Ragnar-Napa Valley

We witnessed The Big Kahuna's first Ragnar 3 years ago, when the team ran the Wasatch Back in Utah.  (James and I were in process of moving from Michigan to California at the time and happened to be in Utah at the same time as the race.  I ran the next 2 Ragnar Relays with the team while James did support (watching kids or biking along the runners.)

But this time, was a big deal.  This was the first Ragnar James ever ran.  He was not a runner, but said he thought running would be easier than being on kid duty for the 2 day event.

Running 194 miles through Northern California in about 31 hours.  Sounds fun, right?


Van 1(Craig, Laura, Allison, Jeannie, Erin, Gwen)


Van 2 (Annie, Ian, Megan, James, Christopher, Donna)
The Van is decorated and we are all fresh, still smelling clean and excited to go start running.

We met up with Van 1 at exchange 6 along with Brad, Margaret, Evan and Aunt Helen who were all in charge of the exchange as the Ragnar SWAT team.

We have a love/hate relationship with this sign.  The last mile can often seem to last forever, but knowing there is only 1 mile left is a relief.  One of the favorite memories for many on the trip was when James was running his middle of the night leg.  Our Van happened to pass him as he ran passed his 1 mile marker and we witnessed as he bent down and kissed the sign.

These roads seemed to stretch on forever and ever.  I thought it was just because I was running, but on the way home as we drove back the same route I realized it really was a LONG way to run.

James was very excited that he was the one to run the highest peak of the race.  It just happened that at this point the neighborhood was called the Summit.  The night-time run was really foggy, and you couldn't see very far in front of you.  During this run James almost got hit by a deer.  He said he heard the deer come running down the hill towards him.  When James turned his headlight at the deer, the deer stopped and ran back the other way.

Running in Napa Valley, we saw a lot of vineyards.  Miles and miles of grapes growing.  Some looked so good you wanted to touch them to make sure they weren't plastic.

We made it to the finish!

What a fun way to spend a date weekend getaway with your spouse.  Hanging out with your stinky friends in a stinky van and getting no sleep and then running.  Builds ultimate bonding.


We brought home our medals as a treat for out kids.  They love them.

Made it this far through the post and still want more details?  I will continue.  But, if you're good without the details, you can stop reading now.

James was runner #8 and ran a total of almost 12 miles.  His first run was 5.1 miles in the afternoon sun going up a steep hill.  His second run was 4.4 miles in the middle of the night cold fog.  His final run was Saturday mid morning right before the sun broke through the fog.  He ended this 2 miles run in a vineyard.

I was runner #10 and ran almost 23 miles total.  My first run was 6.6 miles steep hills and hot sun.  The second run was 8.3 miles, it was cold enough I saw my breath cloud up in front of me as I ran.  Last run was 7.8 miles as it was reaching the low 90s on Saturday afternoon.

We flew up Thursday night and had a hotel room for all 6 of us in Van 2 to share.  Ian and Annie took the floor with their blow up mats.

Our Van started running at exchange 6 at around 11am Friday morning and finished up about 5pm.  We got some dinner and then went to exchange 12 to wait for our turn to run again.  There were some soccer fields to sleep on.  However, since we all flew and tried to pack lightly, we didn't have great sleeping gear.  We had 2 blankets to share with 6 people.  Christopher and Donna stayed in the car with  James, Ian, Annie and myself tried to get some sleep on the grass. That wasn't very successful.

It was our turn to run again at about 11pm.  We ran in the cold through the night in the fog finishing at about 5:30am.   At this point we had a hotel we could go to.  Van 1 had gone to get sleep while we were running our middle of the night runs.  We went to the hotel, the guys got in the hot tub while the girls showered.   We got laundry done and had breakfast.  We had time for a very short nap before we had to hurry over to the exchange to start running our last legs.

After we celebrated our finish, we re-distributed everyone in different vehicles and went our separate ways.  James and I stayed in Van 2.  We stopped at Fenton's for dinner, dropped off Donna and Christopher at the airport, then settled in for the drive home.  Brad was driving and Margaret and Evan were also with us.  I had the back seat to myself for the drive home, so I had a chance to catch up on some much needed sleep.

And the kids during all this? We left them in Duarte with their Aunt Megan.  She had 4 kids in addition to being pregnant, and her husband was out of town on business for 3 weeks.  She is the one that deserves the medal.  When we went to pick the kids up Sunday morning, they wanted to stay and keep playing with their cousins...because a 3 night sleepover is apparently not long enough when you're having that much fun.