Froggie Ted Distance Runner: May 2016

On April 12, I flew to Austin to participate in my 9th Adventure Relay race. I was joining up with my friends who ran the American Odyssey relay last year with me. We were all really excited to be getting back together for our second race. Everyone was going to arrive on Thursday the 13th and then we would drive out to Fredericksburg where the start of the race was going to be. Little did I know what an adventure just getting the team together would be.

On Thursday morning, the first few team members arrived on time. I headed over to the airport to pick up our vans and the first half of the team. While we were on our way, we got a text from Leslie telling us that Carrie (who was supposed to be on their flight) wasn't on the plane. Yes. She missed the flight from Atlanta. At the same time, Darren found out that his bag was missing. So he would be hanging around the airport in hopes that it would come in on the next flight. With all that information, we decided to leave Jason with one of the vans and the rest of us would go to Sara's house to wait for the rest of the team to arrive.

At around 4 pm, we got word that they had given up on Darren's bag and that Carrie was on her way but probably wouldn't make it until late. We decided to all head up to Fredericksburg to check into our hotel. We figured Carrie could rent a car and drive out to meet us once she arrived in Austin. We packed up and headed out.

Once we all got checked into the Fredericksburg Inn, we headed over to the Auslander Beirgarten and Restaurant. The Ausländer has been one of Fredericksburg's most popular eating establishments for over twenty years. It was just a short walk from our hotel in the heart of historic downtown Fredericksburg. They serve authentic German cuisine and have a great beer list. We had a great time and drank a lot of beer before heading back to the hotel to try and get some rest before the race.

Carrie finally made it to the hotel shortly after we got back from dinner. She had met a nice woman on the flight who offered to drive her to Fredericksburg. She didn't ask Carrie for any money at all. Plus she lived in San Antonio meaning she had driven at least 2 hours out of her way to drop Carrie off. All she asked was that Carrie pay it forward sometime in the future. It is really nice to know that there are still good people out there willing to help another human being when they need it.

We got up early the next morning to head over to the starting line at the Gillespie County Fairgrounds. We got Van 1 all checked in and through their safety briefing. Then we hung around waiting for our 8:30 am start time. While we hung out, we chatted with other teams and even held a lip sync performance at the starting line to Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'". The Ragnar people loved it. So did we!

Finally at 8:30, the gun went off and Darren, our first runner, headed out. Since we were in Van 2, we headed to breakfast. We found a nice little cafe in Fredericksburg called the Sunset Grill. I ordered the "Big Ass Sandwich" which had eggs, cheese, bacon, avocado, etc. And they weren't kidding. It was huge. Good thing I had some time to digest before my first run.

Once we finished, we headed over to Altgelt Field in Comfort, TX where we checked in and did our safety briefing. The field was near the historic little downtown. We learned that Comfort was established in 1854 by German immigrants moving further west from New Braunfels. Apparently, they rested here and were so taken with the place, that they didn't see any need to travel further. Nearly the entire downtown is on the National Register of Historic Places. Most of the buildings are made of rock and remain in an excellent state of preservation. The 1880 Ingenhuett-Faust Hotel is one of the buildings and the 1930 Comfort Theater (originally financed through public subscription) is another.

After waiting for a while and relaxing, Sara finally came in to hand off to Vanessa who had to run the longest leg of the race. It was after 2 pm and the Texas heat was in full force. There was no shade either. She headed out and ran an excellent leg. The only thing was that Ragnar had said there would be water at mile 8. But when she got there, it was nowhere to be found. Apparently, they couldn't get a permit to put it there and moved it over a mile further. Vanessa had finished her water thinking she had an oasis and was not happy when it wasn't there. She handed off to Brian and we were on our way.

My first leg was Leg 11. It was a short 2.7 miles. I did not get the hand off until about 5:30 pm and it was a hot 79 degrees. But I wanted to run hard and get it over with. I knew I could do it because I train throughout the summer here in Phoenix. I took the handoff and headed out. The route took me through a section of Boerne, TX crossing under a freeway. I had to wait to cross a major street and run under a freeway overpass before heading up the hill to the exchange. I pushed myself hard and came in at 21:55 and 8:07 pace. I was tired but happy with my time.

Our last runner, Jason, had a tough leg in the heat. But he rocked it and we were finished with our first set of legs at 6:15 pm. The strange thing about this exchange is that it was virtual which I don't like because we didn't get to see the other van. When we arrived at Exchange 12 at the San Antonio Rose Palace, Van 1 was waiting to begin their legs at University United Methodist Church. Basically, the Ragnar Staff and volunteers radioed Van 1 to tell them they could start. They said they would make a time adjustment if it was needed. We texted Van 1 to make sure they were off before heading to dinner.

We didn't have much time to wait. Van 1 texted us around 10:30 pm that their last runner was on the road. We had only got in a little sleep. But that is part of the challenge of these races...running on almost no sleep. Leslie got out of the van to get ready. This was going to be a very strange leg and exchange. For some reason, Ragnar decided that between Legs 19-20, there would be a flexible exchange. We were told to pick our own exchange point along Smithson Valley Road. This meant that the first runner would run a minimum of 7.2 miles. Depending on the exchange, the next runner would run a minimum of 8.5 miles. The problem was that they didn't give us any information about where there might be a safe place to exchange.

So, we headed out and measured the distance on the odometer until we reached 7.2 miles from the exchange. We pulled over to the side of the road and got out to watch for Leslie. In the mean time, we pulled out our Bluetooth speakers and cranked up the tunes. Brian and I took out our reflective safety flags and vests and were dancing to the music on the side of the road encouraging the other runners as they went by us. Finally we saw Leslie and she handed off to Greg for his leg. As we headed to the next exchange, we passed a parking area with signs saying exchange. Nice job, Ragnar!

My second leg was going to be my longest. It was leg 21 and would be almost 10 miles of rolling hills. In addition, the beginning of the leg would be on the shoulder of a major road. I would have to pay close attention to stay safe. Greg came in at 1:00 am and handed off to me. Off I went. I wanted to try and kill this leg. It had cooled down to 64 degrees and I love night running. I ended up passing 16 people and came into the exchange 1:24:33 which was an 8:29 pace. It was even better than I expected and it didn't even seem too hard. Needless to say I was thrilled.

We wrapped up our second set of legs at 3:54 am. We wanted to try and get some sleep before we would have to run our final legs of the race. So we headed to Lehman High School where we would meet Van 1 when they were done. We were able to find a quiet spot to get in at least a power nap. This was going to be a race where none of us got much sleep at all - at least in Van 2. I was right because at 8:15 am we got a text from Van 1 telling us that their last runner was on the road. We got up and out of the van to get ready to start the final 6 legs of the race.

Brian took the handoff at 9:15 am and headed out for his 5.4 mile run. The good news was that it was overcast and threatening to rain. The bad news was that the humidity level was 91%. We all kept hoping that it would rain because we thought it might help to cool the temperatures off a bit. Regardless, we knew we had to finish. So we got into the van and headed over to the exchange area so I could get in a little stretching and prep for my final run of 5 miles.

Brain came in right after 10:00 am. As he came in, he told me to get ready for the handoff. As he got closer, I knew he was going to jump on me. All I could think of was to catch him and hope that I didn't fall over. He jumped up and I caught him midair and was able to stay vertical. After a big sweaty hug from him, I took off on my final leg. Although I wanted to run this last leg fast, I knew coming from Phoenix that this leg would be harder than normal due to the high humidity and 70 degree temperature.

The route was basically flat which helped. I completed the first mile at an 8:02 pace. I knew I had started off too fast. I slowed it down to an 8:30 pace and held that through the second mile. But as I continued, I could feel the heat start to take its toll. My pace started to slow to closer to a 9 minute pace. I was getting frustrated but kept pushing as hard as I could. The humidity was oppressive and I was sweating profusely. When I made the final turn, I pushed it hard to the exchange coming in at 43:43 which was an 8:47 per mile pace. Not bad considering how I felt.

Due to permitting regulations in the City of Austin required the route to be completely on sidewalks therefore I was not able to just hand off to Jason. Instead, I had to jump into the van and drive from Exchange 32 A at Tom Green Elementary School to Exchange 32 B at Akins High School where Jason started his final leg. Ragnar did deduct 15 minutes from every team for travel time from Ex 32 A to Ex 32 B. Unfortunately for us, the traffic was dense and we missed the turn. It took us closer to 30 minutes to get to the high school. Not a great way to have an exchange.

Our last 3 runners had to run through probably the worst section of Austin. I am not sure why Ragnar chose this route. But we felt that Leg 34 was somewhat dangerous for Vanessa. Being a female running through a very sketchy part of town was not ideal. We stopped about half way through the leg just to ensure her safety. As I reflect on the overall route, I think that Ragnar would be better off starting the race on the west side of Austin out near Bee Caves and have it finish in San Antonio at Hemisfair. Austin is just too tough to permit apparently and I don't think this course really showed off the beauty of Austin.

Our final runner Leslie started out at 12:51 pm on the last 2.9 miles of the course. We boogied to the finish line at Rodeo Austin. The history of preserving western heritage began here in 1938. Over the years, Rodeo Austin has grown from a stock show featuring 16 animals into one of Austin’s premier event areas, featuring a top 10 ProRodeo, daily concerts, and world class livestock shows. As we arrived, it finally started to rain. It wasn't heavy, though. We all gathered to create a tunnel for Leslie to run through and then followed her across the finish line.

We had run 177.9 miles across the Texas Hill Country. When the results were posted, we had finished in 29:00:19 which was 72nd out of 191 teams and a 9:47 per mile pace. For some reason they had us in the Men's Open Division where we finished 22nd out of 50 teams. If they had had us in the correct Mixed Division, we would have in finished 23rd out of 50 teams. Overall, the team was really happy with our personal and team performance. I ended up running a total of 17.65 miles at an average pace of 8:31 per mile which is one of my fastest performances in these types of relays. There was a lot left to be desired with regard to the course, the volunteers, planning and execution of the race by Ragnar. Chalk it up to it being Ragnar's first time running this type of race in Texas. Regardless, our team had a lot of fun and laughs along the way.

Our next adventure will be in Kentucky this October when we run in the Kentucky Bourbon Chase Relay. "The Bourbon Chase celebrates the best of Kentucky. It is a 200-mile journey across the Bluegrass State – through their historic bourbon distilleries, across their majestic horse country, and into their enchanting small towns." It finishes in downtown Lexington. We know it will be a hilly and challenging race. But I know that "We Run for the Hill of It" will be ready to run and ultimately have fun doing it.