Start Time is 10:00 A.M.

Just wanted to let everyone know that they've given us the start time of 10 A.M. That's good news for van 1, gives them a little bit more time to sleep Fri morning. They also sent me a pace calculator and with the 10 o'clock start time we are estimated to finish at 2:46 P.M. Sat. I have it in Microsoft Excel so if you want me to send it to you let me know. Or if you know how to put it on here let me know. It has estimated running times for everyone. I will try to get this out through emails. Any suggestions of a better way? I'm not very computer savvy and I think that Krisyn, Carri and I are the only ones that read this. My email is tiffsdr@yahoo.com

I have asked Scott's boss if they want to "sponsor" us and pay for a rental van(s). They are thinking about that and I will post as soon as I know. In case they don't, ANY SUGGESTIONS FOR NAMES?? Even if you don't care, please tell me what you like. If you have a favorite, post a comment. We're a week and a half away with no name. We might end up being TBD3. Lame.

I got 300 glow bracelets for us/cars for the night time runs. We used them in the Wasatch Back and they were a good way to spot our car and were fun.

We still need reflective vests and something to use as a "tail light". We have two "tail lights" that would work, but I'm seeing if you have something that would work better. Well, one of ours is good. It's a reflective red circle that can flash. The other is a little bright light that we hook onto our dog's collar. I don't know how well that will work. I think between us and Carri we have enough head lamps.

If you haven't looked at the post below, please do. You need to pack light, 6 people, their stuff, food and water can be a tight squeeze.

So far I haven't gotten any "yes" for a room for Fri night, so I'm going to say let's just find somewhere to sleep. Each van should coordinate sleeping bags, blankets, tarps and whatever else you might want/need. Someone brought some little sleeping pads four our car at the WB, they were nice to sleep on with a blanket. I just checked the weather. In Logandale/Overton where we start they are predicting for next Wed 10/7 (that's as far as in advance for now): High 83 Low 60 and Henderson High83 Low 63.

I think that each van should also coordinate FOOD- carbs and protein!, WATER and sports drinks, baby wipes, garbage bags-in case of rain so 1 or2, paper towels-one roll, ziploc bags-a few of different sizes, toilet paper-one roll, cooler and anything else you think you will need. Kristyn and Carri you are in charge of Van 1 and I'll be in charge of Van 2.

Anything else????

Helpful info

http://mommiesgotback.blogspot.com/2009/05/have-you-seen-my-fill-in-blank.html

Here is a link to our Wasatch Back team captain's list of things to bring.  She is an organizer extraordinare!  The ziploc bag thing worked really well for our van!  And.....because it can't be said enough....PACK LIGHT!

Can't wait to meet you all!

Kristyn

(obviously this list is situational, but it still gives you a good idea!)

Team Name...

Here is the link that has all the teams that are running with us. Look them over and see if you can get any inspiration for us. If I don't hear comments from you I'll just pick one, so please comment and list ideas of how to decorate for your choice!

Here are some I liked:

In memory of our friend Ed Casmer, who chose not to run because he literally thought that if he did something in Vegas he would have to stay in Vegas.

Cirque du Sore Legs

Ragnar Vegas is not a CASINO???

Run Run Ye Saints and Sinners

What Happens in the Van Stays in the Van

Dread Pirate Runners

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Hol my drink, I wanna try sum'n

Team Shaka Laka

Here are some more ideas:
I thought I was on a Grand Canyon Tour
What? I was supposed to stop in Park City?
Death By Fire--Valley of Fire
Just Runnin' Home-lost my car in a poker game
Past the point of no return
Desert Dwellers
Lap of "luxor"y
Where's the Interstate?
Call me a cab
"o"___________(Fill in the blank--anything would work)
Where's the Visitor's Center?
"Wonders" from down under
Sin City Saints
Mojave Morons--I mean Mormons
Will Run For Water
What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas
Hoover Dam--this is hot!
Desert? I thought it said DESSERT!
or something else with a mirage, elvis, the strip, wrong turns, etc...........

Scott likes "There is no spoon", from The Matrix. Not quite sure how to decorate for that. Put a bunch of forks and knives (safe ones) all over the cars. We could have a big fork and knife making an X on the front of the cars.

Why are we running? I thought Ragnar was a Viking!
Ragnar the Valley of Fire Dragon
Longest RUNNING Las Vegas Show
I'm not injured...This is how I run
Friends, Family & Fools

Ok, let me know what you think!!

Welcome Lacey!! Our team is complete :)

OK everyone, we have 12 people!!!! Yaahooo!

Now to more nitty gritty stuff. Van 1 you are all in the Ogden/south Salt Lake region. It would probably be good to co-ordinate things between the 6 of you. Like when you want/can come down before the race? Can you carpool? When do you want to go back home after the race? Do some of you want to stay and play in Vegas?
I was thinking, if you want, to have people stay at our house in Cedar Thurs night and we all, or you van 1, can drive to the start. Van 2 doesn't need to be there until you get to exchange 6. Anyway, if people stay here we can have a little dinner - carb load party and meet everyone and DECORATE cars! (no one's given any input on a team name). I have to submit start times for us and Ragnar will assign us a start time based on what we want and our average pace and what is available. I was thinking about a 9 AM. The pace calculator said if we started then we should finish about 5-6 PM Sat. The start is about a 2 hour drive from my house and we need to be there at least 30 min early. Let me know if you want a later/earlier start time or if you like the 9 AM plan. Please feel free to shout out your opinion on things, I don't care and it's nice to have other ideas.

Another thing we should think about is getting a room somewhere along the route on Fri night so we can have a place to actually rest instead of hoping a field of grass or a gym floor is available. Tell me your thoughts on splitting the cost of a room. OR does anyone know someone living close to exchanges 18-24??? Maybe we could crash on their floor for a bit if that wouldn't be too inconvenient.

I hope everyone has looked over their legs. If you have any questions please comment, go to the Ragnar site or you can call or e-mail me. We have 3 weeks and 2 days. Train smart, do the runs you need, but be careful.

I'm getting really excited!! This is going to be really FUN, mostly after it's done. But that seems to be the case for most of the races I've done.

COMMENT PEOPLE!!!!

Leg Assignments and Things We Need.

OK, here are the leg assignments. People, I KNOW you can do these! Dig deep! If you feel that you can't let me know and we'll try to switch things around.

Runner #1 - MaryLyn S
Runner #2 - Kristyn M
Runner #3 - Holly C
Runner #4 - Carri N
Runner #5 - Lacey W
Runner #6 - Ryan S

Runner #7 - Jamie D
Runner #8 - Scott N
Runner #9 - Shannon K
Runner #10 - Jenni J
Runner #11 - James W
Runner #12 - Tiffany N

If you're wondering why I left Runner 5 open, it's because I don't know how conditioned they will be and this seems like a leg that most people could do.


We need another vehicle, Scott and I are providing our Durango for "Van 2", but we need something that can hold 6 people and their stuff for 36 hours for "Van 1". Does anyone have access to a minivan, large SUV or passenger van?? If not we need to arrange for a rental. If we need to do that how should we divide up the cost?

I copied this from the Ragnar site:

Securing Vehicles

• Your team will need two support vehicles for race day. The vehicles need to hold at least 6 passengers. Vehicles can be no longer than 21 feet (aprox the length of a Ford Excursion or 15 passenger van). We recommend choosing a vehicle that will have plenty of room for you to be comfortable during the long haul.
• If your team does not have access to a vehicle you may rent one at a discount from Enterprise Rent-A-Car.

Make Sleeping Arrangements

• Once you have an idea of where you’ll be during the race you need to decide as a team where you’d like to sleep. Each van will have a few hours to sleep before returning to the race course to meet up with the over vehicle. The off vehicle will have a few hours to rest before returning to the race course. You can plan to use this time to sleep, eat, or relax at the next major exchange. Using your estimates from the pace calculator find a sleep location that you can travel to and from quickly. Usually teams that book hotel rooms book them somewhere between legs 18 and 24. There are a few exchange where we will provide a place for you to sleep. For a list of exchanges with places to sleep click here. Many teams prefer to reserve a hotel room along the route. For a list of hotels along the route click here.

NAME OUR TEAM! VAN DECORATIONS AND COSTUMES!

Carri, I know you're creative and if you're thinking you're not, may I remind you of the AWESOME Spongebob valentine box you did??

Name, to see a few ideas view the comment to the very first post. I also saw this on Facebook this morning about the New England relay. Lots of good pictures and they have cool socks! Hey maybe we could be "Sock-it-to 'em" and just have fun socks to wear and hang off the cars?? I also like the "skid marks" that is shown in this post, kinda funny. We could do something with "road rash" or "road kill".

Cool blog post from a water logged New England runner this morning - http://just-what-am-i-thinking.blogspot.com/2009/09/ragnar-relay-new-england.html

Do we want to wear costumes and decorate the vans? We probably won't be going all out like these people did but we should do something simple at least. What is everyone thinking?

Check this out for some insight.

http://kspinning.wordpress.com/2008/03/08/pimping-our-ride/

http://www.runningrelays.com/?page_id=13

We also need two reflective vests and one, maybe two "tail" lights for people to wear on the back of them during the night runs. We have two headlamps that we'll bring.

Alright, that's it for now, but please check back here often to see what's new. I'm using this blog for team communication. If you need an invite to be a contributor to this blog let me know and I'll send you one.
I think it would be fun for everyone to do introductions on here. I'll do mine soon. That way we can get to know each other a bit before the race.

Good Luck training!!! Put some hills into your runs :)

Ragnar has changed the route...and legs!

This is part of an email they sent me;

LAS VEGAS RAGNAR RELAY PARTICIPANTS,

Course Maps Updated

Currently the Ragnar Relay Las Vegas is the biggest first year race in Ragnar Relay history not to mention the biggest first year race in relay racing history. Because so many people want to get Ragnarly in Vegas we made some minor course changes in order to accommodate the number of teams. We've moved the start line to the Clark County Fairgrounds in Logandale and moved Exchange 6 in the Valley of Fire to a large wash out of the campgrounds. This has altered legs around the first two exchanges and the legs around exchange 6. We've made other minor changes to the route to keep runners on the best roads.

Go here to see the changes. If you have an updated preference of what you want, let me know.

Hope the training is going well :)))

We almost have a team...

Hi Everyone!
My name is Tiffany and I'm the team captain. If you have any questions please make a comment here or email me at tiffsdr@yahoo.com Krystin M and I ran the Wasatch Back this summer and so we have limited knowledge about this crazy race. This is the first time for the Las Vegas race so I guess we are all going to be part of history. Well, I guess Ragnar history.

To update everyone here is a list of our team so far;

Krystin M
Shannon from Scott's work
Carri N
Ryan
Marylynn
Tiffany N
Scott N
Jenni J
James

If your name is above and you haven't paid (I know some are in the mail), please DO. It's $85 until Sept 1st or 4th I can't remember the exact date, after that it goes up to $95. If you have paid and I haven't sent you the sign up, please send me your email. THANKS!!

There is a link to the Ragnar Relay Las Vegas on the right if you need to get to it.

We need to be thinking of a name for our team. Here is a link to some of the other team names. http://www.ragnarrelay.com/index.php?option=com_dynamicpages&Itemid=32&page=teams&raceName=lasvegas&raceId=32

Keep in mind that we want to decorate our cars with this theme and maybe (??) run in theme related costumes. I'm not a fan of running in them, but we can wear something related while we aren't running. I am VERY open to any and all suggestions and ideas! I'm not good at coming up with stuff, but do OK once the ball is rolling.
Krystin and her husband came up with some great ones awhile ago and I think I deleted them from my Facebook, but here's what I can remember, I wish I could remember more cuz they were awesome!

Hoover Dam it's HOT!
Just runnin' home, lost my car in a poker game.
Were we suppose to stop running in Park City? (Because Ragnar offers a special "Saints and Sinners" medal to those who run the Wasatch Back (WB) and Vegas in the same year)

You can also YouTube Ragnar or Wasatch Back and watch some videos people have posted. Some of them are really cool.

I need to go. I will try to update when I have more.
Thanks for being a part of our team and I can't wait to run with all of you!!