A Nighttime Vegas Exchange
I traveled to Sin City for one of my favorite races ever: The Ragnar Relay. For those of you who don’t know, Ragnar is a point to point relay covering approximately 200 miles of picaresque open road course divided by 12 people over a 24 hour time period. If that doesn’t sound completely psychotic enough for you, the Ragnar people also have “ultra” divisions consisting of teams of 6 or less people where each individual runs over marathon (26.2 mile) distance. After experiencing an amazing time at the SoCal race, Vegas seemed like it would be an even greater experience. Naturally, my teammates and I decided to do the ultra with 6 people and a dedicated driver. Little did I know what would be in store…
The course started at The Valley of Fire (aka the middle of nowhere, Nevada) and ended at the Red Rock Casino on The Strip. The daylight portion of the race course was surreal. If you can paint a picture of Roadrunner cartoons out in the middle of the desert with nothing but a lonely highway and a Wile E. Coyote to accompany you, you’d have a pretty good idea of what the first 70-100 miles of the course looked like. We started at high elevation (about 1600 feet) and the climbs and hills for various legs would eventually lead us to a 4000 foot summit before getting anywhere near Vegas. Gorgeous? Yes. Effing brutal? Hell yes!
I started my first (and only) leg at 8pm off the only highway where we were that would eventually lead to Sin City. Despite the time, I was completely in the dark (no city lights out in the desert) and one of three runners waiting to start my leg. Once my teammate came in and it was time for me to take off, I was the only person on the road for what seemed to be a lifetime. I ended up getting lost twice when I got off the highway and into civilization (Henderson, NV). Other interesting highlights about my part of the course included: a runner returning to her teammates in hysterics from being chased by animal out in the desert. Also, another person on my leg had run off INTO the desert for who knows what reason…
What happened after I finally got back to my team after running in two wrong directions and somehow cutting a mile off my course, was a first for me: we DQ (disqualified) ourselves or DNFd (Did Not Finish). Another one of my teammates went three miles off course and a few others had ended up suffering injuries that would disallow them from continuing on. It took several conversations before coming to that decision. Once we found ourselves coming in dead last and falling behind on the cleanup crew with no real resolution from the race officials on how we can get back into the game (no one would give us a straight answer), we finally decided to head to The Strip for naps and cocktails.
How does it feel to DNF? It feels like several words containing the letter “M” – mortifying, demoralizing and messed up. But wait… there IS a Happy Ending (this is Vegas after all). Although I can’t say that what happened in Vegas will stay in Vegas (I will never forget the lessons I learned from running this race), I’m determined to go at the next one with no mercy. I’m also not giving up on Ragnar… well, maybe just the ultra division.
