[San Juan Islands, WA, Sat, Jul 14, 2018]

Getting up at 1 am after barely getting any sleep was not fun at all. Luckily, reuniting with van 1 for a short while helped boost our energy. The next 30+ miles were ours, and we were going to be running into the daylight hours on Saturday morning.

Middle of the night selfie. Lena and I are missing, can’t recall why

May takes over for van 1 from Wendy

This portion of the course took us over to the San Juan islands, where we were going to spend the rest of the race. My “night” leg was only 2 miles and it ended up being right at sunrise, which I was not going to complain about. Running at night on these remote roads can be quite intimidating!

We were in the town of Anacortes, WA, at this point, on Fidalgo Island. I turned over to Lena, who was about to run the hardest leg of the race – 9.8 miles with 1,000 ft of elevation gain. She was going to take us over Deception Pass where a beautiful bridge connected Fidalgo and Whidbey islands. The bridge became famous thanks to the 2002 movie The Ring.

Deception Pass bridge at sunrise

Views of Deception Pass from the bridge itself

If it weren’t for Lena, we would not have any pictures of this bridge! It was really early still and we were wiped! Instead of stopping along the way and getting out of the van to support her, we would pull over on the side of the road and take naps. She actually banged on the van twice to wake us up as she passed by. Here’s a video of her finishing her monster leg and a photo of the extra medal she earned for her efforts. This is why we do this – for the bling!

As the day went on, we got more and more tired. This is what van support looked like by early afternoon on day 2.

Olivia is out running. Laura is way in the back sleeping, so you cant even see her. And I? I was bored. 🙂

We did still get out of the van at each exchange to send the next runner off. The photos below are from Lena’s camera except the last one. Now that we were on the islands, we had amazing views everywhere we went.

My last leg was a 5.7 miles with a big hill in the middle. The scenery around me was really beautiful and it kept me distracted. I could see the Olympic mountains across the water.

Views of the Olympic peninsula as I am leaving my exchange

Finally, around 4 pm, Mike set off on leg 36, the last one of the course. We went ahead to the finish line and waited for him there.

Van 1 at the finish line

All 12 of us crossed the finish line with him. Our resident historian May choreographed the whole thing and even roped in a stranger to take the video below.

We were anxious to get on the ferry back to the mainland. We anticipated a long line for this due to the race, so we didn’t spend too much time at the finish line festival. We did get some free pizza and some beer, and we took team photos.

The medal was huge! The back of the medal was part of a saying, which we were able to read once we put all 12 medals together.

“Together we can accomplish anything. We are Ragnarians. We believe…”

The line for the ferry was as long as we anticipated. It took us about an hour and a half to get on. We were hungry and tired and in desperate need of a shower! Mike and I were so bored that we started cleaning the outside of the van and made friends with the occupants of the car behind us. I felt bad for all the people who had no idea Ragnar was going on and got caught in the crazy line.

The ferry took us from Whidbey island over to Everett, WA, about an hour North of Seattle. We headed straight for our dinner reservation at Scuttle Brewery. This was the first sit down meal for our van – during the race, we only snacked on whatever food we had packed with us. I was excited to reunite with my boyfriend, who flew from LA that day and met up with us. I had planned an 8-day trip for us around Washington’s national parks after the race and I was excited to have my vacation truly begin!

12 Ragnarians and B

Sunset in Everett as we were leaving dinner