Ragnar - The Prologue

Way back when, in 2012, when we were training for our first full marathon, my PIC (Partner In Crime) signed up to do a Ragnar Relay. I’d never heard of one, but it sounded like a grueling ordeal to me…2 vans, 12 people, 200 miles in 2 days, no sleep.

 The idea of being trapped in a van with so many people…*stinky* people…sounded awful. I’m a bit (read: 100%, Grade A) of an introvert, so really, not being able to get away from people and all of the stimulus for that long is my idea of torture.

To him, it sounded like the perfect way to check his 16 mile training run off, as it coincided pretty perfectly. Now, let me just put this out here…my PIC? Not a fan of the running. He’ll be the first to tell you that he actually *doesn’t enjoy* running. He likes *races*…he *hates* training.

Anyway, August came and he packed himself up and went on an adventure…and he LOVED it. Like passionately, fervently, religiously L-O-V-E-D loved it. And has spent every year since then trying to convince me to come out and run one with him. And I have resisted. Until this year.

One of my goals for this year – my top goal, actually – is to run with as many people that I know from the internet, in real life, as possible. Between Facebook and Instagram and Twitter and the blogosphere, I have made some really amazing running friends…most of whom I have never met. I want 2016 to be the year of running with them. So, when the PIC started posting about his Ragnar experience in the O’Dark Thirty Virtual Run Club on Facebook, we suddenly had the opportunity to gather 12 folks for a team…and before I knew what had happened, we had a team for Ragnar Cape Cod…Team Sole Crushers…

Our team consisted of:

Van 1

• Myself – No intro needed. At least I hope not. I mean, if you’re here and you need an intro, then I’m kind of confused about how you got here. You’re welcome for sure…but how did this happen?
• TBC (The Boy Child) – My 14 year old son. My first born, soccer loving, goofball of a kid.
• Mr. Man – The peanut butter to my bacon, the pickles to my ice cream, the one and true love of my life.
• The PIC – My bestie, my Partner In Crime
• The PIC’s Brother – Multi-talented, board game designing, food loving, real life teddy bear. Totally tolerable dude too. ;)
• The PIC’s Brother’s Wife – Just about the cutest, sweetest lady I have met in a long time.

Van 2

• The PIC’s Brother’s Cousin – Undercover Super Hero
• The PIC’s Brother’s Cousin’s Brother – Super nice, shirt-off-his-back kind of guy
• The PIC’s Brother’s Boss – This lady is a hoot. And a pastry chef. And a bad ass runner. So pretty much the total package.
• The Flash – My co-worker and dear friend. Dude is seriously speedy but is always willing and ready to slow down to *your* pace and stay with you. And he makes it all look *easy*. Like “Oh, sub 7 minute miles? NBD.”
• The Mighty B – We were cheerleaders together in high school and we still kind of are…this one totally defies the “dumb cheerleader mold” though and is a bad ass STEM teacher.
• Liz – OK…I tried to come up with a clever nickname but this is a warrior mama we are talking about here. She’s sweet and loving and passionate and fierce. We met online 15 years ago, when we were both fighting to become moms…and the fight hasn’t gone out of her yet.

So, the PIC was unanimously voted captain, and our adventure began...