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...

Out Of Office Reply...

Thank you for stopping by This Is My Faster! Unfortunately I'll be away from my blog for the next few days making memories along the Alafia River at my first ever Ragnar Trail Relay Race!

You can "picture follow" my trail journey by checking out my Instagram posts via THIS LINK 😊.

Or you can deprive yourself of the picture updates and wait for the race recap (which will be posted early next week).

Life is short though... and there are alligators along the trails... so if you want to make sure I'm surviving camping and trail running just check out my IG 👉 <here>. 

See you next week!!!!

Always & Forever,

This Is My Faster aka LeAnne 💜

Trails, Hills, and Blanket Statements...

Research shows that there is a strong correlation between higher geographic altitudes and higher food consumption. Actually, I don't know if there is any research regarding this, but I wanted an excuse for the ridiculous amount of food I've been eating... apart from a lack of self control ;)

My appetite could also be more rationally explained by the fact that I ran this morning and was able to get a bit of hill work and high elevation training in...

I ran with Brooke and we did a trail run. It was so beautiful! I left my phone in her car so I wasn't able to take any pictures along the route (I know that's like a blogger "no-no"... sorry). But it was nice to just take in the scenery and simply enjoy it without getting caught up in capturing a "Kodak moment". I also ran without music/podcasts/audiobooks, which was also really really nice.