I had the privilege, honor and amazing opportunity to run Ragnar Northwest Passage with
NUUN and 9 other bloggers! I headed up to Seattle Thursday afternoon, where I was picked up from the Airport in the NUUN-mobile {how great it that!?} Alanna, who is from Canada, also came down Thursday afternoon so we headed to the hotel, met up with Lauren and walked around Seattle before heading back to the NUUN HQ!
Once we had grabbed a Starbucks {which we hit up several more times in the following 30 hours} and walked through Pike's Market we headed back to the NUUN HQ for dinner and van decorating. It was so great to officially {IRL} meet everyone; ffriendships were instantly created and the fun times began. After NUUN hydrated and carbed us up, we headed out to decorate the vans...luckily we had some creative people, and the rest of us hung out laughing, taking pictures, and making sure the artists had the markers they needed!
Van 1 got up bright & early on Friday and started the journey to Blaine around 5:15am {first stop: Starbucks}. As we got closer to Blaine, the clouds started getting darker and darker, and then came the rain! One thing I DO NOT LIKE is running in the rain, but how can you have a bad attitude when you are rocking " HIP HOP" pants, I mean really!? {even when you do get passed by a hot dog...can we say embarrassing!?}
Van 1 leap frogged, cheered, supported, tatted & spread the NUUN love, hydrated, passed around the NUUN medal and counted roadkills {people you pass} during legs 1-6, and was excited to hand off to Van 2
The first major exchange was in Bellingham, which is where 2 of our vanmates live, including Meghan, who finished her leg and went and curled up in the back of the van, feeling even worse at this point. We insisted she go home, rest, & shower, while we went and grabbed some lunch. She was even kind enough to throw my wet {and at this point stinky} shoes and towel in the dryer. We went and grabbed Pho {which just might be my new favorite race meal & reminded me of my trip to Vietnam} and headed back to pick up Meghan so we could make our way to Burlington for our second legs
I was expected to kick off our second set of legs just before 9pm, which meant nighttime running, and I was just a little excited about it! There is something about running in a
vest {with music blaring}, headlamp and glow sticks that made me want to dance!
disclaimer: I only had to run the last mile or so of my run in the DARK, otherwise I might of had a different attitude about it. OK, I probably would've been a lil scared!
I led us out on our second legs, and saw a girl up in the distance that I was determined to catch. I kept gaining on her, and finally reached her, and kept looking to see if my van was coming to witness the roadkill {I felt like they always saw me being "killed}, but they didn't come and I continued on. Only for them to catch me and see me get killed by a {different} girl running up a hill...oh well!
It was during Corinne's run that we encountered the 4 legged gorilla man {some idiot who was jumping out of his driveway and chasing runners on all 4...it was weird}, but we had her back and Katherine got out to tell him what was up {did I mention she has her black belt!?} Everyone made it through their night runs and were grateful to have running buddies {Mason even jumped in to run with Meghan}, but Becky's injury was really bothering her. A simple, "how was your run?" from a random girl {OK, a friend of Lauren's, but Becky didn't know her} resulted in her having a total meltdown and saying she wasn't going to be able to run her last leg. And no, the girl responding with "oh, I'm sure you're just tired, you'll feel better after some sleep" didn't help! I told Becky not to worry at all, I would run her last leg {I was so impressed that she rocked her first 2 as well as she did! ROCKSTAR} I don't recall exactly when it happened, but at some point Becky went to get out of the van, nearly fell to the ground due to having marathon legs {which she was proud to achieve by only running 10 miles}, and started wandering around like a drunk puppet {she was walking funny due to the pain in her shins and foot}, and from then on #drunkpuppet was the source of our entertainment {luckily Becky has a great sense of humor and would laugh every time I or anyone else tried to mimic her, which was quite frequently!}. In all seriousness, Becky was a total trooper, running her first two legs, and then cheering and supporting us through our last legs! I am so glad she joined us for the journey...it wouldn't of been the same without her!
After about 3 hours of sleep in the van {a few people went into the school to sleep in the gymnasium} we were woken up by a nice "Rise and Shine B*@$%s" from a van near us, and ready to start our third, and final legs {but not without a trip to Starbucks first...PRIORITIES}. My first run was a quick 3 miles, and then I had about 1.5 hours until I ran Becky's 4.5 miles...which was supposed to be EASY, but it sure didn't feel easy!
And before we knew it, we were done, and celebrated with BACON and BEER!
THANK YOU truly isn't enough for the opportunity, memories, new friendships and phenomenal support that NUUN provided us with! Not only do I love their product, I love their people too!
