-passenger van, gathered all my teammates and drove BACK to Madison Thursday night;
• Ran Ragnar Chicago on Friday and Saturday;
• Drove back to Madison Saturday night;
• Slept like a brick; and 
• Started a new job on Monday.

Looking back, I'm not sure I'd recommend anyone else do that. You kind of forget what city you're in.

But I couldn't pass up Ragnar Chicago. I mean, I didn't want to let my teammates down. And besides, it's one of the most fun weekends of the year.

I was runner 2 this year. New to me legs and the first time I actually got to run in the city of Madison! We woke up Friday morning and it wasn't raining. By the time we got to the start line and had to check-in, the rain was coming down pretty steady. Great.

Leg 2: 4.5 miles

It's still raining. I opt for no jacket or anything. Just my shorts and tank. Hey, if I'm going to get wet, I'm going to get wet. Renee comes in the chute, I get the slap bracelet and I'm off. I got less than 100 yards and get to a crosswalk staffed with volunteers and controlled with traffic lights. The volunteer waves me through. The light says "walk" so I start to run through the intersection.

And a stupid woman decides I don't deserve the right-of-way and decides to turn right in front of me. Almost hits me. What is it with me and drivers who refuse to wait an extra 10 seconds? Luckily I saw her, otherwise I would have been hit.

Rattled, I continued through the intersection. I get to the other side and promptly get attacked by a sidewalk. Face planted. Stunned, I sit up. Check my palms (not bleeding), gather my stuff and stand up. I check my Garmin (yes, yes I did). I'm one-tenth of a mile into my 2015 Ragnar Chicago and I've already almost been hit by a car and took a digger on the sidewalk. Great. My teammates aren't around, so I did the only thing I could. I started to run.

My knee, which took the brunt of the damage from the sidewalk, is bleeding. The blood is running down my leg (some guy filling up his gas tank yelled at me that my knee "didn't look too good." Really? I didn't know.), and it's a little sore. But really, what could I do? I didn't have my phone with me.

I eventually make it to the exchange zone, run up to Erica to pass off the slap bracelet and am met with, "Yay, Jen! What did you do?"

First aid? Anyone?

I met up with the rest of my team, explain what happened and do a quick clean up with the limited first aid kit that we have in the van. Once I get to the first major exchange at Lake Mills High School, I seek out some actual medical attention from the first aid tent, where they patched up my knee and elbow pretty good (it stayed on through the rest of Ragnar).

Leg 14: 4.5 miles

I tried to keep the knee pretty loose during the day. Thankfully getting in and out of the van to cheer on runners helped. So it wasn't as stiff as I thought it would be for this leg.

The run itself went pretty well. The rain finally quit (right after I finished my first leg), and the temperatures were perfect for a late June afternoon. This leg was mostly on the Glacial Drumlin Trail and just had a little bit of city sidewalks when I got into Waukesha. I was very, very careful on the sidewalks. I didn't want to get into anymore fights with them.

Leg 26: 6.3 miles

I started this leg at 3:30 a.m. It's pretty dark at 3:30 a.m. And it was kind of foggy and SUPER humid. I've never actually had a Ragnar leg in the actual middle of the night before, so this was a first. I left from a school in the Racine area and the first 3 miles or so of my leg was along a recreational path. Bordered on both sides by woods. So I'm running in the dark along a path with heavy trees and it seems like my headlamp is on the verge of dying.

Of course I'm thinking animals are going to come out and attack me.

So I try to run faster. And since this is my final leg and my bloody, wrapped knee is finally starting to get stiff, my legs decide somewhere around Mile 3.5 that they're done. No more. Thankfully I'm off the wooded trail and back on city sidewalks (again, watching them carefully!). So I do the run-walk thing.

I make a turn and pass the "Welcome to Carthage College" sign in Kenosha at Mile 5 and I see three fat rain drops. Which immediately turn into a torrential downpour.

Really? More rain? And not just a nice, soothing light rain. A cold, downpour.

Well, I'm going to get wet anyway, so who cares if I walk some, right? Only 1.3 more miles to go. If anything, that cold rain definitely wakes you up at 5 a.m. when you're working on 2 hours of Ragnar sleep.

I finally hand off the slap bracelet, get back into the van and set about trying to find some dry clothes. Oh, and it was the downpour that finally was too much for my bandaged knee. At the next major exchange (before we headed off to our post-Ragnar breakfast feast), I had another  stop at a medical tent for some re-bandaging.

Aside from the sidewalk attacking me a tenth-of-a-mile into my Ragnar and having two of my three legs run in the rain, it was a great Ragnar. Can't wait for 2016.

Up next: I climb a freaking mountain (OK, more like a bluff) during a trail half marathon

Ragnar Chicago recap

If I don't write this soon, I should just wait until next year's version of Ragnar Chicago.

For the third year in a row, I packed up my duffel bag and embarked on a 36-hour journey in a big white 15-passenger van with five of my running friends, set out to run the 200ish miles from Madison to Chicago.

Because it's been almost two months, I'm going with the short and sweet version.

I met up with my friends in Milwaukee on Thursday night. We had beer and pizza and then set off for Madison, where we checked into our hotel for the night and were greeted with hotel rooms the size of matchboxes.

Sure. Three people. One bed. And barely any floor space? And they called this a handicapped accessible room. Ummm, no. But I like these girls. And all we were doing was sleeping.

The next morning Ragnar started bright and early. I think we had a 6 a.m. start. Or maybe 6:30. I told you, it's been a while.

I was in Van 1, a first for me at this race, so I was excited to see all the new areas that I hadn't seen before. As Runner 3, my first leg was just a short 2.7 miles jaunt with some baby hills. In the sun, with no clouds and it was starting to get a bit warm. I managed to forget to hit start on the Garmin, so I have no idea how long this took me.

After all of our runners were done with their first legs, we took off to get some food. And make a backup plan just in case that stabbing pain Renee was feeling in her foot meant she wouldn't be able to run the rest of her legs. (Spoiler: She couldn't run.) After that we headed to the next major exchange and hung out in the grass underneath a tent. It was glorious.

Our second set of legs were our night legs. Mine was 5.5 miles through Waukesha and New Berlin. Let's just say it really seemed like I ran uphill for all those miles. So many uphills, but not downhill. What the heck? But I ran. Even when I was trying to run on the tiny little shoulder of the road and I feared for a few minutes that I was going to get schmucked by the the cars, which were driving really fast and coming straight at me.

Then we got to sleep. Like 3 hours next to the lake in Racine. The rhythmic blowing of the light house put me to sleep and I was dead to the world. Also, this sleeping thing during Ragnar? Fabulous. Before Key West I had never really gotten to sleep. Amazing.

Way too soon we had to wake up and run some more.

Sunrise in Racine. Not quite Key West, but still beautiful.

My final leg was another 5.5 through Kenosha. I'm not going to lie. This sucked.

I think 24 hours of running and sitting in a 15-passenger van was finally starting to make my back mad. Remember, I was in a car accident 3 weeks before Ragnar and was still dealing with a fairly messed up back.

During this run through Kenosha, it reminded me it was still hurt and it was getting angry. I ran the first half of the run, being distracted by the ginormous houses along the lake was helpful. But sometime around Mile 3 I just couldn't do it anymore. Every step hurt my back. And it didn't help that I hadn't had decent food since lunchtime the day before.

So I walked. I tried to run at times, but it wasn't going to happen. Too bad I was running through a commercial district, so I didn't even have pretty scenery to distract myself. Oh well. I eventually finished and got some food and water in me.

After our last runner finished, we headed off to a swanky Chicago suburb for this amazing breakfast at a waffle house. So much food. So many dishes. Really. They brought our drinks to us in a glass, in a small (warm) bowl. What? But so, so good.

After we were in a food coma, it was back to the van to navigate our way to the finish line, where we got our free beer and pizza and then found ourselves a spot of grass to hang out and chat with other friends until our team came running in.

Overall, another great Ragnar Chicago is in the books. Can't wait for 2015.

Ragnar Florida Keys - Part V: The Rest of the Fun

So after we finished running from Miami to Key West, I still had 2.5 days to enjoy the sights and stuff that Key West had to offer.

I present to you the rest of my Key West vacation, in picture format with limited words:

After waking from the dead on Sunday morning, I enjoyed some quiet time next to my hotel's pool with my book. Seriously, I could have spent the rest of my vacation here, but there was so much more to do and see.

First it was off to a little Cuban place for some pretty tasty tacos. I may have seen a rooster sneak into the kitchen and steal a piece of meat while I was waiting for my food. Apparently roosters wandering around Key West is completely normal.

Then it was off to jet ski around the island with Erica, Chris and Mo. So. Much. Fun. I hadn't been on a jet ski in nearly 20 years, but I figured out what I was doing pretty quickly. Mo and I doubled up on a jet ski, and I may have almost lost her once or twice on the choppy Atlantic side of the island, but no worries. We made it around the island and no one was lost. The tour was fun, we stopped in a couple of places, learned some Key West history and even had a chance to have fun near the end by either heading off and doing crazy things on the jet ski or floating in the Gulf. Yup. I floated with Mo and Erica. And then fell off the jet ski trying to get back on.

Later Sunday it was time to relax by the pool side tiki bar with some margaritas while watching some Winter Olympics (biathlon). Not kidding.

There was some celebratory drinking and eating on Duval Street at night.

Monday started off with a pool side massage that was to die for.

Then Mo and I headed out to explore the island. This day was a lot of fun. I've known Mo for a few years on Twitter and through mutual friends and we've gotten a chance to meet at races before, but this was the first time I got to spend a lot of time with her.

We took our hotel shuttle down toward Duval Street and started off with some pizza at this little pizza joint. What? You mean you don't go for pizza while in Key West? Well, both Mo and I had been craving pizza since sometime around the end of our nighttime legs. So we got pizza. And it was delicious.

Then it was off to explore.

We headed down to see the cruise ships.

Wandered around Mallory Square and then headed to the check out the Southern most Point. I tried hard, but couldn't catch a glimpse of Cuba.

Then it was time to rehydrate with margaritas at the Southernmost Beach. While watching the Winter Olympics. Today it was curling.

Then we found Mile Marker Zero on our way back.

Mo and I then stopped at World of Beer. So many beers. So many choices. And for this beer drinker it was hard to choose. But I ended up with some tasty drinks. And of course, we caught some more Olympic coverage.

After a couple of drinks - and some chips and salsa - we realized it was nearly sunset and we were close to this fabulous pier where a lot of people watch the sun go down and there's a nightly festival. So we high-tailed it over there. And it was totally worth it.

We got some food at this little out of the way restaurant. It had a restaurant dog! And the quesadilla I had was amazing. And we sat at picnic tables. Then it was time to head back to the corner where the hotel shuttle would pick us up, but not before we got some gelato at the pizza place we ate at earlier. There was talk of maybe heading down to the pool, but both of us sprawled out on our beds with our books and called it an early night.

Tuesday was my last day in Key West, and I only had a few hours before my flight left. But I got up early and headed out for a short run along the ocean path with Mo and our teammate Michelle. The reason? I wanted to catch a sunrise run in Key West.

While the run itself was hard, it was totally worth it.

And on our way back, Mo and I had to stop at the Welcome/Thanks for Coming sign.

Then it was back to the hotel to shower, eat and get ready to head home.

Funny story. I had a connecting flight in Atlanta, and this was the day a massive winter storm was supposed to start hitting the south. I barely made my flight and as I was boarding, the flight attendants were asking passengers to get settled quickly so we could get out of Atlanta. I didn't think anything of it until we landed in Milwaukee and the airport didn't have a jet way for us. Turns out my flight was one of the last to leave Atlanta and Milwaukee thought our flight had been cancelled!

Ragnar Florida Keys - Part IV: My Final Leg

Two-thirds of Van 1 getting ready to start our last legs.

After getting a couple of hours of sleep at the sketchy hotel, an alarm went off, telling us it was time to run again.

So we gathered up our bags and headed back downstairs (in the dark, it was like 5 a.m. or something) to the SUV and off we went to the major exchange. This exchange was located at the airport on Marathon Key. I never actually saw a runway, but I did see a hangar and the grass field that we parked in.

Soon it was time for Erica to set off on her final leg. Once she finished and Kelsey took off for her jaunt across the Seven Mile Bridge, the rest of us hit up a McDonald's in Marathon for some food. I'm telling you, hot cakes are a good way to fuel in prep for a run.

I got to play in the water while waiting for Kelsey to run across the Seven Mile Bridge.

It was only mid-morning, but the sun was out in full force and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Oh, and the temperature was flirting with 80. Not a good sign of things to come.

Eventually it was my turn to run.

I had 5.2 miles to run. Once again, it was a straight shot. Start on one key, run over a bridge, run through another key and one more bridge before finally ending on a third key. I think I started this run around 11:30 or noonish. Remember how it was warm in the morning? It was even hotter by this point.

Not good.

I took off for my run and was immediately faced with the first bridge. I just kept it steady. One foot in front of the other. And I stuck as close to the side of the bridge as possible in hopes of getting a little bit of a breeze, which I did. I passed one runner on the bridge.

I got to the other side of the bridge, saw my teammates and was still feeling OK.

Then somewhere around Mile 2 the bottom fell out.

It was hot. The sun was beating down on me. There was no shade. And once I was off the bridge, there was no breeze. I slowed way down. Walked a bit. But that wasn't helping. My head was feeling funny. I was a bit dizzy. Just not feeling right.

So I walked. A lot.

Because I know my head (remember The Monster?) and I know what will trigger a nasty migraine. Heat is one of those things and I really didn't want to spend the rest of my vacation in Key West dealing with a migraine and the after effects.

So happy to see this sign.

So I basically shut it down. When I came across my teammates again, I told them this. One of my teammates offered to run the rest of my leg (and her leg that immediately followed) for me, but I said no. I wasn't going to be that runner who quit. I'd finish the miles, it was just going to take me longer than expected.

I will say one thing, the other runners and teams out on the course were amazing. So many offered water or Gatorade. I did get some ice from a van full of guys at one point. I promptly shoved it down my sports bra.

I eventually finished. Grabbed a Diet Coke and pretty much downed it in a couple of gulps. Then we headed off to the last major exchange to meet our runner and hand off running duties to Van 2.

Van 2 is done!

Then it was off to Key West! We checked into our hotel and took a quick shower. Then we set off on foot (apparently we hadn't run enough miles in the last 36 hours) for Higgs Beach, where the finish line and post-race party were being held.

We got there with about 20 minutes to spare before Ian, our final runner got there. Then Team #Whale ran as a team through the finish line arch, had some photos taken and then headed off to claim our free beers.

Team #Whale

Most of Van 2 headed off to the hotel to get cleaned up before we all met up for dinner. And while the plan may have called for heading out for a few drinks on Duval Street, I'm pretty sure most of the team was dead to the world by 10 p.m. At least I was.

Stay tuned for a recap of what else I did while I was in Key West.

Ragnar Florida Keys - Part III: My Second Leg

 Why sleep when I can explore a race track?

When I last blogged, our sixth runner had finished her run and we had handed off running duties to the six runners who were in Van 2. That left us with a couple of hours to burn.

First we got food. Then we headed to Homestead-Miami Speedway, the site of the next major exchange. Some of my teammates promptly laid a blanket down on the concrete underneath the bleachers and fell asleep. Me? I tried, but I don't typically nap. So trying to sleep on concrete while some cars did practice laps on the track and military jets flew by was downright impossible.

I closed my eyes briefly, chatted with my parents, hit up real indoor bathrooms. You know, important stuff. It was eventually time for us to get ready to run again.

Quite possibly my favorite Ragnar van.

The sunset and pretty soon I was getting ready for my run in the dark.

I had 7.1 miles through Key Largo to look forward to. Unlike my first run, there were no turns on this run, so there was no worry about me missing a turn and adding on extra miles. Therefore, I didn't bother to take a map of the run with me.

Decked out in my reflective vest and head lamp, I got the slap bracelet from my teammate and headed out. My run started at the high school in Key Largo and headed out onto a bike path. Normally I wouldn't have a problem with a bike path. But this bike path was different.

It was under construction.

So I was running on an unpaved dirt trail that wasn't even packed down. Add in the fairly big rocks that littered the path and the massive craters I needed to avoid in order to make sure that I didn't twist or roll an ankle and it was an adventure.

And remember, I'm running at 11:30ish at night, so it's dark.

Fun times.

So I concentrated on slowing my pace down a bit, not killing myself and enjoying the nighttime run through Key Largo. I did throw in a little bit of speed every so often when I saw a runner in front of me that I wanted to pick off. I ended up passing seven people during the run - and none of those runners passed me again - so I was happy.

After about 3 miles, I got some relief and actually found myself running on a paved trail and sidewalk, but even that ended. The final mile was back on uneven, rocky, crater ridden ground.

But soon I found myself running to a parking lot area and handing off the slap bracelet to my teammate. She took off and we headed to the next major exchange where I, along with my teammates, inhaled a full pasta dinner at 1 a.m.

What? You don't inhale an entire pasta dinner at 1 a.m.?

After that it was off to this somewhat sketchy hotel room where most of us took quick showers to rinse off the day's sweat and sunscreen and then caught a few hours of much needed sleep.

Then it was time to run our final legs.

Stay tuned.

Ragnar Florida Keys - Part II: My First Leg

 Van 1 of team #Whale, from left, me, Michelle, Mo, Erica, Jenny and Kelsey.

We woke up in the dark at 3:45 a.m. and loaded up our SUVs. I snagged a spot in the back row, this would be my home for the next 37 hours or so.

Our first runner started in the darkness at 6 a.m., and three hours later, after four runners finished their legs, it was my turn to run.

I had an easy 3.6 mile run to get my Ragnar Florida Keys adventure started. It was about 9 a.m. and it was a little overcast. It had been a pretty foggy morning, but by the time I ran, the fog had burned off and it was just cloudy. I was glad for the clouds since it was already heating up temperature wise. It was kind of humid and the thermometer was already flirting with 80 degrees. Just a bit different than the sub-zero temps I've been used to.

What I was supposed to run.

Runner No. 4 came in a bit quicker than I was expecting, so I grabbed the slap bracelet and was off, while trying to put my ear buds in my ear and turn on my iPod. It was a good excuse not to take off too quickly, I guess.

My run started along a trail in a park. I dodge some piles of bird poo and steered clear of some odd looking ducks and before I knew it, I was out on the streets of a neighborhood. The trip through the neighborhood was short lived though since when I made that first left hand turn I found myself running on a busy street in a commercial district.

Not the most scenic run.

Although I did see some road kill that I'll never see in Wisconsin: A dead iguana.

There wasn't much exciting about this run. Well, until I was on the final straightaway.

See I was just running along. There were runners around me. The sun came out and it started to get really hot. I'm not exactly sure what happened, but all of a sudden I noticed there were no runners around me. This was odd. And then I glanced at my Garmin and it told me I'd gone 3.7 miles. Ummm, I should be at the finish line and I didn't see any signs of a finish line.

Thankfully I had my phone with me and for some reason I had thought to snap a picture of the route I was supposed to be running. So I stopped and pulled out my phone.

What I actually ran. I realized I missed a turn at the star.

Huh. Apparently I missed a turn. Like almost 10 blocks ago.

This kind of sucks, I thought to myself.

So I turned around. Walked a little bit. Ran a little bit. Prayed that the city of Miami magically skips numbers when it came to streets. Finally I got to the corner where I spied the sign that told me I should be turning. Yeah, I don't remember that being there before, but it probably was.

I was finally back on track. The exchange was in sight. I ran. Passed a girl and finally was able to hand off the slap bracelet to my teammate.

5 miles later I was done.

In the end my 3.6 mile leg turned into 5 miles. Yeah, that's just a bit of extra running.

But it was nearly time for Van 1 to go off duty and get some food.

Stay tuned.

Ragnar Florida Keys - Part I: Getting there

When I sign up for a Ragnar, I know I’m going to be in for an adventure.

Little did I know when I signed up for Ragnar Florida Keys, the adventure would start even before I left the state of Wisconsin.

After the longest three-day work week ever, I took off for Milwaukee on Wednesday night after work. With an early Thursday morning flight, I was going to be crashing at my friend Erica’s place (she was also on my team) and we’d leave for the airport in the morning. After food, a beer and trivia with friends, we called it a night and got ready for an early morning wake up call.

Our flight was supposed to leave Milwaukee at 7:25 a.m., so we got dropped off at the airport shortly after 6. That gave us plenty of time to check in, get through security and find food before we would have to board our flight.

Sounds simple, right? Yeah, didn’t happen that way.

 

We checked in our on the self-service kiosks, and seriously, as soon as the machine spit out my boarding pass, the ticket agent made an announcement that anyone on the flight from Milwaukee to Houston should not check in because our flight was delayed. Or cancelled. She kept interchanging the words. And last I checked, they didn’t mean the same thing.

So Erica and I went up to the counter to try to figure out what was going on.

 Hint: This is not the airplane window seat I wanted.

Yup. Flight was cancelled. And there were no other flights from Milwaukee that could get us to where we were going. So instead the woman booked us on a flight leaving from O’Hare – at 9:30 a.m. Umm, looking at my watch that did leave us much time. So with new boarding passes in hand, along with a $7 food voucher and a boarding pass for a bus that would take us to O’Hare, we were off.

This bus was supposed to show up just after 7 a.m. and of course it was late. So our already tight travel time to Chicago – the ticket counter lady told us it would only take an hour to get to O’Hare, which we found hard to believe – got worse, especially when we found the bus taking the city streets to a little bus depot instead of getting on the interstate.

And at the bus depot, we stopped. And waited. And waited some more.

And there may have been talk of me hijacking the bus, a la Speed.

We finally left the bus depot and got on the interstate. We drove. Then got off. And waited. Back on the interstate. Back off. Erica and I just looked at each other. It would have been nice had the ticket counter woman told us this bus was going to be making multiple stops to pick up phantom passengers. Instead we just started freaking out. Because we were going to be cutting it really close in O’Hare.

As in, we pulled up to the airport with 25 minutes before our flight was supposed to leave.

I ditched any plans to check my bag and we rushed to the security line. While waiting, I ditched some liquids so I wasn’t completely breaking TSA rules. We got through security and made it to our gate, where our flight was already boarding.

Thankfully it was a big plane, which meant it was a long line to board. After catching my breath, I went to grab my boarding pass and nearly had a heart attack.

I didn’t have a boarding pass anymore.

I figured I must have left it in TSA, so I sprinted back to the security gate. The TSA folks looked at me like I was crazy as I explained I lost my boarding pass. Then they just told me, “Just tell the gate agent TSA lost it and they’ll print you another one.” Apparently lots of people lose their boarding passes in TSA land.

 We're getting on an airplane!

So I ran back to my gate, got a new boarding pass and within the next few minutes, Erica and I were on a plane and headed to Miami via Houston.

The rest of our travels to Florida were uneventful. We got to Miami, hailed a cab to or hotel where we met up with our team.

Then it was lights out for a very, very early wake up call at 3:45 a.m.

Then it was time for the Ragnar Florida Keys adventure to really begin.

Stay tuned.

Stay tuned for Ragnar Florida Keys recaps

I traveled, I ran, I saw sunrises and sunsets, and I had a pretty fantastic time in Key West.

Stay tuned for a multi-post recap of my week long trip to Florida for Ragnar Florida Keys.

Until then, enjoy this.

Sunset at the Ragnar Florida Keys post-race party on Higgs Beach, Key West.

I'm going to Miami! And then running to Key West!

One week from today I will be running.

From Miami to Key West. Yup. I'm doing Ragnar Florida Keys and we start bright (dark?) and early at 6 a.m. Florida time one week from today.

I'm. So. Excited.

It all started way back in August. I was in the starting corral at the Madison Mini waiting for the race to begin. Standing with me were my friends Erica and Aaron. And before the anthem was sung and the starting gun sounded, Erica turned to me and said, "You totally want to run Ragnar Florida Keys with me."

I smiled. Laughed. Said it sounded like it would be fun and I'd let her not. Not completely intending to even really consider it.

But I did. A lot. And eventually I fired off an email to Erica that simply said, "I'm in."

 None of my legs run over the 7 Mile Bridge, but I'll be driving over it!

I decided to do it for a couple of reasons.

It's Ragnar Florida Keys. I've never been to the Keys and what better way to see it than by foot?

• Of the 11 other people I'm running with, I know a handful of them. But they're cool people. And those that I don't know? Well, I'm pretty sure I'll get to know them better by the time we hit Key West!
• 
  
• When I decided to do this in September, little did I know what this Wisconsin winter would have in store. But it turns out that this was a pretty perfect year to schedule a mid-winter vacation.

I'm runner No. 5, so I get legs 5, 17 and 29. I don't know a ton about each leg but I do know:

• Leg 5 is 3.6 miles through what looks like a Miami neighborhood. If we run our legs according to our estimated paces, I should be running this at about 9 a.m.
• Leg 17 is my night leg. It's 7.1 miles along US Highway 1 through Key Largo. It actually looks like I run a substantial portion of Key Largo. If all goes to plan, I should be starting this leg around 8:30 p.m.
• Leg 29 is a 5.2 mile leg that takes me across bridges! According to the map, I start on Ramrod Key, I get to cross a bridge over to Summerland Key and then cross another bridge over to Cudjoe Key. I end my leg on Blimp Road, where I'll apparently be greeted by something called the Fat Albert Blimp. If all goes to plan, I'll start this leg sometime around 8:30 a.m. Saturday.
• Once all my runs are done, I'll have run 15.9 miles over the course of 24 hours.

I haven't even thought about packing yet, but I do know I'll be taking the GoPro camera that I bought with some Christmas money I got. I haven't gotten to play around with it too much yet, but I'm hoping to test it out this weekend. Because I want to get some cool video footage on my runs and during our cheering and of course during the rest of my Key West vacation!

That's right. In planning my trip, I decided to stick around Key West for a couple of days after we finish Ragnar, to relax, have fun and enjoy myself. I know a few of us are planning a jet ski adventure and I'd love to try stand up paddle boarding or some kayaking adventure while there.

Now, once I get back I'm pretty sure I'll have multiple blog posts to share. But if you want to follow along on the adventure in real time, you can always catch me on Twitter, @BadgerJen2002. Or for all of my team's shenanigans, you can stalk our team #whale at @TridentKillaz.

Can't wait!

Getting ready for spring

Now that the calendar has flipped to 2014, it's time to start thinking of a spring race schedule.

I don't have a ton of races on my schedule at this point, actually only two real event: Ragnar Florida Keys in February and the Cellcom Green Bay Half Marathon in May. I might add on a second half marathon (either Oshkosh in April or the Wisconsin Half Marathon the first weekend in May) and there may be a 5K or two sprinkled in. Oh, and I'll be back for Ragnar Chicago in June.

While I haven't set my race schedule in stone, I have given my training schedule a bunch of thought. Mainly I'm not going to slack this year.

After two solid years of chasing PRs in 2011 and 2012, I kind of took a step back last year. My training wasn't so rigid, I may have missed some long runs (OK, a lot of long runs), but I still ran half marathons. The big difference? I wasn't chasing PRs, I was running to have fun with friends. And I did.

But I have the itch to get back to some faster times (well, fast for me anyway) and try to get some new PRs this year.

I know that will take work though and I'm ready to do it.

For starters, when I registered for Green Bay, I took advantage of a deal they had running with RunCoach, an online training program that is customized to each runner and can be tweaked if needed throughout. Normally it runs $20 a month, but through the Green Bay registration process I got 4 months of online coaching for $20. That's a deal to me. My plan starts today with a rest day. But of course, I'll be running since I didn't venture out onto the roads yesterday since they were literally skating rinks.

The next thing I'm going to do is keep up with cross training and strength work.

Since October I've been taking advantage of the free classes offered at my YMCA. I've always found strength work intimidating. I need someone to tell me what to do. So I started going to a P90X class on Monday nights and a cardio abs class on Wednesdays. And I love them. The P90X class doesn't follow the actual program exactly, but the instructor incorporates all of the ideas from the 90 day program into our classes and changes up weekly so it's never been the same class twice and the cardio abs class has a similar P90X feel.

While I'm going to keep going with P90X, I'm changing up my Wednesday night class. Starting last week my YMCA started offering Body Pump. Actual weights work with weight plates and barbells. And so many squats and lunges my legs wanted to cry. Oh, and I totally realized I have absolutely no upper body strength. And I'm also going to try to add a small bit of yoga once a week.

So there you have it. My plan to regain some speed: 4 runs a week, one night of P90X, one night of Body Pump and a little yoga.

Now if only the weather would cooperate so I could run outside instead of indoors on the treadmill or around in circles on the indoor track.

Ragnar Chicago

Ragnar Chicago.

I'm finding it hard to put those 60 or so hours I spent with 11 other amazing people into words.

In short, it was everything I could have asked for and more.

It all started Thursday afternoon when I headed down to Milwaukee to meet up with a chunk of my teammates and pick up our vans. The six of us who would be spending the next two days in Van 2 got lucky and ended up with a 15-passenger van. Yes. 15-passenger. And me? The girl who drives a Ford Focus? I drove that spaceship to Madison. And didn't crash. Although Garmin Dave might have gotten a bit snippy with me at one point.

 Pre-Ragnar bonding.

Once we got to Madison, we checked into our hotel and met up with our remaining teammates before heading out to Noodles for some pre-Ragnar food. Then it was back to the hotel and time for some more team bonding. Which of course involved beer.

At some point, the Van 1 teammates decided it was time to sleep - something about having to run early in the morning - so us Van 2 runners continued our bonding and drinking downstairs in the hotel lobby.

Team B*****s Be Crazy, being a little silly.

The next morning dawned bright and early. Our runners would be starting at 8 a.m., but we all met up at the start line for pictures. Before we knew it, Runner No. 1 was off and so was Van 1.

 

We jumped. Or tried to.

For the six of us in Van 2? First there was an attempt at a jumping picture. Then it was time for food. One power outage - while I was in the shower - and one fire alarm - while I was clothed only in a towel - later and we hit the road for Lake Mills to decorate the van and wait for our teammates.

We got prime parking at Exchange 6 in the Lake Mills High School parking lot. Seriously. Every Ragnar van wanted the LCat of the Week spot (which apparently didn't matter too much since our van got hit by another big white Ragnar van).

 

 It's harder to draw Mr. Potato Head than you think.

After going through the safety briefing, we got down to the business and decorated the van. There were boxes to check off when legs were finished, a "map" from MadTown to ChiTown, Mr. Potato Head and some feathery ta-tas.

Eventually we met up with our Van 1 teammates and we went to wait for Runner No. 6 to come in. And with minutes to go, we were left scrambling after hearing that Leg 7 would be 3.5 miles longer due to a detour. We switched up runners at the last minute and then it was time for Van 2 to begin our first set of legs!

Van 2 girls! Who knows where the boys were.

We leap frogged with out runners along the routes and cheered them into the exchanges. Eventually it was time for my first run, a 5.9 mile jaunt along the Glacial Drumlin Trail. A straight shot. No chances of me getting lost. Even though it was only 6:30 p.m., I would be finishing just after the nighttime hours went into effect, so I was decked out in my neon yellow tank, my reflective vest and headlamp. Oh, and I was still wearing my sunglasses. Because, you know, the sun was still shining.

I finished my leg and handed off the slap bracelet to Runner No. 12. After he was done, it was time to find some food. After we pulled into Exchange 18, we all tried to get a little bit of sleep, knowing we'd be running our next legs in the middle of the night.

Tried is the key word. My eyes were closed. But it was that restless sleep. Tossing, turning, hearing all the voices. I maybe got an hour or so. But at least I was able to close my eyes in the dark.

Sometime in the middle of the night, Van 2 started running again and before I knew it, it was 4 a.m. and time for me to run again. This time it was 7 miles through the neighborhoods in Racine. My longest leg. It was cold when I started running - like see your breath cold - but I warmed up quickly. And if I was worried about getting attacked, I shouldn't have since I was armed with a plastic knife from Noodles (thanks to a teammate). On this leg, I'm proud to say I registered two kills. And let me tell you, they were hard!

But 7 miles after I started, I was done and handing off to Runner 12 and shortly after, we were greeted with this:

Welcome to Racine, folks.

There was another stop for food, and even though we all were starving, we barely touched the food once it came to the table and I may have had my first regular Coke in more than 8 years.

We headed to the last major exchange to wait for Van 1 to finish up and then we began our last legs through Illinois. My 4.9 mile leg was through Evanston. Had I not been paying attention to the sidewalk in an attempt not to fall flat on my face, I would have been greeted with some pretty amazing scenery as I ran through some pretty swanky neighborhoods with huge houses.

I'm responsible for five of those marks.

I grabbed one kill while in sight of my van mates. What? The dude slowed down to walk. He was right there in front of me. I sped up. He decided to start running again. I couldn't let him stay in front of me. So I sprinted. Passed him - barely - and then slowed down and watched him pass me up. Dude. Still counts as a kill.

When I was in front of the Northwestern University football stadium, some lady told me it was "just straight for three blocks, take a right and another three blocks and you're done!" Liar. I swear I went like 9 blocks straight and another 6 after I turned right. They must count blocks funny down there in Evanston.

But I eventually finished. Handed off that slap bracelet to Runner 12 and we were off to try to beat him to the finish line in Chicago traffic (harder than it sounds since he was speedy!). But we did it (barely), ran into the finish line with our teammates and had a mini celebration before heading home.

What. An. Experience.

Seriously. Ragnar Chicago 2013 was amazing. I couldn't have asked for a better group of people - many who I already knew, but a few new friends as well - to travel that 200ish miles with.

When can we do it again?