My initial answer was hell no. Yes I love running but I don't particularly do well driving around aimlessly and I 100% don't do well on no sleep. Long story short my husbands team had several drop outs and suddenly I had a plane ticket and was registered. In the end I'm so happy I did!
We met 9 total strangers in Boston to form a team of 12 to run nearly 200 miles from Conneticuit to Boston. I went in thinking that I only had 16 miles spread out over 3 different legs - EASY! Man was I wrong!
Our Van of 6 was the second Van to run - my first leg was 6.8 miles and after watching my teammates putting in effort to do there best I sure as shit wasn't going to half ass my runs (like I originally thought I would but let's be honest I dont think I have that gene). After being 4 second off from a 10k PB on my first leg I was on a high - this was awesome, what was I so afraid of?! Our van finished our first legs and we sought out a pub to refuel and get some rest. I knew fueling was going the be the most important part of stringing together these legs - and I was ontop of it with pre run bagels and post run Greek yogurt, granola & 🍌 - the electrolytes were flowing & it was 30 hours of simple carbs and protein.
After and attempted sleep that ended up being 2 hours of yoga Nidra on a hard gym floor it was time to go again! 3am was my second leg, it was a quick 3.5miles and I was ready to see how fast I could get it done. I love running in the dark so hard no nerves at all but when it came to pushing the pace I had juice but not quite enough to hit my exact pace - 25:45 I was passing on the wrist band to Clint and off he went!
The next part is where things started to feel HARD. I was lucky and fell asleep in the van for an unrest-full couple hours (according to my garmin). I choked down one more bagel despite by body telling me no, sat on the lawn and started warming up which included majority of self talk telling myself I can do it (even though I wondered how). So in the theme of being an overachiever it was time - my last 5.5 miles. I saved the hardest for last - all of the Boston hills were there which made me wonder if I even do want to ever run the Boston marathon. My final stretch to the last hand off had me feeling all the things, how cool it was to be passing off the baton to my husband, how proud I felt to have gone outside of my comfort zone, how humbled I felt about the difficulty of a Ragnar, and on and on.
With sports dietician Meaghan Featherstone in my ear I quickly after chocked down the last of my warm 24hr Greek yogurt. We waited for our last runner to finish and celebrated like we had all known each other for years. I instantly went from saying I would never do one to I will never do one again to agreeing to do one next year - sound familiar marathoners?
Peace & Love✌️