Weekly Wednesday Ragnar post: what's so challenging about it?

February 6, 2013 by hyedi | 9 Comments

I wouldn’t tell come right out and say that Ragnar is “hard.” But, for me at least, there are things about Ragnar that do make it challenging. For me, it was the….

• Running three times in a span of 24 hours. This time around I plan to do more doubles in my training and would really like to do a triple.
• Not sleeping. There was a time in my younger days where this wouldn’t have affected me as much, but it sure does now.
• Running in “extreme” temperature differences. The temperature difference from when I ran my second leg (in the middle of the night) and my third leg (high noon down a stretch of non-shaded pavement) was ridiculous. Now we’re not talking 100 degrees during the day and below zero at night or anything like that — but it still was significant. I’m going to be sure I’m better prepared for this, this time around.
• Running in the middle of the night. This was my favorite and most memorable thing about Ragnar. However, I can’t say that it wasn’t challenging. For me, this was a mental challenge. I kept thinking about what was lurking out there in the darkness and it was hard not being able to see a few feet in front of you. I plan to run more at night in preparation, but that might take some of the fun and thrill out of it!
• Eating convenience food. Nothing good about this one. My stomach hated me for only feeding it Clif Bars and wheat bread (seriously, that was pretty much it) for over 24 hours. I’m going to have to work really hard on this one.

If you’ve run Ragnar, what was most challenging for you? If you haven’t run Ragnar, have you experienced any of these things and did you find it challenging?

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