Ragnar Tahoe Trail (Review/Recap!)

Hi there!

Quick Updates Before the Recap:

1) The OC Fair 5k.  I'm doing it next week.  (probably as a workout, not really in racing shape). You should too.  Why?  Because it runs through the OC Fair grounds so it's flat, fast, and fun.  It's also the first place I ever broke 21, so it has a special place in my heart.

2) The iTryathlon: My friend Heather is doing this and I think I'm going to copy her.  It's high time I do a triathlon and this one is about as low key as it gets.  So low key the swim is in the pool and I probably won't drown.  Yay!

3) WatchCo:  I want to give them a mention.  They sent me a gorgeous watch (don't ask me why, but I am not questioning!), which was awesome because I've been thinking I needed a "big girl" watch for a while and they made my dreams come true.  They have a pretty huge selection (I would have gotten the wood watches if I didn't just need something more all-purpose), so it's worth hunting to find exactly what you want.

Ragnar Tahoe Trail Recap (and thoughts on the trail)

This weekend I did a whole new kind of Ragnar.  In Tahoe.  With people I'd never met on a Nuun team.  (yay Nuun thanks).

Ragnar Tahoe (and I think all Ragnar trail relays) are made up of 8 people (unless you're doing the ultra, which IMO would be really hard) and three separate loops.  Each member of the team does three loops.

In the case of this Ragnar, there was one 2.7 mile loop, one 8ish mile loop, and one 6.8 mile loop.  All of the loops were no joke and each ended on an insane uphill.  I am convinced that the race director is an evil evil person.

Here are the elevation maps, although I'm convinced they look nothing like what I ran!  Not sure why?

Despite the difficulty of each loop (I ran none of the loops faster than 10 minute mile pace!), they were truly the best part of the race.  Sometimes I would look while I was running and be amazed at how beautiful it all was.  

The first loop was short and beautiful but extremely crazy as far as elevation.  I had to talk myself down some of the downhills because it was so steep and rocky.

The second loop (that I had the pleasure to run at 3 AM) was crazy because it took us up a ski lift and dropped us up at the top of the mountain.  It was a little bit scary running on such a remote trail so late at night.  I may or may not have spent much of the time on the trail wondering if I would get mauled by a mountain lion.  That said, the experience of being taken up a ski lift all by yourself at 3 AM was eerie and pretty unforgettable.

The third loop was my favorite.  I ran/walked it with one of our teammates, Mackenzie and we both were able to take in the great views, and the gradual downhill on the tiny trails through the forest were unforgettable.

I never thought I would say this, but I actually missed the Ragnar Vans that you don't get on the Ragnar Trail.  There's something really special about hanging out with strangers (or best friends) that you HAVE TO hang out with for the next 24 hours.  In some ways, camping takes away some of the insanity and bonding experiences.  However, I did get 4 hours of sleep which is pretty insane for a Ragnar.

Ragnar did a pretty good job organizing the event for a first time go-around and the trails were marked really well.  There was always water and Nuun available and some snacks as well (smores at night!). That said, most teams took way longer than expected due to the difficulty of the trails, and having to double up so we could finish on time took away some of the fun of the competitive aspect of the event.

So in the "Regular Ragnar versus Trail Ragnar" fight I would say:  

Positives:  BEAUTIFUL views, more sleep, the opportunity to camp, don't have to pay for vans, super challenging runs.  

Negatives: Less team bonding, less variety on the course (only three loops), you're not actually traveling anywhere, and you can't allocate easier / harder / hillier legs to difference runners as needed. 

All in all, I loved doing the trail relay, but I think Ragnar is still ironing out some of the details.  I think if I had to choose, I'd still pick the Ragnar Ultra event, but I'll never forget some of the beautiful views I saw this weekend.  

Rising to the Occasion

This post is a few things that don't deserve their own separate post, but I thought they were entertaining enough to combine.  Hope you agree!

Long Run = A-Ok
I had a decent long run for the first time of the history of the world!  What made this run special was that I ran miles 16-19 on the track in 20:52 (which was somewhat shocking for some reason), and that I was able to complete 22 without dying or having a completely ruined day afterwards.  I get that I'm supposed to be running miles at marathon pace, but there is something miserable about running at 7:40 pace that I can't take.  It's uncomfortable but still takes forever.  No thank you.

The funniest part of this run was stopping for water at mile 20.  After about ten seconds drinking at the water fountain, the 8 year old kid in line behind me said "Hey!  I'm thirsty too!".  Clearly he didn't see I was about to die.  His sympathy for women on long runs is clearly limited.  

I also ran the last few miles just in the lululemon "ta ta tamer" bra because it got blazing hot and I couldn't take wearing my long sleeve anymore.  This thing straight up looks like a bra, with clasps in back and cleavage in front.  Orange County, you're welcome for the free show.

Stuff Regarding Hood To Coast
If you are alive and read more than zero running blogs, you might have noticed that Nuun is calling for runners to apply to be on their Hood To Coast relay.  I did it last year and it rocked.  But after a lot of waffling I decided not to apply. It was partially for stupid reasons like fear of rejection and that I've been pretty swamped lately.  But a lot of my decision is because I am certain if I got a spot, I would be taking this experience from someone who would benefit more from it than me.  Also, I spent a lot of time peeing in the woods and falling asleep in fields last year, so I'm probably doing my potential teammates a favor.

When I applied last year for the relay, I'd written my sarcastic, very small blog for 2 months and probably had 5 readers.  And the guys/gals at Nuun took a chance on me.  They've been nothing but wonderful to me in the past year, and I'm really thankful.  And I am pretty addicted to their drink - which is probably half of why I can survive long runs without massive headaches these days.  So even though I'm not applying...Nuun, this bud's for you.  I know you'll pick an amazing team.

No Self-Respecting Greek Man Would Ever Want To Marry Me

I used to post recipes on this blog.  I stopped doing this because I realized I wasn't a good enough cook to be posting recipes for people and that most of my recipes weren't unique anyways.  But this weekend, I decided maybe I could post a recipe.   I attempted to make "Tsoureki", which is a Greek Easter bread.  I also thought it would be a good way for me to talk about being Greek, because if you've ever met anyone who is Greek, you'd know they want to bring it up at any half-relevant opportunity (see Tina Fey, Jennifer Aniston, John Stamos, etc.).

I started cooking at 10 pm Saturday night and I didn't notice that the recipe said that the bread needed at least 5 hours to rise.  I wasn't about to stay up until 3 AM so I stuck the dough in the fridge and went to sleep.

This morning, I pulled the bread out of the fridge and excitedly baked it.   "Now I am really in touch with my heritage!", I thought!  "I am a domestic goddess!"

Turns out, bread doesn't rise well in the fridge.  I took the loaf out of the oven, and it had the density of a football.  Definitely not delicious.

And then the wonderful irony of an Easter bread not rising hit me.

In that moment, the baking failure became one of the most fun failures I've had in a while.  I may not have a delicious bread, but at least my 6 hours in the kitchen gave me dorky Easter humor.

Better luck next time!  Maybe one of these days I'll become a respectable cook!  And then, the recipe section of the blog will populate. Until then, all you need to know is that Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies never fail to please.

A Tale of Two Sports (San Diego Duathlon Recap)

Today, after 1 billion years of just running, I finally ventured into something new.

Yes yes...the rumors you heard on TMZ are true...I did a Duathlon.

PRERACE
I was nervous as all hell the night before.  I started Googling things like "first duathlon" and found blogs talking about all their brick workouts, their hard core biking, and how much more awesome they were than me (ok...that was not in their blogs).
Basically a lot of stuff I didn't do.  I imagined all worst case scenarios and decided that not getting a flat and not killing myself or others would be....a minor success on it's own.

This morning, I woke up at the hour 4 AM.  Actually, I woke up at 3:30 AM to some drunk kids coming back to my apartment complex.  I thought "wow. that used to be me. Boy am I uncool now.", and rolled over and went back to sleep. Before I left, I took this picture.  I like to capture pre-race looks because a sleepy and terrified picture in the dirty bathroom mirror is worth a thousand words.

Yes, I am aware that my arms are way smaller/skinnier than the rest of my body.  No I don't know why.  I should do push ups or something.

After a 70 mile trip down to San Diego, I picked up my packet and put my bike on one of the racks along with all of my stuff.  One thing I noticed as soon as I got there, is there is none of this running skirt / tulle / costume stuff in du/triathlon-land.  I was wearing a sequined headband and felt somewhat ridiculous even in that.  The du / tri landscape is still dominated by dudes and non-flashy women which honestly was kind of nice for a change.  My bee suit from the LA RNR Half probably would not have been quite as welcome ;-).

After warming up for a bit, we were all herded to the start and then we were off!

RUN - Leg 1.  Quick 'n dirty. 
The first run was just 1.5 miles.  I think I ran them in at 6:50 something pace although the official splits aren't online yet so I'm not sure.  When I finished the loop, I went to the transition area to get my stuff for the bike leg.  Of course, I couldn't find my bike...so I jogged back and finally found it!  Transitions = hard, yo.

BIKE Leg 
As soon as I hopped on the bike, something was wrong.  The pedals were moving like the bike wasn't in gear.  Turned out, somehow the chain had popped off the big gear of the bike.  Murphy's law, right?

I freaked out and spastically asked a volunteer for help.   Poor guy put the chain back on and probably got his hands all disgusting and full of oil at the same time.  So nice of him.

Hey Volunteer Dude:  If for some reason, you ever see this blog entry...THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP!


This adventure probably added a couple minutes to my time, but that's nothing compared to the billions of people getting flats on the loop course.  It rained like mad the night before and so the path was still pretty messy.

The bike was the best part of this race.  The wind rushed by, and I didn't get my butt kicked quite as much as I thought I was going to!  One girl in grey kept on passing me and I'd pass her back.  You're not allowed to draft which is why I think we kept doing this.
Although it got kind of awkward after a while:  "Oh hai again other girl who is riding the same pace as me..."

Here're the Garmin Splits from the bike portion!

I think my average pace on the 12.4 mile bike was somewhere 19.5 mph without the chain issue at the start which I think took 2 minutes.  Probably more like 18.5 mph factoring it in.   I'm (somewhat) ok with this!  Lots of work to do to get over 20 mph comfortably, but I was passing plenty of people, so I think with a little more biking dedication, I can start to not suck!
*edit.  Garmin pace = faster than race.  race recorded like 18.2 mph /19.2 mph. I think it's different because we were all riding on the outside of the loop in order to stay to the right.

Run - Leg 3 - Cramptastic. 
This transition went smoother.  I put my bike on the rack, chugged some Gatorade and started running.
I usually train with Nuun because it is lower cal, just as tasty, and they are nice enough to send it to me (I'm a brand ambassador...see that product plug?  ;-) ), but I thought having a sports drink with sugar in it would be better for the race.
Right?
Wrong.

As soon as I started running, I developed a cramp.  I know...this is becoming a reoccurring issue.  I need to figure out how to stop stomach cramping.  It sucks.  And it makes my times suck.

Also, running off a bike is WAY HARDER than I thought it would be!  My legs felt like they were made of jello.   At the beginning I even saw a current pace beginning with "8", which is not so good when I wanted to keep all the running under 7.  Oy.

The girl in grey passed me back and I told her to go get it.  She did.  I believe she got 14th woman!

My full mile splits were 7:30 and 7:15 on the Garmin.  Half marathon pace, anyone?  I was thrilled to see the finish on the second loop, and booked it in for the last few seconds.
(*edit ...uhhhh....turns out my official pace was like a 7:50 assuming this portion was 2.5 miles.  yikes!  hopefully they marked it long.)

Total Time: 1:14:59.  16th woman.  It was a small race though, so I don't think there were more than 50- 80 women total.
*no splits besides the finish time are up yet so sorry if they aren't 100% accurate. 

I celebrated by drinking the recovery drink of champions:  Oh bubbly aspartame, I love you so. 

I stuck around the awards ceremony (top six got real silver and gold awards! jealous! )
Afterthoughts
Feels pretty cool to have done one of these, and I want to get more into these multi sport races!  I am now going to force all my coworkers to refer to me as "du-ath champ", not "Margot" for the day.


Of course, I've got a ton of learning to do.  Major lessons learned are....
1) Make sure the damn bike is ready to ride.  Like chain on gears.
2) Rack my bike early so that I am in an easy place to find!
3) Practice running off the bike.  Train more (obviously).
4) Figure out what's going on with my abs / stomach.  Come on body!
5) Sign up for as many du's / tri's in 2012 as possible.

Relays / Mud Run? Speedy friendz.

It was a crazy and event filled morning for me and my blogging / running friend career!

It started out with a run at the Newport Back Bay Loop with Skinny Runner and Pam.  

This was my first time meeting Pam and I was way excited to meet her - and yeah...she's super cool.    I was also a tad bit nervous to run with these two speedsters.  In the days before our run, I kept emailing them stuff like "uhhh we might need to go really slow" and "don't point and laugh if I need to stop".   Luckily, they only pointed and laughed a little, and it was so great to run with them.   8.5 miles.  

one of these is me this morning

The only problem with running with these girls, and OUAL, is that they are all so freaking gorgeous and have cute outfits, I feel a little like the troll of the group.  Suggestions on how to look cute running?  I can't let these girls show me up!  =)

After the run, I went home, showered, and obsessively looked the Nuun blog to see them announce the results for the sponsored Hood To Coast Relay.  

The top of mount hood looks cold

I actually suspected I was in the finals for consideration and here's why:  The past couple days, I've seen a big increase of searches for "TheFasterBunny".  

And let's be honest:  The only people who actually type that into a search engine are my relatives and boyfriend.  And....people who might be trying to decide on a Hood To Coast Team...dum dum dum!  

Anyways, I am psyched and honored to be part of the team!  My first reaction to learning I was picked was more to wonder if I wanted this as much as many of the other bloggers who applied.  If I really deserved to be chosen.  Just because I have decent MS Paint skills (nothing compared to EatDrinkandRun), should that really earn me an entry?   The more I thought about it, the more I really got excited to be part of the team.  Deserve it?  Who knows.  But I'm gonna own it!   ;-).  

I'm also thinking about finding a costume to wear (if they'll let me).  Duck?  Bear?  A big box shaped like the state of Oregon?    Kim Kardashian big booty shorts?  The options are limitless. 

Since this is all new to me, I want to hear any input on your 'adventure race'  or relay thoughts and experiences.    

Have you ever done a long distance run relay (or do you want to?)  (4x800 in high school does not count)

Or are you more of a solo runner?  

As long as we're talking about adventure - what about those mud runs?  Fun...or disgusting?  


On a slightly different note - thanks for your entries into the Bachelorette contest!   You can still enter until next Monday.  Thus far what I've learned from your entries is that I am not the only one with a reality TV crush on JP.   Hands off ladies, he's mine.  =) 

Running Safety, Girlfriend?

I'm comin' clean!  Like the rest of the blog-o-sphere, I put my hat in the ring for the Nuun Hood to Coast Relay Team.  I'll spare you all the details, but  I'll introduce you to my main character "Nuucy Drew" in my children's "book":

Nuuncy Drew and the Case of the Relay Member!  

Engaging, no?  hah it's ok I can take it if you think it's lame :).  

Bottom line, I figure if Nuun is looking for a blogger who loves wine tasting, bunny ears at major races, and workouts like "Run faster until you're about to fall off the treadmill", I'm their girl!  

If not, that's cool too, although I think Hood To Coast with the team would be amazing. I would like to put my vote in for Jess at Blonde Ponytail because it was pretty cool of her to blog about the contest a couple weeks back and try to get others to enter.  Team spirit.  

On to the main topic, Running Safetyyyyy:

I was at Road Runner sports a few weeks back and I saw they had little cans of pepper spray to carry with you when you run.  

It kind of reminded me of my general fears of going out on a run and never returning....morbid...I know I know...but haven't you watched the Dateline NBC specials where this actually happens?  

There's all the regular safety recommendations that you've probably seen:

1) Don't run in deserted areas

2) Don't run with headphones on, esp at night (ok be honest...who NEVER runs with music?  What is this, 1990?)

3) Run with someone else.

4) Make sure someone knows exactly where you're going and when you're coming back.  

I sort of follow these rules.  I generally don't run alone in the dark or in dangerous places.  But I run alone a lot outside and often find myself on a trail or track where the Seinfeld quote from one episode "I coulda killed you here and no one would know"  (remember...when Elaine has some repair man over???), goes through my head.

And as a relatively small woman who probably couldn't defeat a small dog in a fight, being alone on these trails isn't wise.    

Actually the one ridiculous "safety" thing that I do, that I am convinced is protecting me, is that I greet any suspicious looking dude with a 'hello good morning' or the like.  I'm hoping that if they were planning to kill me, my politeness might just stop them.  Likely...I know...=).   

Do you carry pepper spray or have amazing karate skills?  

How do you say safe when you run? 

Do you think I should write a sequel to "Nuun-cy Drew"?    Perhaps "The Adventures of Go-Tein"   ?