Ragnar Trail Los Coyotes Race Report

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Let me start this race report by saying that Ragnar Trail Los Coyotes was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I’ve run a lot of races, some fast, some slow, some much harder than others, including the Tram Road Race, which is basically running almost four miles straight up a mountain.

They got nothing on Ragnar Trail Los Coyotes.

This post is sponsored by Ragnar through my association with Fit Approach. I was asked to be a part of the first Sweat Pink Ragnar team, which I was honored to do. I also received gifts from Fit Approach, Goodr, Lily Trotters, and Ragnar Trail. This post contains affiliate links. All opinions are, as always, my own.

Ragnar Trail Los Coyotes Race Report

It’s really hard to recap a relay race. There is so much going on, for at least 24 hours straight, that it’s difficult to put it into any kind of sensible order. So I’ll just do my best and hopefully, you can understand what I’m talking about! I want to start, though, by telling you about my team because they were one of the best parts of the weekend.

Your team is such an important part of your Ragnar experience. I was fortunate back in 2014 when I ran Ragnar So Cal to team up with an amazing group of women. I got lucky again with my Ragnar Trail Los Coyotes team, only two of whom I’d ever met before.

RagnarTrail Los Coyotes: The Recap! I'm sharing my adventures and all the details of my @RagnarTrail experience! #SweatPinkClick To Tweet

Meet the Sweat Pink Ragnar Trail Los Coyotes Team

If you’ve ever run a Ragnar or other relay race, you know that your team can make or break your race. As I said, I’d only met two of my Ragnar team previously, Sandra and Jamie. Jamie (@JamieKingFit) is the co-founder of Fit Approach and Sweat Pink. We’ve been friends for years, and she was on my only other Ragnar team, back in 2014, where she basically kicked ass because she’s an amazing runner.  Fit Approach did a great profile on each team member (including me). Here’s Jamie’s.

I’d met Sandra (@OrganicRunnerMom) a couple times at Blogfest, but I’d never run with her before. Or, I should say, run behind her because she’s pretty darn fast! I was so happy to see that she was on the team. Here’s Sandra’s Fit Approach profile.

Jenny (@RunnyLegs) was our team captain. I knew of her through social media, but that was all. I was excited to find out that both Jenny and her husband Sean (@UltraRunnerSD) were vegan! Yay! Here’s Jenny’s profile on Fit Approach. 

To give you an idea about Sean, we were talking about how some people had taken a wrong turn in the Red Loop and added on extra mileage. Sean casually mentioned that once he was doing a 240 mile ultra, took an 18 mile wrong turn, so he ended up actually running almost 260 miles!!! I tried to keep that in mind as I ran my Red Loop. Here’s Sean’s profile.

Michael (@theBrosh) is a friend of Jamie’s who made the trip from Portland to join her in this adventure. I was super impressed that he could run as fast as he did while taking amazing video of himself doing it! Not an easy task! Check out Michael’s profile.

Jared (@JaredSBlank) is another ultra runner with amazing credentials, including running seven marathons on seven continents in seven days! That’s beyond impressive. Here’s his profile.

Kristina (@OCRunningMama) climbs mountains. Seriously, her Instagram feed is always showing her running up Mount Baldy or other mountaintops. A big thanks to Kristina for bringing along her husband as our designated volunteer! Here’s Kristina’s profile.

 

And if you’d like to check out my Fit Approach profile, here you go!

As I said, your team can make or break your event. I was so lucky to be a part of Team Sweat Pink, a group of amazing runners and wonderful people, who were fun, caring, and supportive. 

Pre-Race at Ragnar Trail Los Coyotes

Ragnar Trail Los Coyotes takes place near Warner Springs, on the Los Coyotes Reservation. It’s less than two hours from my home, so I headed there early on Friday morning. We were scheduled to start at 11:00, and, even though I was runner number seven, I wanted to be there and settled in when we started.

Cell phone reception was terrible, so when I was nearby and texted Jamie that I was getting close, I didn’t hear back. I was able to finally pull up a facebook post that said our campsite was near the Smell Ya Later team and to look for the big nose on the tree! After wandering around where I thought our reserved site was, I finally found the Sweat Pink team. Next to the giant nose!

Ragnar Trail races are a bit different from the road relays, where your team of 12 packs into two vans, jumps from handoff point to point, and basically hangs out together in a van for 24 hours.

Instead, there are three loops that each teammate runs; green (the easiest), yellow (a little harder), and red (the hardest). In the case of Ragnar Trail Los Coyotes, the green loop was about three miles with about 600 feet of climbing. Yellow was 3.1 miles but had more climbing, and Red was just under eight miles and had about 2,000 feet of climbing. As the seventh runner, I started with the green loop on Friday afternoon, had my Red loop in the middle of the night, and finished with the yellow loop on Saturday morning.

Ragnar Trail Los Coyotes – The Race

Kristina was our first runner, and she started on time with the Green loop. Part of the challenge of a Ragnar Trail relay is to be at the transfer point on time when you have no contact with the runner on the course. It takes a combination of estimating their time and the use of the tracking computer monitors, which were prone to not updating on time, which made it essential to keep an eye on the course. I actually missed Sandra coming across the finish line and had to dash over to get started on my first run!

The Green Loop

When I finally got Sandra’s hand off (passing the “baton” involved handing over the race belt with our number) it was about 4:30 on Friday afternoon. I was the first of our runners to take her headlamp along with her because of the early sunset. All three loops started off through the campground, then started heading uphill after about a half mile. The Green loop soon turned off from the others, continuing uphill for about half the distance.

This was the easiest loop, but it was still challenging, with a lot of uphill (611 feet of elevation gain), but with a nice, steady downhill during the second half. The sun was just starting to set, so I did turn on my headlamp during the last 20 minutes or so, but it wasn’t completely dark when I finished. This was also my fastest loop, 38:05. I handed off to Sean, who was our first nighttime runner, heading out on his Yellow Loop.

The Red Loop

To tell you the truth, I was dreading the Red Loop. I knew I would be running in the dark, and the Red Loop was the longest and most challenging of the three Ragnar Trail Los Coyotes legs. After grabbing dinner (a vegan burger from one of the food trucks, which was included in our registration), Sandra and I decided to see if we could get a little sleep before our late night legs. It was already getting cold, and I found it hard to get to sleep. I think I may have dozed a bit, but soon the alarm went off and it was time to prepare for my midnight loop.

This time I was in place when Sandra finished her loop and off I went. It was hard to decide what to wear. It was so cold that I was wearing all my layers, but I chose to pare down to tights, about three layers of tops, gloves, and a beanie cap that covered my ears. I wore my headlamp, plus I carried my Nathan Zephyr hand torch. I was still cold, but I was able to move, so it was good. And the combination of headlamp and hand torch was perfect. It was very dark, but I could always see where I was going.

Just as in my first loop, the Red Loop started off uphill. And continued uphill. Sometimes it was so steep I felt like I needed to grab something to pull myself up. There were narrow passages, fallen trees across the trails, and other hazards, which were clearly marked, but still challenging to tackle in the dark. My strategy was to just keep moving forward. That was all.

The memories that come to mind are how polite everyone is out there. When you come from behind, the runners move out of your way. When you allow another runner to pass, they are quick to thank you. I will also remember the sky. So many stars! It was beautiful, even though I didn’t take the time to stop, turn off my light, and just take it in. I needed to keep moving.

Many of the downhills were as steep as the uphills, making me pick my way down and definitely not making up any time. There was finally, though, the ultimate downhill run: wide, clear, and not too steep. Even in the dark, I was able to pick up the pace for a couple miles. And then it started up again, for a total of over 2,000 feet in climbing!

I’m proud to say I survived the Red Loop, finishing up around 2:30 am with a time of 2:11:25, a time I am completely proud about. I have to send even more kudos to Jamie, though, who also did most of the Red Loop in the dark and kicked some trail butt in 1:38!

When I finally passed off the bib baton to Sean, I hurried back to the campsite because I could already feel the cold creeping in. I made the mistake of not stopping at the toilets on my way, which left me with an uncomfortable bladder a couple hours later when it was too cold to go out.

Once I huddled in my tent, I couldn’t bring myself to change my clothes! It was just too cold and I was too tired, to struggle with my clothing in my little tent. I told myself that I wasn’t all that sweaty and instead pulled my prAna Cozy Up gear back on over my running clothing. And another jacket. And added an extra pair of socks. And a warmer pair of gloves. And I squirmed to get as deep into my sleeping bag as I possibly could, curled into a little ball, and tried to warm up. I figured I had about six hours until my next leg so it would be nice to get a little sleep.

Sadly, beyond a little bit of drifting off, sleep just didn’t happen. I was told later that it got down into the 20s overnight, and this desert rat is just not used to that! I shivered through most of the night, waiting for daylight so that I could get up and use the bathrooms. And get some coffee (which was free, strong, and plentiful). Then I started thinking about my next leg.

The Yellow Loop

Or as I like to call it, the loop that almost killed me. After the Green Loop, I made sure to carry my inhaler with me, though I hadn’t needed it, not even during the Red Loop. I also knew I was dehydrated. While I carried my handheld bottle on my longer run, it was so cold that I really didn’t drink very much, nor did I rehydrate after my run (I just wanted to sleep!). So as I headed into my final leg, I guess I was destined to have some problems.

And yes, they happened, about halfway through the Yellow Loop. I started to get lightheaded. I stopped, used my inhaler, and tried to regroup. We were at about 5,000 feet elevation at that time, and regrouping just wasn’t happening. I felt nauseous, continued to feel shaky and lightheaded, and had a hard time getting going again. For maybe the first time ever I wasn’t sure if I could continue.

But, you know me, I’m pretty tough. I started out by walking until I felt I could run. Then I was able to run most of the way, though  I had to stop once more to use the inhaler. It was not as bad the second time. But, I managed to finish that killer Yellow Loop. A little over three miles with 743 feet of climbing, it took me about 56 minutes. Then I got to hand off to Sean as he ran the final loop of our relay.

It took me a long time to recover from the Yellow Loop. While the asthma settled down, I was prone to bouts of dizziness for the rest of the day. I really attribute that to dehydration more than anything else. 

Wrapping it Up

As we waited for Sean to finish his Red Loop (which he did in 1:21:40!), I had time to change into my race shirt, grab a bite to eat, and start to pack up a little. I admit, as exhausted as I was, I was sad that it all had to end. While I think of Ragnar Trail Los Coyotes as one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, it was also one of the most fun. I absolutely love everyone on my team, they made a great event even better.

When Sean finished, we met him ahead of the finish line so that we could run across together. We picked up our medals, took a few team and medal photos, and then it was time to say goodbye.  I loved this adventure and I hope that I have a chance to do it again! Oh, and in spite of this slow grandma, we managed to finish 10th in the mixed group out of 119 teams!  Our total time was 24:35:51. 

I was so honored to be a part of the first Sweat Pink team at Ragnar Trail Los Coyotes! It was an amazing adventure! In case you missed it, here are the tips I followed to recover. I’m sorry this is so long. Just when I think I’ve finished writing, I remember something else that just must be in the race report!

Have you ever done a Ragnar Trail Race? Now that you’ve read this do you want to? I’ll be on your team!

 

 

And Now It’s Time for the Running Coaches’ Corner!

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