West Virginia Mountain Mama

Things got WILD and WONDERFUL on our most recent running adventure.  I guess I should've expected it, but it totally caught me off guard!

I say I should've expected it because unlike some states, I had actually traveled to West Virginia before as part of Team Estrogen-a semi professional (okay not completely amateur might be more accurate) group of four tough young ladies who rafted the Gauley during the epic annual dam release Gauley River Rafting and it was definitely Wild and Wonderful back then. So I knew it was Wild and Wonderful long before we ever reached this sign welcoming me back, but I guess I'd forgotten! Come to think of it, West Virginia is indirectly responsible for my marriage and everything good in my life today!!   Ask me the rest of that story next time we're on a long run together!

Anyhow about this most recent trip, you should know, it's always somewhat of a fiasco to get eight people willing to go on these Ragnar adventures with us: You're gone for 4 days; It's somewhat expensive; You have to run at least 14 miles; You get little to eat; You typically can't shower and you sleep on the ground. I could go on, but I think you get the point.  I guess you could say it's a tough sell for many.  However, for the right people, it's not so hard and for me and Mird it's like a slice of heaven here on earth. In March, after several months of negotiations and weak promises that we had no intentions of keeping (just kidding mostly), we finally had a committed team of 8 awesome enough people. We registered "swiftly" (haha get it?!) before anyone could change their mind and named our team, Not Fast, But Not Last! And then we all got particularly giddy because we were going to West Virginia, baby, to run a Ragnar Relay!!

    Mird Models our team uniforms! 

                                                                   

Take me home West Virginia (to state number 14)!  Our team (left to right below) Vern, Brenda, Domin, Mird, Courtney, Amy, Nicky and Michele was our anchor woman!  Oh and Ivar agreed to be out volunteer once again! He's the best!

Despite the fact that our car was driven by someone with no sense of direction, a lengthy driving record and generally poor driving skills (whose name rhymes with burn), we found our way to Big Bear Lake Camp Lands aka Ragnar Village which would serve as our home for the next 36 hours!  The other car (Mird and Courtney) experienced an uneventful drive down. After a ridiculous check-in process, we found the perfect spot (think of the scene in Christmas Vacation when they find the perfect tree, it illuminates, the family embraces one another and everyone celebrates) That's exactly how we felt when we found our spot!  It was near cool people (who later fed me fireball after the completion of each leg!), close to the village and also near the glamping folks so we could sneak into their outhouses when the shit hit the fan!  It was perfect!  We quickly set up camp and headed to Dominica and Ivar's camper for dinner (aka our last real meal for a long time). Dinner was uneventful except that it gave us time to get to know one another and we took a ridiculous amount of pictures!

This was a seriously special team-I can't really describe it except to say it was like we were all flawlessly paired up on match.com, we got married and we lived happily ever after with very little effort!  The End!  It was our first all female Ragnar team which I was somewhat nervous about because you never know if women are going to mesh together, but we totally did.  And then the next day with me as our scared shit less (I mean fearless and super brave) leader, we ran the race and we all did awesome although honestly Mird has to quit stopping to take so many damned pictures because we're pretty sure she cost us 4th place!  That's right we finished in 5th place out of 15 teams so we felt PROUD of our accomplishment and completely fired up when we finished!  It should be noted the trails at Ragnar Appalacians Trail are no JOKE. It was unanimously voted the hardest of the three Ragnars we've completed by a landslide. Now because of the reputation of this particular Ragnar, my main goal going into this Ragnar was to come out of it alive and secondarily, if possible, uninjured. I'm happy to report that despite falling 3 times and nearly falling countless other times, I did accomplish both goals!  Mird also fell a couple of times, but she too came out of it relatively unscathed and with a smile on her face!  Despite questionable training tactics on behalf of our team, we actually performed extremely well under pressure and rose to the challenge of the trails set before us.  Each lady carefully traversed the trail when their time came and skillfully found a way to the infamous transition tent to tag off to the next heroic runner!  And we all had to deal with the Death Ramp at the end of every single leg. It was brutal.  Check it out!

This is a picture of The Death Ramp. I know it doesn't look that bad, but trust me when you're finishing a 6.5 hard core trail run the last thing your legs want to do is run down this psycho death ramp!  Each time I completed the death ramp, visions of myself- face planting in front of the huge crowd that is eternally gathered in the transition tent- flashed through my mind and I cringed at the thought of the embarrassment and pain that would most certainly accompany my fall.  But the coolest part of the race...I never did face planted on that damn death ramp!

Goofing around on the death ramp...after we all kicked its ass of course!

Appalacians Trail Ragnar

Not Fast But Not Last

West Virginia state # 14

After visiting West Virginia I've come to realize The lyrics of John Denver's Song, "Take Me Home Country Roads" are just so accurate...

Almost heaven, West Virginia

Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River

Life is old there, older than the trees

Younger than the mountains, blowing like a breeze....

West Virginia....Mountain Mama, take me home...take me home

Oh and I almost forgot.  We heard this very John Denver song on our way to West Virginia which was pretty much an awesome sign of the most amazing weekend that was to come! 

PS this gives a small glimpse of what my mind does on these crazy trail runs...

Vern Out