Ragnar SoCal Leg Reviews

Sorry this post is so late, but I came back to P-town, Utah and jumped right back into school. And honestly, I've had to time to write this, but I didn't. So at least I'm doing it now right?

Awesome. That is about the only word that comes to my mind when I look back on Ragnar SoCal, which was my first Ragnar ever. Maybe 'Legit!' comes to mind too. It's been a long time coming, but I lost my Ragnar virginity in a place where I'd always imagined it would happen, Southern California, and I couldn't be happier with the experience. Let me break down my legs for you.

Leg 1 - Woodland Hills - 4.5 mi
I don't really know what it's like being in Van 1, but Van 2 is a little unsettling at times only because you wait SO long to run your first leg. Let alone being Runner 12 in Van 2. I knew I was last to run, but I had no idea I would be starting my leg at 9:00ish that evening. I watched Warren take off at the start line, got extremely amped to start running, and 12 1/2 hours later I finally ran a leg. It was hard keeping the nerves under control for that long. I kept thinking about the run and because I had no idea what to expect my first time, I feel like I was psyching myself out.

Our van stopped to watch and support Jordan climb a major hill in his run before mine, and we were staring a single headlamp bobbing maybe a hundred feet away. We were trying to tell if it was JB or not, when out of the darkness came the most primal yell I had ever heard. That had to be JB. He powered up the hill and ran past us. After that I was totally amped. I ran back to the van, put on my headlamp, reflective vest, number, and my ipod. We got to the exchange point, and Jordan got there a lot faster than I expected. None of us heard his number called out or anything, I had just happened to look and see him about 30 feet from the exchange so I ran to the gate and Jordan slapped the bracelet on me. Wow, it felt good to finally have that thing on and to be running. I had forgotten to turn on my headlamp and butt light, but I noticed about 1 min into the run and turned them on.

The leg wasn't too bad. I passed a guy at the very beginning and caught this girl at about mile 2. We followed each other all the way to the finish line. There were some sketchy people out in the downtown area, which probably only made me run faster. I ran into the park and saw all of our red hoodies and ran up to Warren to slap the bracelet on him. Good run, I think I had about a 7:50 pace, but I'm not sure.

Leg 2 - Harbor Park - 2.8 mi
Having one leg under my belt felt good, and I came into this run with a lot of confidence. I knew that I could run 2.8 mi pretty easily, and I basically just wanted to see how fast I could run this thing without overdoing it and emptying my tank before the last run. JB came hauling into the gate and slapped the bracelet on me. I had taken steps, ipod blaring, when I hit a red light. Why did they put the exchange right on the intersection!? That was a really anticlimactic start, but the light changed and I took off. It was mostly downhill for the first mile and a half. I just stretched my legs out as far they could go and was barrelling down this hill. This bigger kid ran up behind me and said "nice pace bro!!" and TOOK off while a light was still red (no biggie, but there was like intermittent traffic still). So I was all like "nuh uh," and pushed myself to pass him, which I promptly did. After that I had a cool little sprint through the park where I passed off to Warren. I timed myself with my stop watch, and ended up running the whole thing in about 15 min 45 sec, so whatever that pace is. I got like 3 kills which felt good too. Legit!!

Leg 3 - Dana Point - 5.5 mi
Man, I was worried about this leg. My knee had started hurting about an hour after my second leg (probably tried to run it too fast), and I knew that this leg had a lot of hills in it. Plus, it was the last leg of the race and I wanted to finish strong. I got geared up, and heard Jordan's number get called out. I felt my adrenal glands kick it into high gear and felt a surge of much needed energy and excitement. Jordan ran up and said "take us to the beach." That got me going, and I took off, right into the first hill of the leg up the PCH. My knee felt fine, but I didn't want to push it. I paced with this kid about my age up the hill, and we passed to other runners. The shoulder on the road was really narrow, and when cars were parallel parked on the side, we had to actually run into a lane of traffic, pretty scary stuff. To make it worse, at the top of the first hill I heard a HUGE crash, and turned around to see car accident with a car literally skidding towards myself and the kid I was running with. Car pieces and crap came showering down and I was worried that car parts were going to hit me, or worse, that a car would get distracted by the accident and hit one of us. There were 4 of us running when the accident happened, and I didn't know whether I should stop running and try to help or what. I slowed down and saw people getting out of their cars to help so I figured I couldn't do much, and the kid I was pacing with took off, and I wanted to beat him, so I kept going. Pretty scary though.

The leg took us left and inland a little bit into some nice residential areas. We hit a few more hills where I dropped the kid I was running with. I think he just tanked on one of the hills, and I didn't want to stop. I was getting tired but my knee was fine. I was definitely 'in the zone,' and I noticed that I was passing people. Jay-Z came on the ipod and I just focused on keeping my pace.

As we neared the finish, I was totally confused. There were people and runners everywhere who were cheering us on and saying "you're almost there!" but I couldn't see anything that looked like a finish line or an exchange. I kept looking for Chasquis but couldn't see any. So I kept running and finally started running down this sketchy sandhill. And lo and behold, at the bottom of that hill were all of the Chasquis and the Chasqui Children. Running across the finish line on the beach was just straight up epic I thought.

I am SO glad I decided to run Ragnar SoCal this year. It seemed like it wasn't that long ago that JB persuaded me to run it in Park City, and I publicly announced that I would Chasqui up and do it. Made a lot of new friends and I'm pretty sure I felt the Spirit a couple times during the race. Thanks Chasquis!! And big ups to everyone in Van 2, it was a blast and hopefully I'll see you guys in Ragnar Vegas! -Chasqui Taylor