San Diego or Bust!

Goooood morning! As of 5:30 am PST, we are officially en route to San Diego, via miles and miles of road, sidewalk, beach trails and highway shoulders through an adventure called Ragnar So Cal. 

Team #SWAGNARstrikesback got started with Marco, one of our first-timers (!), leading us off. I'm in Van 2, so I have time to chill and cheer people on as we get set. I'm also runner 11, so even once Van 2 starts, I've got a bit of a wait ahead of me. I've been in Van 1 enough that I'm used to having the fun early on in the day, so this will be a challenge in controlling my antsyness in wanting to get started already! Yipes!

Follow the team along at #SWAGNARstrikesback  + cheer us along! Be sure to also follow me for all the in-between fun too: @runmeganrun // @__MeganJohnston // Run Megan Run

A Ragnar Packing List

Running a Ragnar relay is unlike any other race experience you've ever had. While your team has a start time, the time you actually start running might be one, five, eight hours later, so you're kind of all-day prepping for a race start. You could run at 8 am and 3 the same afternoon and then again at midnight, so how do you fuel up? When do you sleep (spoiler: not much, if at all). 

There are enough logistics to throw a race-day-prepper for a total loop, so how on earth do you keep yourself straight when you're out of whack with your normal race morning prep? My best advice: make sure you've got it all - everything you'll definitely need, everything you think you'll need, and everything that you've never thought about needing because at some point, it will come in handy. Trust me. 

I created this Ragnar packing list for you to help keep yourself straight for 20-something hours of fun. Link leads to downloadable PDF - share away, I just ask that you keep my handle and info on the page if you share/re-post the images! 

Downloadable here. 

That's about it. I'll also add to the Van Supplies a food list for your team. Consider community snackage over everyone bringing their own thing (and therefore more coolers). Team essentials will vary team to team, but I've always found myself with tons of leftover snackage for drives/flights home, which is never a bad thing in my book. Better to have too much food that to wake up starving in a van driving through Maryland countryside at 2 am with nothing open, right? 

Good luck on your Ragnar adventure!  

It's Ragnar Week!

Ragnar So Cal 2016

It's Ragnar week! I'm pretty much giddy - while the team has been coming together for a few months, it's like it's finally time to get my ish together and get ready for another ridiculous running adventure 

through Southern California. This is my fifth Ragnar, but only second time running So Cal:

Washington, DC (2012)

So Cal (2014)

Napa (2014)

Del Sol (2015) <-- apparently I never got as far as writing a recap! 

I love Ragnar and everything about it basically. Run, eat, sleep?, repeat is pretty much the only way I'd like to spend a weekend! Even though it's my fifth, there are some new quirks to this Ragnar that I'm anticipating, but am stoked about. 

First of all, meet the team! We are mostly from our running club, IERC, who is fielding like 8 teams in So Cal this year, which is huge and awesome. We are team #SWAGNAR Strikes Back, a team reincarnated from a few team members from last year, just with a new theme, and a lot of us that are new to the Swagnar fam. 

• Jacky, Nikkie, Jack, Kristine and John were part of #Swagnar last year.
• Jacky, Nikkie and Darrell are also high school friends! 
• I've gotten to know Nikkie through some races and Darrell through plenty of Mad T excursions at Disneyland. 
• Carla's boyfriend is Juan.
• Mayara's husband is Jesse. 
• Darrell, Marco, Jesse and Juan are all Ragnar first-timers! They are in for an adventure of a lifetime, that's for sure! 
• Mayara's also our speedy Boston-bound team member - woot! 

We've got a good team ahead and I am way excited for another venture down the coast. As runner 11, I'll be running about 22 miles, which is perfectly in line with where I need and want to be for OC training, so I'm pretty pumped about how that shaped up. 

Bring on the week of packing, laundry, re-packing, more packing, last-minute Amazon orders (yay Prime!), and getting our ish together on Thursday for an early morning start in Huntington Beach! We start at 5:30 am on Friday, and anticipate a mid-afternoon finish on Saturday afternoon.

Follow the team along at #SWAGNARstrikesback  + cheer us along! Be sure to also follow me for all the in-between fun too: @runmeganrun // @__MeganJohnston // Run Megan Run

Who else is running Ragnar So Cal this year? Make sure you leave your team name and runner # so I can track you down! 

Ragnar Del Sol: Part 1

Ragnar Del Sol | Wickenburg to Mesa, Arizona

February 20 - 21

Team Del Sol Sisters

My bestie, Tina, jumped on a Ragnar Del Sol team a few months ago... and apparently this team just couldn't hold on to folks because sooner rather than later, she had two more fabulous running friends on board (Erica and Mandy)... and not even a week before the race, I had an offer, too. Honestly, Ragnar is a great time but I wasn't sure it was in the books for me this year, but this offer was pretty financially amazing (I paid for van rental, gas, and my team shirts) and it was too hard to turn down. Perks to being unemployed? I can jump and go when I want.

Thursday I subsitute taught all day and at the first chance to get out after dismissal, I hopped in the car and beelined for the car rental facility (thankfully, not far) to pick up my car and hit the road. Without thinking that it was a Thursday afternoon at 4 pm, I hit monster traffic all the way through Palm Springs, and was already antsy to get to Tina's house.

Stateline! Woot!

Amazingly, I still made it in about five hours, but with the time change, I didn't get to Tina's driveway until just after 10 pm. With a 2:30 am alarm clock, I pretty much rolled in, got my stuff organized for the morning, and passed out.

Like I said, our alarm clocks were set wayyy too early - a 2:30 am wake up call so we could get up, get our stuff together, pack the van, and be on our way by 3:15 am for the hour drive to Wickenburg. Out the driveway at 3:12 am - are we good or what? We made it to Wickenburg in just about an hour, also right on tap, and in time to get me situated, fed, and dressed for our 5 am start time. As Runner #1, I was the one that really needed to be ready to go that early - lucky me!

Have I mentioned Wickenburg is kind of the middle of nowhere?

And that this middle of nowhere, desert town is really, really cold at 4 am in the middle of February? It was beyond freaking cold, but being the brilliant person I am, I brought one pair of pants to lounge in, and nothing longer than shorts to run in because in my head, "Oh, it's Arizona! I won't freeze." Wrong.

So I froze until start time. To further add to the mess, my Garmin died as soon as I hit 'Locate,' despite being charged all of Wednesday night (or so I thought). Frustrating to say the least, but luckily my rockstar teammate Erica let me use her Nike band.... until we realized its memory was full! What a weekend for technology!

So at 5:06 am, we were off! Bright dark and early, along with probably 25 other teams. Leg 1 was 8.6 miles, with a pretty nasty incline throughout:

Not a hard incline, just a long, treacherous one through dark desert hills. It got to me more than I had hoped it would, but I still knocked out 8.72 miles in 1:27 and change, just two minutes over my projected time and a 10:00 minute pace overall. I wasn't super happy with my first leg, but knew that it could only get better from there, right?! Right.

I had also hoped that my leg would get me some stellar views of the sunrise, but it actually worked in my favor that sunrise didn't hit until after my leg was over so I could enjoy it even more. Toni's leg was flat and gave her full view of the sun peeking over the cacti and brush, and left me seriously in awe of what I had woken up so early for. Arizona wins at sunrises, hands down, y'all.

The day was surprisingly cool, and just about any time I was outside the van, I had a hoodie on, if not pants and a hoodie too. Who knew Arizona actually had cool weather? I kid, I kid. Runner after runner, cowbell after cowbell... soon, it felt like we'd been going at it for hours and hours. Toni finished her first leg, then Mandy, Erica, Alicia, and soon enough we were on to Tina's first leg to wrap up the first round for Van 1!

We sent Tina on her way and made our way to the first major exchange to meet Van 2. Mind you, aside from the Facebook group, I literally hadn't met anyone in person, as I had missed van decorating fun the night before since I drove in so late! So I was excited to actually meet everyone - our captain, Stacy, and Olivia, Molly, Angie, Camie (runner turned drive due to injury) and Dawn! It was finally coming together - it's nice to meet people and see faces rather than just profile photos!

Del Sol Sisters, minus 1.

Tina came flying in (that girl ran her fastest mile EVER in the first mile of her leg, mind you!) and we got our team photo, amidst some chaos with the photographer, so really the 'team' photo turned into a team of 11, or 7, or 8, depending which version you've got. Hilarious. At any rate, we said our quick 'hi's' and 'byes' to Van 2, and we got our selves re-situated, out of the dust bowl of a parking lot, and on to our most coveted destination: FOOD. Chipotle on tap, which is pretty much the best post-long-run food ever and we were beyond excited. So excited, our van 1 photo had to wait until after food so we were all happy enough to smile...

And just like that, it was on to the next major exchange for a little downtime... but more on that soon!

Did you run Ragnar Del Sol?

Unexpected Adventures

So, somehow I've found myself on a Ragnar team. As of last Friday, officially. For a Ragnar that starts... tomorrow.

I mean, realistically, this is probably not shocking. Tina has been on a team with her local Moms Run this Town group (or at least what started this way). Over the last few weeks, they've had a number of runners fall in and out of the rotation. Someone just pulled out last week after having some PF issues and bam - the offer was thrown my way.

Phoenix is far enough but close enought that this isn't a stretch for me to be able to do -  not to mention, (nearly) the entire team is based there, so there's no extra lodging costs at all either! And, compared to a plane ticket, travel is cheap. I call it a win.

We'll be running from wild west Wickenburg (re: middle of nowhere) all the way up and around the north side of Phoenix, way out east, and then back in towards Tempe. Save for a few good hills (also known as my entire first leg), this is pretty flat in comparison to a lot of other Ragnars I've done so far.

I've joked that I don't want to repeat Ragnars until I've done them all - DC, So Cal, and Napa were a blast, but I'm excited to conquer a new one too! I'm excited to be runner 1 - better yet, excited to be in Van 1 over Van 2 (I'm still under the theory that Van 1 gets a lot more rest), we're driving ourselves (yes, that's a bonus in my book), and get to run with Tina, Erica, and Mandy again!

Ragnar Del Sol, here I come! I'm off this afternoon sometime to make way to Phoenix. I'll get there super late (8-9 pm), and we are out the door at 3 am to get to Wickenburg for our 5 am start. Needless to say, I'm already going to start Ragnar on a very, very tired foot. But that's how Ragnar goes, amiright?

Are you rocking with me at Ragnar Del Sol this weekend?

Ragnar Napa Valley: Part 3

Ragnar Napa Valley

September 19 - 20, 2014

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

I really did not intended this to take a month to get done! Holy wow, time has gotten away from me. Good thing my memory is pretty sharp. 

After my first run, and seeing Jill and Kristin off for their first legs, we found our way finally heading to the major exchange (12). It was really just a massive parking lot, it seemed, but the energy was certainly alive at that point. Deliriousness, I'm thinking. And probably something to do with all the Van 2s dealing with 100+ heat indeces, so it was probably a lot of deliriousness at that point! 

NAU alumni representing!

Heather had prepped me for this one, since it was about dinner time, and that there was a huge shopping complex with a Dick's, Chipotle, oodles of food, and a Whole Foods not far from there. We were happy campers - after a quick emergency compression-sleeve trip to Dick's, a stop at Chipotle, we joined the hoards of people at Whole Foods to grub up and eat dinner, finally! 70% of the parking lot were Ragnar vans, at least. 

After dinner and some essential van cleaning, we headed off to the next exchange to rest (yes), sleep (not so much), and do this... obviously.

Yours truly, apparently the queen of all things Ragnar temporary tattoos. Everyone got marked up, and then we all found our way to our own place to sleep. Tina, Kristin, John and I in the van and Jill, Kim and Kate all went out the grass at the huge community center we were at. The local rugby club was using the showers as a fundraiser, but as I had promised folks, you just hit that point where you'd rather take a 20-minute nap than you would a 5-minute (though hot) shower. I was right. I eventually fell asleep, for maybe two hours or so, and soon enough, Jill, Kate and Kim came back because the sprinklers had gone off! Thankfully they weren't soaked, but wet enough to be unhappy. Apparently the sprinklers had sent a whole ton of folks packing. 

Soon enough, Van 1 had made their way to the exchange, and after a stretch session with the trainer at First Aid, I got ready to head over to the exchange with Tina for her night leg! She was most nervous about this one too, mostly about getting lost, but I promised that as long as she found people to follow, she'd be fine.

At least she had a pretty exchange! They had done all these lights the whole length of the corral... individual lights.

Tina was off. I kid you not, we were following directions, trying to find our way to the exchange, and finally found the madness (it was really just the side of the road in a business complex and not conducive to large vans and runners). We were about to park, and I was going to text her to check on her (she runs with her phone), when I got a call from her! ...that's not good. I couldn't make it out, so we hung up and called back. She had fallen, and cut herself up pretty badly (though how badly she didn't know given that it was 1:45 am and pitch black), so we found our way back to her near her mile 2-ish. Turns out, the trail/sidewalk had combined, and got loose and she tripped and appeared to have skidded on her hand - her palm was torn up, fingers road rashed and bleeding and her knee rashed pretty good. Kate took off running for her, and thanks to nurse-in-training Jill, we spent nearly 20 minutes on the side of the road cleaning the poor lady up (sorry to make you re-live all this, Tina!). The only humor out of the situation was the group of about seven or eight college students, clearly on their way home from the bars, asking what we were doing, and did we need their help? Drunk Girl #2: "Can I help? I'm REALLY good with bandaids!" Us: "No, hunny, you just keep walking." Though not at all funny in the situation, it provided some good relief afterward. 

We found Kate, exchanged her back out for Tina who then got to run her last mile or so and still finish out her leg. Trooper, I tell ya what. (Side note: apparently she wasn't going to call me, but a lady who was right behind her when she fell made her - thank you Ragnar stranger!)

Morning aftermath. :(

Soon, we were getting ready to send off Kim, so Tina and I spent awhile cowbelling and cheering at the exchange waiting for Kate to come in and send Kim off on her night leg. As soon as we got Kim off, it was my turn to pysch up and get ready to roll. Fact: Despite doing (now) three Ragnars, the  night legs are still the worst for me - they are terrifying. I hate them more anything. Yes, it's cooler, yes the weather is usually nicer, but mentally... they overpower me. 

My night run was about 8.4 miles in and out of Santa Rosa - a gorgeous little city (home of Charles Schulz), but also country enough that there were enough trees and shadows that scared the crap out of me. As noted, all my legs were NO van support, and this one was clear as to why: two lane highway, and we were running against traffic (obviously) at 2 am. Not a good situation for turnarounds. I was determined, though, to make it better than leg 1, and ran with what I had in me to get a solid 8.4 mile run in! 

Night leg selfie. 

During the day, I'm sure that leg is amazingly gorgeous - I could make out cornfields, some vineyards, tons of trees and a pretty tunnel of trees we ran through at some point. I'd never been more excited to see the one mile to go sign and gave everything I had for that last one mile. 8.4 miles, 1:22 and change, and something like 8 minutes over projected. Told you, night legs win! 

After my night leg, I changed and passed out for a few more hours - thankfully. I can't remember when I woke up, but it was just before or just after Kristin (#12) headed out, so we were near the next major exchange! Time kinda flew, despite how over time we were. We got to the exchange, said hi to our Van 1ers, got Kristin through, and stopped at first aid for Tina (first aid is only at majors, and we hadn't been to a major since Tina's spill). The awesome guy got Tina super wrapped up, gave us extra supplies to clean up later, and sent us on our way. BREAKFAST. 

Over breakfast, Jill analyzed all our next runs and gave us the run-down: hills, flat, rolling, short. A quick pump-us-up before we headed down the road. After breakfast and some playing catch-up on our legs and kills, and brushing our teeth on the side of the road, we headed out. 

Last legs, here we come! 

Have you ever fallen while running? Did you keep running?

Ragnar Napa Valley: Part 2

Ragnar Napa Valley

September 19 - 20, 2014

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Somewhere about 2 in the afternoon, it was my finally my turn to run. I was excited and antsy and for whatever reason, nervous - not like I've done this before or anything - and needed to get myself together! My first leg was 6.6 miles, and I knew there was one beastly hill but the rest flattened out and should be bearable (hint: not true). 

Tina and Kate had both killed their first legs and it was finally Kim's turn to go! She had about 4.5 miles and was ready to rock. Finally, we heard our number and got ready to roll. Kim came flying in from her leg (she killed it!), and we were off. I had run into a friend from grad school in the store at Exchange 6, and her teammate (who I met at So Cal while trying to find said friend) recognized me and was also their runner 10. We said we'd try to pair up for our late-night run, but sadly she took off for her first run about 15 minutes before me. Oh well. 

Ha. That word, bearable. Never mind the fact that it was about 90 degrees out, but hit a heat index of almost 100, and it was brutal. I got not even to mile 2 before pausing to walk, doused myself at the water station and just hoped I'd make it through. I hadn't brought a handheld waterbottle at all (total fail), nor my phone, so just hoped for the best and that I'd make it through these 6.6 miles. My leg consisted of a zoo of roadkill - frogs, birds, opossum, deer - and unfortunately, not tons of scenery! 

At the start of my leg, just across from the exchange. 

Have I noted that ALL THREE of my legs were no van support? Not even partial. For you newbies, this means that my van wasn't allow to pull over anywhere to get me water, food, whatever, mostly due to the lack of shoulder space on the road or a runner being on a trail and not on the road. However, I think given with the heat index, there were tons of vans pulling over, I guess risking being disqualified?, and supporting their runner. 

Admittedly, I turned a few teams in while we were driving previously (on some really stupid places they were pulled over), but I was grateful when a van person ran across the road and handed me a bottle of ice water. No way I was gonna turn those kids in! About two miles later (just about 4.5, 5 maybe), I stopped to talk to a van across the road (who also refreshed me with a new bottle of water). Thankfully, I have Tina's phone number memorized (from college, no less), so I had this girl text her to tell her I was fine, but it was hot and I would be longer than anticipated. 

Finally, the one more mile marker showed its ugly face and I just wanted to fly - I zipped past the girl that I had leap-frogged with the whole time, and apparently made it so fast, my team wasn't ready for those coveted exchange photos! Bummer. 

I said at the end of my leg I wanted chocolate milk and cookies. My awesome vanmates even fed me the cookies! <3

It was finally over. Holy crap. I had never felt so horrible or defeated after a first Ragnar leg. I think there was a steady stream of obscenities that came out of my mouth and I was not happy with how that had gone at all. Well, it could only go up from here, right?

Alright, Leg 1, done!

How do you survive runs in 100+ degree heat indexes? 

Ragnar Napa Valley: Part 1

Ragnar Napa Valley

September 19 - 20, 2014

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

It's hard to believe that Ragnar ended almost two weeks ago - last week was a little bit of a blur, but I'm finally sitting down to blab for awhile about the latest epic running adventure... Ragnar Napa Valley. After completing So Cal in April, we knew we wanted to do Napa for the double-bling, the Gold Rush medal. Because, I mean, look at that thing!

I digress. After flying up to the Bay on Wednesday  night, Heather and I spent Thursday morning running from Target to Costco to Dick's to Fresh & Easy to get our last minute supplies together. Lord knows we've done this before, and after all the leftovers from So Cal, we definitely cut back on the snackage that we bought for Napa - and we still had plenty left! Thursday afternoon was also arts and crafts time, because you know the bells had to make a comeback, in addition to some really epic poster-making by yours truly.

Thursday afternoon began the onslaught of flights, delays, arrivals, BART stations, pick ups, and the shenanigans began.

People always ask how I convinced a bunch of crazies to do this, so I always think it's super fun to talk about our teams come together. For this trip, 6 of the 12 that did So Cal were back, with some additions:

- Heather, Tina, Trista and I are sorority sisters
- Jill, Kim and Vanessa did So Cal with Trista, Heather, and I
- Jill brought along Kate
- Kim brought along Tricia
- Erica brought along Aileen
- Tina brought along Erica (who I also know)
- Tina and Erica brought along Kristin (who I've met a handful of times)
- Tina, Erica, Kristin, Jill, Kate, and I are all alumnae of NAU (Go Jacks!)

So fun right? This time around we had a lot more actual connections, whereas So Cal was a little bit more jumbled and from all over the place.

When everyone got to town Thursday night, we had dinner, van decorating time and our team meeting (because that's how Heather and I roll) to ensure van set ups, vests, blinkies, and headlamps were all in order. We intended for a Mean Girls movie night, but everyone was well past exhausted at that point, and with a 2:30 am wake-up call, why stay up later that necessary, amiright?

Our start time was 5 am at Golden Gate Park, about 45 minutes from Heather's. Each van made a stop to pick up a rider or two so we could all re-assemble and get organized at the park before the start. Up at 2:30 am, on the road at 3:05 am, and to the park just about 4 am, in time to get settled, grab posters and cowbells and get Van 1 into the safety briefing before we could goof around at the start line.

Start line! Let's go Napa Valley!

Despite being in Van 2 for DC, I still had the set up of So Cal (Van 1) in my head, so being back in Van 2 was a little disorienting, realizing that I don't actually start the race right away, but get to go start with some downtime. How very odd!

After seeing Aileen off at the start, Van 2 headed up across the Golden Gate towards our first major exchange and to stop for breakfast. We found our way to an IHOP, only to discover it didn't open until 7 am (it was barely 6 at this point). So we slept for an hour in the van, got out of the van at 7:05, only to see another Van 2 and random other patrons waiting for the doors to open. Apparently IHOP only schedules one cook and one waitress on a Friday morning, so we sat for 20 minutes without even being seated. I was worried about time, the exchange, safety briefings, and the like, so we ordered our food to go and still left IHOP at 8 am. Geezo.

Van 2! Tina, Kristin, Kate, Jill, Kim and me.

Finally at the exchange, only to discover not only were we there with enough time, but also plenty early enough that not all the vendors were set up yet, and we went through safety briefing #2 of the day - so, hindsight, plenty early to get through it all! Oh well.

We played at the Sierra Nevada tent, Jill and I were the first two KT customers of the day, and hung out in the Ragnar store. Tagged some vans, made some new friends, and got ready to send Tina off as runner 7 for her first leg...

I was runner 10, so despite sending Tina off, I still had a little ways to wait. And wait... it was so hard waiting!

Did you run Ragnar Napa, this year or ever? 

Live Every Day Like You're Glen Coco

Iiiiiit's Ragnar time, kids! This afternoon I am hopping a train to downtown LA and taking the bus to LAX to fly to San Francisco (catch all that?) to go run 204 fabulous miles from Golden Gate Park to Calistoga, in the heart of Napa Valley.

I mean, really... this can't be all that bad, right?

I am so excited to:
a) reconvene with some of my So Cal teammates (6 of us in total)
b) meet some new, fresh Ragnar-virgin teammates (the other 6)
c) not have to drive the van (we have TWO drivers! TWO!)
d) run 26.3 miles because if I can do it at So Cal (undertrained) and do it now (pretty well trained), then I am totes marathon-training-ready
e) wear all things pink all weekend

Yep, that's right. We are team On Ragnardays We Wear Pink and basically all weekend, we will be wearing all things pink. Boas, beads, shorts, and tees - and even my reflective vest and shoes at some point are pink. It's so fetch.

But if you're bored about reading about my exciting day up to the Bay to get ready for these shenanigans, I'll leave you with other Ragnar-related fun:

• Tips for Surviving a Relay
• Not Sure What to Pack for a Relay? 
• Ragnar DC recap (2012)
• Ragnar So Cal recap (2014)

Peace out, kids! Feel free to stalk Instagram and Twitter all weekend! #ragnarianswearpink will be all over the place - enjoy and follow along!  

Are you running Napa with me this weekend? 

Tips for Surviving a Relay

It's Ragnar week! I'm so excited to get up to the Bay and hunker down for another fabulous racecation with some of my favorites - and some newbies!

I may not be a total vet when it comes to relays, but with two overnights under my belt (Ragnar DC | So Cal) and one shorter distance relay (ATL 20K), I think I have a pretty good handle on what to expect. I would love to do a marathon relay at some point, or some other long-distance non-overnight ones, so for now, my whole frame of reference is pretty much overnight relays for the purposes of your guide here! I wanted to whip this together for not only my newbie teammates, but anyone else who's on the verge of their first relay, too.

At the start of Ragnar DC, 2012.

Tips for Surviving an Overnight Running Relay

Pack More Than You (Think You) Need

One of the best packing tips I've seen is the idea of using gallon Ziploc bags to store your outfits. Not only does it keep things organized, but after that run is done, you can shove everything back in that bag to minimize overall stink. With the bags, though, it's easy to pack only the essentials. Don't be afraid to pack a little more than just what fits in those bags. For me this year at Napa, I'm adding a jacket, as it rained through nearly all of Napa last year. I also always pack at least 1 extra sports bra, 1 extra shirt, 1 extra pair of socks... you get my drift. You never know when that extra sports bra will come in handy... 

With that - and it's on the packing list linked above, but my best point to emphasize: use those gallon-sized Ziploc bags! It helps keep you organized while you're packing, but also as you're digging around in your duffel bag at 2 am trying to find your headlamp. And minimizes (read: does NOT get rid of!) the stink in your van. You'll thank me. Promise.

Get Over Your Fear of Porto-Potties

I mean it. Ragnar is far from short on portos, and while they're not the most glamorous (who ever said running was glamorous anyway?), you need to get over it. Only on major exchanges and/or on your van's breaks are you going to find the time (and, frankly, energy) to find a 'real' bathroom. And when you do, it'll be the best thing ever. But in the meanwhile, suck it up, hold your breath, and just go. Every. Time.

[Photo Cred: Ricole Runs]

Sleep Where You Can, When You Can (But Know You'll Be Sleep-Deprived Anyway)

Whether it's a 40-minute catnap in the backseat, or 3 hours in the beachside park, try and get your shut-eye whenever you're able. The photo above can be deceiving also - not every Ragnar has a major exchange that's inside with spaces to spread out under a roof. At DC, one of our exchanges was at a high school that we could have camped out at (we slept in the van in the parking lot); but at So Cal, all our major exchanges were outside parks or parking lots near warehouses. 

Keep yourself in mind - if you have a long run coming up and you haven't slept in 27 hours, it's not gonna be pretty. One of the best things my team did for me before my 12-miler during So Cal was making sure I sat down and slept at our exchange. I slept only 2ish hours in choppy increments, but I know it made a world of difference having at least some sleep. 

Nighttime selfie, So Cal 2014.

Get Comfortable With The Uncomfortable

There is no better way to make friends than to shove yourselves into a van for 36 hours. Moreso than that, there's no better way to make friends than having to change in front of people you've just met. Heather and I opened up our team meeting before So Cal with, "We talk about poop. A lot." It's going to be uncomfortable at first, but then you're all in the same boat van and you may as well make the most of it. And it turns into some great inside jokes afterwards. 

My major uncomfortable is running in the pitch dark - I'm an (admitted) total scaredy-cat and getting through the night legs are pretty mentally exhausting for me. At the same time, though, they're also freeing and exhilarating as I (sort of) conquer my nighttime fears. It's hard to push through that mental wall, but when I do... holy wow!

Your Routine Will Not Be Routine

We all have our race day routines. Get up, eat your bagel and peanut butter, drink your coffee, take your immodium, etc. etc. With few exceptions, know that your routine will be far from your routine during a relay. Logistically it's harder, you'll want to sleep more than you'll want to spend time french-braiding your hair into your lucky race-day-hairdo, and other things just don't become the priority! After some time in the van, you'll learn to sacrifice and take what you can get. 

Costumes Are Critical

Okay, so not critical but they really do spice up the whole experience and get you a little more amped up for the utter shenanigans about to come. I don't dress up for a race hardly ever, but have realized that not only does it pull together some more team camaraderie, but other teams get so excited when they recognize you time and time again from your van decor and team ensembles. 

Adventures in Runderland, So Cal 2014.

In DC, which was the first Ragnar for nearly our entire time, our only matching piece was our finish line, team shirts. After watching all the teams flying by us with their decked out vans, colored capes and silver leggings, we knew we had to take it up a notch the next time around. For So Cal, we had our start line costumes (characters from Alice in Wonderland, of course), and for the finish line we had our team shirts and all wore purple tutus. Our vans were covered in cheshire cat smiles and ticking clocks, and our magnets also had the cheshire cat smile - so when another team saw any of those smiles, they knew we'd been around. And they recognized us for just that! So again, not critical... but certainly an added element of fun. 

Two-a-Days Are/Are Not Critical

Take this for what you will - and it will depend on YOU and your strength and in-shape-ness. For So Cal this year, I was far from as in-shape as I needed to be to do 25.9 miles over three legs, but that wasn't just because I didn't do double days. I just wasn't in shape in general, but the only reason I hurt was after my final leg and I had to do this awesome jumping photo... you get the story. For DC in 2012, I was more in shape and it wasn't until the third leg that my body wimped out (under-hydrated) on the third (and shortest) leg. And now, heading into Napa and after a 100-mile August (many with double days), I'm feeling more in shape than I have in a long time and I'm ready to go, despite not having many recent double days. You need to figure out what's going to work for you - most of my doubles only occurred so I could get used to running in the dark again. 

Enjoy the Scenery

No matter which course you're doing, whether it's a Ragnar through the mountains or Napa, or Reach the Beach, there's scenery to take in. That's half the fun of racecations, right, is getting to see everything! So Cal is my home, so while there was nothing new or exciting to take in, it was still a feeling of "Wow, I live here!" that made me really appreciate where the course took us. 

[Photo cred: Trista. I think. So Cal, 2014.]

Enjoy whatever comes your way - whether it's new or not - and stop and take those photos. In a 30+ hour relay, those 2 minutes to mess with your smartphone camera are not going to matter. I promise. My friends and running friends especially know that I am constantly snapping away, but hopefully come to appreciate the fun, random shots we've got later! 

Have Fun

The obvious one, of course, but I mean! The logistics, the lack of sleep, the runger, the nighttime scary runs are all really easy to get stressed over. At the end of your trip (and really, throughout), you just need to look back and say you had a great time. That's what these races are all about - having fun, being a little ridiculous, and getting to know 11 other runners really, really well! 

What other tips would you share for someone running an overnight relay?