Monday, November 2, 2015

Napa Ragnar 2015 - Team SOAS

Napa Ragnar 2015 - Team SOAS

A few of my SOAS racing friends decided to form a team for Napa Ragnar.  10 of us started our adventure on Friday morning at 7:30am in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco and finished around 3:30pm on Saturday afternoon in Calistoga, CA (approximately 200 miles).

I was runner number 10 and ran my first leg (6.6 miles) at around 3pm on Friday afternoon.  I ran my second leg (9.8 miles) around 3am Saturday morning, and my final leg (12.8 miles) around 1:30pm on Saturday afternoon.  It was definitely something I had never done before - I think I got about an hour of sleep Friday evening in the van and another 1.5 hours of sleep on Saturday morning.  I got to meet some of my SOAS teammates from all over the states. When the kids get old enough, we decided we would do a 6 person team as a family!

Here are a few pictures from our weekend adventures:








trying to plan out our run segments because we were down 2 people

the toughest part for me was the last 12.8 miles.  but i managed to pass 55 people along the way and had a strong run overall.  I got to see Ross and the kids at a water stop along the way - they volunteered all day passing out water on Saturday.



the start


early morning Friday just across the Golden Gate Bridge


Scenery just before I started my first leg of the race

dark 3am selfie -  I only passed 8 people in the middle of the night -- was kind of a lonely stretch of the race.

Sunrise on Saturday morning in Napa

I didn't know this about Ragnar Relays - many teams keep track of their "kills" on their van.  A "kill" is defined as passing someone on your leg of the race.  I managed 55 kills on my last leg - definitely kept me going to count the kills.

definitely the theme for the weekend!
thought this was funny - one of the girls wrote this on the side of our van

the finish

the kids enjoyed a little planking competition at the finish line party

Graham finished top 5 and got a Nathan running light

32.5ish hours later - we finished!!

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Happy 12th Birthday, Mr. Graham!

Can't believe my baby turned 12 today!  I've been a mom for 12 years.








 We surprised Graham and took him to Benihana for dinner. 



 A few others were excited about our dinner adventure


 Cheers to 12 years!


 getting a lesson from Dad on how to use chopsticks
 Ms Jilly is very frustrated because she cannot figure out how to use the chopsticks despite her left-handed father trying to help her out



 Jayden ordered california rolls











 Dessert times 2 tonight!


 My boy is growing up!



swimming and cross-country running doesn't seem to be enough conditioning to blow out these candles

Happy Birthday, Mr. Graham, enjoy your last year before becoming a teenager!!!