Ragnar Relay DC - Last Legs and the Finish

A shower, nap, and a change of clothes worked wonders.  I woke up on Saturday morning excited and ready to run.  Unfortunately, my left IT band didn't feel the same way.

Everyone seemed in better spirits than the night before as we headed to Chevy Chase to meet van 1.  We snapped a quick van photo before Amy took off to run her final leg.

Photo courtesy of EmGusk

Almost everyone's last legs were relatively short, so we didn't have much time between transitions.  We did manage to get some quality stretching in as we waited for our runners.  Below is a new IT band stretch Bill showed me.

Photo c/o EmGusk

Sally's last leg was by far the longest and involved a massive hill, so we found a good spot to pull over and cheer her on at the top of the hill.  We were all exhausted and a little loopy, so it's entirely possible some strange things happened with the safety flags...

Another quality photo courtesy of Miss EmGusk

After a short wait we saw Sally cresting the hill looking like a CHAMP with her fiancé at her side.  Guys, this is what love and support looks like.

Yep, this photo is EmGusk's as well

After a few more runners it was time for my last leg.  I thought it would be a fast, flat almost 4 miles, but was surprised to see rolling hills.  At least I had some nice views of the Potomac.  What you can't see is the intense heat and humidity - it was an abnormally warm day for late fall!

After I transitioned to Bill we headed to National Harbor to finish the race.  The parking situation was such a mess that he ended up beating us there!  Luckily, they had a staging area for us to meet up at so we could cross the finish line as a team.  We all made sure to wear our team shirts.

Finishing as a team, courtesy of EmGusk

Once we finished, it was time for some team photos and much-deserved pizza and beer.

With our medals! Photo courtesy of EmGusk

After we finished eating and drinking we went our separate ways - it looked like a storm was rolling in and we were all ready to go home, shower, and sleep.

I had a great time running Ragnar Relay DC with team Your Pace or Mine? and would definitely do it again!