Ragnar Del Sol: The Rundowns

Ever since Ben did his first Ragnar in Utah four years ago, I've been telling him that someday (when I'm not pregnant or nursing a new baby) I wanted to do one with him. When we moved to AZ and Ben found out about the Ragnar Del Sol we decided it was finally time to do it. So Ben rounded up a team which consisted of family, neighbors and friends and we started training. We were all new to the Ragnar experience except for Ben and Braden, a friend of Nikki's from high school. So most of us were a little nervous and not sure quite what to expect. I was excited for an opportunity to do this with my husband and it also was a chance to push myself past my usual three miles of day. It was a lot of fun and we are planning on doing it again next year!

The night before the race, the entire team went to eat at The Olive Garden for some pre-race bonding and "carb loading". Then we went our separate ways to stay with two different host families for the night. Our van stayed with this neat retired couple, Trudy and Larry, in Sun City who Mons had found on hotshowers.com.

Here we are eating Mons' special "savory" oatmeal for breakfast with Larry. Oatmeal, olive oil, salt and pepper, cheese and sun-dried tomatoes. Pretty good, actually. Mons volunteered to take care of all the meals for Van 2 which was awesome.
It was fun to see how everyone decorated their vehicles.Dave did a great job decorating our suburban.Lots of crazy costumes. This wasn't even the craziest...I thought this guy looked cool. Everyone on their team wore crazy hats. Diggin' the Arizona flag shirt.This is all the team members that were in Van 2 just before we started our first legs. Van 1 had all the singles and Matt and Nikki. Van 2 had the more "mature" team members (well, except for Natalie--she was the only other girl in our van, though, so I was really glad to have her with us). Left to Right: Dave, Bret, Ben, Mistie, Mons and Natalie

Here's Natalie making her first hand-off to her brother, Bret.

Ben's first leg was 8.4 miles "very hard". He did great! Ben ran 16.5 miles altogether and I ran 14.6.

Our hosts from the night before, Trudy and Larry, came to cheer us on after we ran our first legs. I had just finished my first leg which was 6.1 miles in the dark. It was awesome! Like how shiny we all are?

Picture of our whole team with the Ragnar van.

Ben with all his cousins that did the race. Ben and his cousins made up half our team.

Here's our whole team at the finish line with our metals. Altogether we ran over 200 miles from Wickenburg to Tempe. It was pretty cool being the last runner and getting to cross the finish line at the end of my leg, even though I was all sweaty and gross at the end. Van 1 had been done for hours and had time to go to Braden's place and shower. That would have been kinda nice, but they definitely had the harder legs so I can't complain. Everyone did an awesome job--way to go Rundowns!

Left to Right: Michelle Tripp, Natalie Reay, Emily Hancock, Dave Konopnicki, Nikki Shelton, Allison Hancock, Matt Shelton, Brett Tripp, Mistie Barfus, Ben Barfus, Mons Larson, Braden Ellis