This post is a part of my collaboration with Ragnar Trail & FitApproach for Ragnar Los Coyotes. All thoughts & opinions are my own.
This year, I was asked to captain the Sweat Pink Team for Ragnar Los Coyotes & I’m so excited to get to run another Ragnar Trail event & Sean will be running with me.
Our team is amazing, we’ve got a good mix of women & men, with the following runners on board. Of course there is Sean @ultrarunnersd & I @runnylegs then Jamie @jamiefitking, Kristina @ocrunningmama, Jared @jaredsblank, Debbie @coachdebbieruns, Sandra @organicrunnermom & finally Michael @thebrosh.
We’re all so excited to get out there & run!
Want to read more about our team?
Check out our runner profiles:
Jenny
Sean
Jamie
Kristina
Jared
Sandra
Debbie
Michael
A little background on my Ragnar experience, I ran my first Ragnar Trail event back in 2013 at McDowell Mountains in Arizona with my then running group. I’d seen people run the road races. I wasn’t really interested in sleeping in a van and running in the dark on the road, but when I found out that there were trail races, it was like mind blown, this was my kind of event!
After that first race in 2013, we went on to run the inaugural Zion race in 2014 & then McDowell Mountains again that fall. We had a great group that was a mix of slow & fast runners and we had such a blast out there! Then I moved to San Diego and was interested in running another one, but they are a little shorter in distance from what Sean likes to do and we already race a lot so we kind of put them aside. This opportunity kind of fell into our laps and I am super excited to get back out there and run green, yellow & red loops!
It was so long ago, I couldn’t really find many photos from my previous races, it was before my instagram days really kicked off 😉 lol. This is a snapshot of the inaugural Ragnar Trail Zion in 2014.
So what makes Ragnar Trail so unique?
First off, it’s a loop course. Regular teams are made up of 8 team members and everyone runs the same 3 loops. Which is awesome, unlike the road Ragnars everyone does the same thing!
Secondly, the whole team gets to stick together at camp. We set up camp with all the other teams and everyone can hang out together. No vans & no split teams like on a road Ragnar.
Third, It’s Trail!! Trail races are the best & doing these different loops gives everyone a chance to try the different parts of the course.
Forth, the camp energy! It’s great, there is an exchange tent where you meet your runner to head out & seeing all the runners there, waiting for their team mates, it’s just a really awesome, positive energy.
So how have I been training for Ragnar? Well if you follow me, you’ll know that I am an unconventional runner, I run a lot of races & that’s pretty much how I train. In the five weeks, I have run a 50k, marathon, Runner’s World Grand Slam (4 races adding up to 26.2 miles), a 100k & a 5k this weekend. The Runner’s World event was probably the best training. Running so many races back to back was a challenge, but it has me ready to run multiple loops over a short period of time.
I’ve also been staying up quite late lately with red-eye flights, early morning wake-ups to volunteer & 2 trips to the east coast.
Now to get packed & get out there!
Need packing tips, check out these blog posts & get packing! 1, 2, 3 & 4
Anyone else have an unconventional way of training for Ragnar races?
I’ll be sharing our day out at the race on my Instagram stories on Friday/Saturday so get ready!
