Ragnar Great River 2014 -- Part 2

Thankfully, with the aid of ear plugs and my headband as an eye mask, I was able to get about 30 min of sleep before it was time to get moving again. My alarm was set for 11pm, as it was estimated that Wade would be getting in around midnight. I rolled up my sleeping bag, changed into my clothes from my night run bag, which included a reflective vest, tail-light and headlamp. I waited in a restroom line for what felt like forever as I shook off the sleepies and started to worry about my 5.1 mile run in the dark.

My view at midnight

Ron thought it was time to stretch his legs after all the driving he had done in the last 12 hours and decided to come out for the run with me. The rules of Ragnar are that during the night runs you can have a pacer run with you single-file. It was nice to know that if a bear came out to attack me, at least Ron could help. Yes, this is what I worried about during a night run... a scary boogie man finding his way to me through a corn field, stumbling upon a hungry bear, meeting a ravenous country raccoon, getting sprayed by a mama skunk or missing a pothole and twisting an ankle only to be roadkill on a Wisconsin Highway. Have you met me? I'm a bit dramatic.

As it turned out, the thing that Ron did save me from was running into a dead horse. That's right, I said, dead horse  Ron was about 30 feet ahead when I saw him looking down pointing his headlight at a large object in the road.  By the time I came up on it, I knew it was a dead animal, so I held my breath, the best I could, turned my head and ran around it. It wasn't until we got to the finish that I learned it was a dead horse! In the end, the night run turned out to be pretty uneventful, though truthfully the only thing you could see was the blinking tail-light of the person in front of you and about 5 ft ahead of yourself with the help of the headlamp. At one point, I thought I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and turned my head into the field next to me and realized that I was pretty darn close to a horse -- this one still alive.

Next up, Wendy was off for 9.5 miles and she was running strong. Part of Wendy's run was on gravel road, so she also had to contend with the dust that the vans would kick up as they went by. The hardest part at this point for the rest of us was supporting our runners. It was hard to tell who people were when all you could see was a headlamp coming at you... Wendy could be easily spotted from behind in her pink pants with reflective tape at the bottom, but we couldn't give her water when she'd already passed us!

Lisel took over for Wendy at River Falls High School. At this point it was about 2:30 am and the leftover bar patrons were still making their way around the streets of town. We watched Lisel carefully as she passed a few folks to make sure she wouldn't need any help. Not that anyone would have been able to catch her. We continued to support Lisel through her 10.6 mile leg toward Hudson.

Next up, Cheryl took charge of the Ragnar slap bracelet for her 3.8 miles into Lakefront Park in Hudson. We got out to use the bathrooms here and I spent a little time walking around on my own to try to get my stomach to feel better. I realized that I hadn't eaten much and what I had eaten wasn't settling well. At this point it was not uncommon to hear us talking about our bowel movements as most of us were really hoping for one!

We got back in the van at this spot and I crawled to the way back to see if I could catch a quick nap during the next leg. Rachana had 4.9 miles along the stretch of river without van support for most of it, so the lights would be off and the doors wouldn't be opening -- a perfect time for a small nap.  Ahhh!

Angie's nighttime leg was in the early hours of the morning, but the sun wouldn't come up until she'd be coming into the exchange. Angie's 4.4 miles brought us back into our home state of Minnesota which felt great, though we still had a lot of miles to go. Once we picked up Angie at Stillwater High School the sun was coming up and we were heading to the next big exchange for showers and a bit of sleep.

Not unlike the scene at Ellsworth High School, Park Cottage Grove offered a gymnasium floor for sleeping and indoor toilets. However, the showers were individual stalls with hot water. A shower never felt so good! I could have stood under the running water for hours, but I also could hear my sleeping bag calling my name! Normally in a locker room I am quite modest, but it's funny when you all just want to get to sleep, no one really cares what the other is doing, we just want to get our clothes on and get to sleep.  I dressed in my next day's running clothes so that I could take advantage of as much sleep as possible.

When I arrived in the gymnasium, Ron and Wendy were fast asleep so the rest of set up our beds nearby and tried to settle in. Unfortunately, this go around the school didn't have air conditioning and the gym was muggy and hot, so I slept on top of my sleeping bag. Keep checking back for part three!