Tales from the Trails {Ragnar Trail Alafia Race Recap -- Part 2}

"...that misery loves company, and happiness is only real when it's shared..."

[If you haven't read Tales from the Trails Part 1 check it out and then come back and read the rest of the race recap here]

So my first leg (the green loop) was officially done. My "shower pill" shower consisted of scrubbing every reachable crevice with my Shower Pill athletic body wipes. And my first real meal (since breakfast the previous morning) was chicken with rice and black beans. The rest of my Friday afternoon (into the evening) was spent waiting for my phone to charge at the charging station. 

Ragnar Trail Tip #6: Bring a powerful portable charger. Even with the latest mobile devices and their claims of extended battery life, chances are you will need to recharge your phone a few times over the course of the Ragnar weekend. I brought a portable charger with me but it took about four hours to charge it at the charging station... 

Tales from the Trails {Ragnar Trail Alafia Race Recap-- Part 1}

"We believe that being a Ragnarian is about more than being a runner..."

I joined my Ragnar Alafia Trail team in much the same way that I joined my Ragnar Chicago team (back in June of this year): I saw a post on Facebook about a team looking for runners... I asked if they were competitive or not (since my pace is slower non-competitive teams work best for me)... the team captain assured me that it was a non-competitive team... I registered and paid. This time, however, I convinced my friend Mary to join as well.

The week leading up to the race was filled with your typical "pre-trail race prep". Mary and her husband have gone camping before so they had all the camping gear we thought we would need. So really I just had to make sure my running clothes and personal equipment etc were ready and suitable for trail races.

Did I mention I had never run a trail race before? Yeah... never. I did one practice run (on what I would soon learn was a "baby trail" compared to the trails for the race) in the week before Ragnar and that was the extent of my trail experience. I had also never gone camping before. In general, I'm not really an outdoorsy kind of girl. I'm more of a "I need a hot shower and an air conditioned insect-free area to sleep" kind of girl.

Anyway, since Mary and I were traveling from the same area we decided to embark on the 300+ mile journey together the day before race day. Once we got there we just followed the line of cars heading into the wilderness campsite...

My New Celebrity Crush & Sunday Miles...

First things first: I'm in love with Baby Groot...

I mean just look at him 😍... look at his cute little eyes!!!

Baby Groot was my favorite part of the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie, so the second movie is going to be amazing! He is as cute as a button!

(including that button he is not supposed to push 😉)

The Verge did a brief article recently that had a link to a new trailer (movie trailer with Baby Groot) and I've already watched it three (ok fourteen) times 😊.

In addition to obsessing over Baby Groot, I spent some time running this morning. I did 6 miles; two with Jani...

Then we paused to meet up with Andy and Tabitha (they were doing 23 miles this morning) so we did two miles with them, and then for the last two Jani and I ran back to our cars...

I was still half asleep by the end of the 6 miles with absolutely no motivation to do any more. Plus, with all the miles I will be doing next weekend pushing for more miles this weekend wasn't a part of the plan.

The rest of my Sunday (and this upcoming week) will be all about preparing for Ragnar, which means ensuring I have (or have access to) all of these things...

What are your Sunday plans?

Are you a Baby Groot fan? (if not look at those eyes again...)

What other Ragnar/Trail running/Camping gear do you think I need?