Ragnar Relay: $4!+ I should have posted

Ok, I swear I am ALMOST done talking about Ragnar. Bear with me.

You know how MTV always does a ‘$4!+ they should have shown’ episode at the end of the Real World season? Oh, I’m the only one who still watches that crap? Hmm… Anyways, we took SO many awesome pictures and there was just no way to fit them all into my recaps so I thought I’d do a ‘$4!+ I should have posted’ post.

These pics remind me of Barney from How I Met Your Mother. Often, people would try to capture candid photos of our group. I think I have camera radar though. And apparently I only have one pose too!

Tossing gummy bears in the air and catching them in your mouth is way tricky. I probably tried like 80 times. One successful attempt was caught on camera. The other successful attempt (ya, I think there were only two) was caught on video. I’ll put it on YouTube and upload the video soon.

We decorated the vans at Nuun headquarters on Thursday night. At this point, most of us hardly knew each other. Oh how fast things change…

Night time come ’round and we start acting like bulls and matadors.

And Kim showed us her serious baton twirling skills! She is so rad.

Megan snapped a few photos of me coming into the finish of my first leg! Photos complete with shot of Honey Buckets.

So there you have it! The $4!+ I should have posted!

Ragnar Recap Part 3: Boom you caught a Stacie

I left off with getting the most glorious 90 minutes of sleep ever. I am not even exaggerating, it felt like I got 12 hours. I woke up feeling so refreshed and ready to rock my most ridiculous attire yet. One thing is for sure, we were going to go out with a bang.

We make the 80s look GOOD!

Before we knew it, it was our turn to take over the glorious orange slap bracelet and bring this race to a close. All of van 2 decided that our cheering had to be dialed up to 11 for the last legs. WE NEED MORE COWBELL!

Jenny took off running on what we decided was quite possibly the most gorgeous leg of the course.

And we had BUBBLES!!!

Oh yes, I was the keeper of the bubbles! And when you have bubbles, you get AMAZING race photos like this one:

We screamed, we laughed, and we danced the hell out of ‘Ice Ice Baby.’

Then it was time to get decked out in my most absurd race outfit yet. Oh dear lord it was fabulous.

And then we danced some more…

Then it was my turn to bust out my final 5.8 miles.

Ya… About that whole running thing…

This leg sucked. Like major major sucked. My legs felt strong and my endurance was hanging in there but the super crazy mondo hills caused my back to spasm SO FREAKING BAD. My team was absolutely amazing. They leap frogged me the whole way handing me Advil and water and playing ‘Stacie’s Mom Has Got it Goin’ On’ (which seriously made me crack up by the way).

I tried my damn hardest to run up those friggin hills but my back just would not cooperate. I got so close to breaking down in tears of disappointment but my amazing team helped me through. Kim told me to walk the hills or she would be mad. Yes, mama Kim. So walk I did. As soon as it leveled off in the slightest, I ran my heart out to try to make up time. I was so close to the end, then I got stuck at a stoplight. It felt like I was there FOREVER! As soon as it turned green, and I took off toward the most glorious downhill finish ever.

I was DONE! My Ragnar job was finished!

Without fail, my team had the best surprise ever waiting for me.

Remember me mentioning ‘Seagull Fishing’ yesterday? Well, for those of you who don’t know (presumably all of you), Seagull fishing is where you lay on the beach with a towel covering you. You cover said towel in food. Seagull comes to eat the food… BOOM you caught a seagull.

Apparently I am the only one who has ever participated in such activities (to any PETA members, no seagulls have been harmed while seagull fishing). Well, my team decided to go Stacie Fishing. They knew EXACTLY what Stacie’s feed on: “Lemon Tea” which oddly resembles Red Hook beer. Hmm..

Kim laid on the ground, covered herself in a towel, put “Lemon Tea” on the towel and BOOM…

She caught a Stacie!!!

Best. Thing. Ever!!

We continued cheering our brains out for our final two runners. After hiding and throwing MORE gummy bears at Megan, we headed to the finish!! Megan came running in with Tyler and we all (Van 1 and Van 2) ran into the finish together.

NUUNKOTB babyyyy!!! After 32 glorious hours, we did it!

I can’t believe how lucky I am to have been able to spend time with these people. I absolutely adore my NUUNKOTB family and I am so anxious for our reunion. You ladies (and Mason and Tyler) are such fabulous people! Thanks for one of the most memorable experiences of my life.

Ragnar Recap Part 2: Gummy bears… ATTACK!

The best part about Ragnar is that you could be in a van with total strangers but by the time night time rolls around, you are instant BFFs. The delirium sets in and every single thing becomes hilarious. For instance:

1. A 5lb bag of gummy bears is AWESOME, but hiding from your runner and chucking said gummy bears at her while she passes by is downright HILARIOUS.

[Megan will never see me hiding behind this stop sign]

[Gummy bears… ATTACK!!!]

2. Two words… Seagull fishing. Please tell me I’m not the only one that has heard of this. If you haven’t heard of it, don’t worry, a full explanation will be coming soon!

3. Nuun tramp stamp tattoos. ‘Nuf said.

Srsly. Pure comedy. Anywhoooo…

After Megan finished her first leg, it was time for van 2 to have a break. We headed to Red Robin for some dinner. After din, we headed to the next exchange and tried to get some sleep. Key word: tried. I didn’t end up sleeping a wink. I think I was too excited and anxious for my night leg.

My second leg was going to be tough. It was 4.8 miles through Anacortes, 2.5 of which was uphill practically the whole way. I was nervous about it. Since my run started at about 3:30 am, it was going to be dark the whole time. This fact also made me nervous. Luckily, our seriously kick ass driver, Tyler, ran with me. Srlsy, huge big major super-sized thanks to Tyler for running with me!

Even though it was dark, there were always runners in sight but having someone run with you just put your mind at ease. Plus, he chatted a lot which srsly helped keep me distracted from how bad the hills were kicking my ass. Note to self: the hills are WAY worse than advertised on the elevation chart.

As Tyler and I were running, our van peeps would periodically stop on the road and proceed to serenade us with the song ‘Red Solo Cup.’ At 4 o’clock in the morning, there are few things more entertaining than hearing Kim singing Red Solo Cup at the top of her lungs in a residential neighborhood. Instant classic.

After climbing up a ridiculous hill to the finish, I handed off the orange slap bracelet to Dawn and she started making her way toward Deception pass. She literally brought us the light!

[Just look at how happy she is!]

Our van also stopped to take in the Deception Pass beauty.

[Tyler, Me, and Megan]

[My super bright neon 2nd leg outfit that no one could see because it was too dark outside.]

After our night legs, we headed to the next major exchange and FINALLY got some sleep. It is amazing what 90 minutes of sleep can do to rejuvenate your body!

Up next: Stacie fishing, back spasms, and bubbles

Ragnar Recap Part 1: Creepers, Camera Whores, and Compression. Oh My!

Yes, the recaps will be broken up into many parts because one post would never encapsulate the awesomeness that was this race.

For those of you just tuning in, the Ragnar Relay is a relay race that covers around 200 miles in about 30 hours. Nuun sponsored me and nine other bloggers for this race. The ten of us were joined by 2 Nuun employees who ran with us and 2 Nuun employees who drove us. Six runners started us off in Blaine, WA at 9 am on Friday morning while me and 5 other ladies made up van 2. Our van started our journey in Bellingham, WA.

I got up bright and early to crimp my hair, only to have it get completely ruined by the rain. My very 80s do took on a very wet rat look after a while but it was fun while it lasted.

After we made it up to Bellingham, we scoped out the competition. It didn’t take long before we saw one of the more creepy vans. The team was called “Stranger Danger” and they handed out candy to people.

Totes creepy, but it made for a seriously awesome picture!

We then headed to learn about all the Ragnar rules. After going to our safety meeting, getting our bibs, and going shopping for Ragnar gear, it was time to get tatted up!

Yep. We’re so hardcore.

After that, it was a waiting game until runner 6 (Meghan) came in so Jenny (our first runner) could take off. We eagerly filled the time being camera whores.

[The ladies of van 2: Kim, Me, Megan, Dawn, Alanna, Jenny]

[Kim, Alanna, Dawn, Me, Megan, and Tyler (our kick ass driver)]

Before we knew it, it was time for Jenny to kick some ass-phalt and get van 2 started with a bang!

[The handoff of the orange slap bracelet!]

Our van kicked ass when it came to cheering. We would drive a mile or so down the road, cheer our runner on, and repeat until it was time to make our way to the exchange. This helped SO much mentally as a runner and it was SO much fun as a spectator.

Before I knew it, it was my turn to get my first outfit on and get my run on.

My first leg was 3.1 miles on a long stretch of road on the Skagit Speedway in Burlington. There were some rolling hills that I wasn’t expecting for this leg but overall, I felt STRONG. The rain had subsided too which made my run about 50 times more enjoyable. I tried to start out conservatively and pick up speed at the end. The final result was 3.2 miles in 33:30. I’ll take it!

[The orange slap bracelet handoff!]

Immediately after running, I took a baby wipe shower and got my comfy clothes on. I called this look my “old man attire.” Goofy looking or not, compression socks and Toms are the way to go with Relays!

Next up: When gummy bears attack, nights runs, and tramp stamps.

Ragnar Northwest Passage – WE DID IT!

Recap is coming, I promise. I want to make sure I take the time to adequately describe how FREAKING AMAZING this race was. I am afraid I won’t do it justice, but I sure as hell will try.

In the end, Team Nuun Kids on the Block ran 200.2 miles in 32:13:45!!! We finished 16 out of 36 teams in our division. Bad asses. Every last one of you.

I just want to sincerely thank Nuun for everything you did for us this weekend. I loved your product before I ever met you and now, after getting to know you guys, I feel like we’re family. You are such a fabulous group of people. Thank you SO much.

And to my NUUNKOTB teammates. I SRSLY ultra big heart you guys. You made this the most memorable weekend ever. I feel like we had some major instant friendships develop. Hit me up and let’s grab some “lemon tea” soon!

 

We got the right stuff!

Well friends… The time has come to talk all things Ragnar related. I am 11 days away from running what will be the coolest race I have done to date. 12 ladies, 2 vans, 190 miles. Oh yes, it is almost here.

A while ago, we decided on an official team name and I never shared it on here. Since we are sponsored by Nuun, we wanted to incorporate Nuun into the name cleverly. The response was overwhelmingly in favor of the name…

Nuun Kids on the Block!!!

Once the name was decided, it became obvious that was HAD to do 80s attire. Leg warmers, tshirt clips, wayfarer sunglasses, and most importantly NEON! I immediately began browsing Amazon for inspiration and Mr. Postman did not fail me.

Yes, that is a pack of 144 neon jelly bracelets and tshirt clips. BOOM! Oh, but I’m not done…

Neon Wayfarer sunglasses for my whole team and hot pink mesh fingerless gloves. Holy hotness.

However, the best part are our shirts that we had designed!

[Front]

[Back]

And of course, mine will be Neon Pink!!! Ridiculously cute, right?!

Now I just have to finish putting together my neon outfits for during the run!

What is a must-have 80s accessory?

Make sure to follow our hash tag #NUUNKOTB from now throughout Ragnar for the most up to date deets on the race!