RAGNAR RELAY Race review - Part 1 Best day ever

From Fat To Finish Line's Ragnar run

Where do I even start?

I arrived mid-day Thursday which was a whirlwind of picking up film crew members and getting situated! 

So much was going on! There was the TODAY SHOW which interviewed four teammates: Katie, Rik, Carly and Ada. It made sense why the show decided to highlight these four teammates. Katie and Rik put the team together, Ada is a former Biggest Loser and it's kind of cool to see "where are they now" and BL happens to premiere this week, and Carly because she still is in the process of losing weight and she was the newest member of the team.

The Today show piece will air on Thursday morning January 10th. I have no idea what time or which hour but I'm very excited!!

After their interviews, we headed to a little Italian place for dinner.  The Today show filmed us all meeting for the first time. We were all excited and overjoyed to be meeting each other and gathered under one roof. It was awesome to be surrounded by all of these people who have become close friends over the course of nearly a year.

We were anxious, however, to get back to our rooms to turn in for a good night sleep.

I slept so/so. I was too excited to sleep but got a few hours in, before my alarm sounded at 4:45 for our 5:30 AM meet at the van time.

This was it!!

We got to the location where it was a flurry of activity. Once again The Today Show was on location to shoot the start line. Katie was runner #1 and was going to kick off the run. Unfortunately, her start time was 7AM and her safety briefing was taking forever! They were ticking down the seconds and Katie was rushing to get to the start line - talk about nerve-racking!

But she made it, WHEW. And it was so cool because she was front and center and ready to get it going! 

Van 2 was excited to support Katie coming into her first leg - she looked strong - but hot! We were all in for a steamy, hot day of running.

Katie, Runner #1 finishing her first leg

The rest of Van 1 ran their legs while we in Van 2 went and fueled up on some Starbucks oatmeal and coffee and then headed to the major exchange point where we got safety briefed. I was runner #7 which meant I was the first from my van to run. I was getting nervous but excited! I was also concerned with the heat. It was already almost 90 degrees with the heat index and 98 degrees humidity. I knew I had to slow it waaaay down if I didn't want to burn myself up and screw myself up. I had to save a lot for that middle of the night, 10 mile run.

The whole team is awesome. I feel like we are beyond friends now, like family. And my first taste of what it means to have such a family is the support I got on my legs.

Our van featured all of our before and afters - it was a hit!

Rik from Van #1 is announced into the check point, in he comes, slaps me with the relay bracelet and off I go.  My van-mates formed a human bridge and chanted "Go Roe" as I took off. It was so fun…. and hot. Whew. 

At mile 1 my team was set up and waiting. Linda was holding up a sign, "Rock and Roe" and my team was cheering me on - handing off water, asking if I needed anything. I felt like a Nascar race driver. I got the supplies that I needed and ran off again. Most of the time, I was being tailed by a camera for the documentary. I have now come to realize that I'm going to look absolutely insane in this movie. When I run I sing, I play air drums, I "Jersey girl" fist pump away to my favorite songs, I hoot, I holler. These tactics keep me preoccupied especially during tougher runs. Do you think it would occur to me to contain myself with a camera on me? Naaaah. Fantastic. Oh well. 

"Go Roe"

I finally end my 4.1 mile run and hand off to teammate Linda - and she is off for a brutally hot 7 mile run, followed by Jen, Allison, Carly and John. We offered van support for all of the runners as it was just soooo fricken hot it was dangerous. 

John is runner #12 so as 12, he hands off back to Runner #1, Katie to take off again and into the night. This type of transition is called a "major transition" and there's a whole lot of activity that goes on there. While walking from the van to the transition, I bump into BART YASSO!! I was so excited. 

I'm so happy in this picture to meet him, I could cry:

best part of this pic is the photo bomber - lol

What was even cooler, was just the day before, BART YASSO emailed me! He caught wind that our team was running and being documented and sent me this note: 

I mean. Are you kidding me!! Who gets an Email from Bart Yasso!!??

So, pretty awesome day - right? After Katie heads out after John came in, we decide to head out for some dinner and get ready for our loooong night ahead…

PART 2 of the story continues here.

XO

Jen