So last weekend was the much anticipated Ragnar Trail Appalachians, one of the trail versions of Ragnar Relay, in West Virginia. They use the hashtag innerWILD. There were torrential downpours, extreme amounts of mud, and gorgeous scenery. It was real, it was fun, it wasn’t necessarily real fun, but we certainly found our inner wild.

My Ragnar weekend began Thursday evening after work, when I frantically packed all of my stuff.  I had a hectic work week and uncharacteristically left packing until the last minute. It was stressful, but luckily I ended up having everything I needed.

I headed up to Debbie’s house Thursday night. She invited me to stay with her, since we would be carpooling with teammates Carrie and Erin the next morning. As it turns out, neither one of us are serial killers, so we both survived the night 😉 (Debbie may or may not have had family members who were worried about that) The next morning Carrie and Erin arrived and we loaded up Carrie’s van. It’s crazy how much stuff we needed for just one night. But you have to take into account the stormy forecast and the fact that we’d each be running three times.

Off to West Virginia we went! The drive to Big Bear Lake campground was about three hours and the trip went smoothly.

The weather was nice as we made our way towards West “by God” but the skies darkened as we got closer.

Sure enough, the rain started to fall just as we arrived at the campground. I didn’t take it as a omen, but I should have. We were greeted at the campground entrance by an older gentleman who reminded me a lot of people in my neck of the woods. He was much too busy wishing his equally old friend a happy birthday to check us in. When he finished with his conversation he said to us “okay, three people?” We told him no, there were four. He grabbed a campground pass and wrote three on it, and handed it to Carrie saying “three it is!” and sent us on our way. Oh well, we tried!

It was another couple of miles back to the Ragnar village and camping area, where we found our fellow MRTT (Moms Run This Town) teams. Our other Ashburn MRTT teammates, Gayle, Angela, Rachel, Lupe, and our team volunteer Melisa, had traveled and set up on Thursday afternoon. They also had to brave a nasty storm that came through on Thursday night. Thanks to them our campsite and tents were already set up. All we had to do was unload!

We set up in the first of many rain storms. Once we got everything unloaded Carrie took her van down to the parking area and caught a shuttle back up. I shared a tent with her and Erin, and we quickly found that our tent had leaked the night before due to the heavy rain and wind. We did our best not to add to the wet and mud, but it was difficult!

Our campsite was very muddy and only deteriorated as the weekend went on. Little did I know I was as dry and mud-free as I was going to be all weekend!

Despite the rain and mud, it felt good to get unpacked and settled. I enjoyed meeting the rest of my teammates – they were all awesome! Debbie did a great post introducing our whole team HERE.

In total I think there were four MRTT teams and one Dads Run This Town team, and we were all right in a row. It was neat to hang out and talk with so many different people.

The four of us arrived around 11:30 AM, which was our team’s start time. Ragnar had moved everyone’s start times up by an hour in anticipation of the weather forecast. Since Debbie was runner 2, she had to be ready to run shortly after our arrival. She came back from her run muddy and happy and that got me excited for my turn, as runner 6.

My first loop was the red loop, a 6.7 mile trail nicknamed “Mother of Crack.” If only I knew what was to come…..

Have you ever gone tent camping in stormy weather?
Who else has run a trail relay?

P.S. Today Barry and I are celebrating our fifth wedding anniversary. Time flies! All I can say is “and I thought I loved you then.”

This week’s Wednesday Word linkup with Debbie is annoying. No, not the link up. The word annoying is our topic this week. Click the button below to check out others linking up and join in, too.

We were actually joking about this one this past weekend during our Ragnar Trail Relay in West Virginia, and I think I will share that joke with you.

Debbie likes to take a lot of pictures and when I came back absolutely covered in mud after my first leg of the relay she had to document it. I teased her that I would be writing this week’s Wednesday Word about her. But I really do love that she takes so many pictures! How else would I end up with gems like this one?

The full story on how I ended up looking like that, and the significance of that camera in my hands, is coming at you in the near future. The tale of this very muddy journey will begin on Friday.

What does the word ‘annoying’ mean to you?

I’m a day late on this, but you’ll see why towards the end.

This weekend was full of lots of new things. It centered around one main event: Ragnar Trail Relay in West Virginia. It was really something! I’m going to be recapping it, but it was full of mud, torrential downpours, beautiful trails, mud, exhaustion, oh and mud. But it was fun, too, and I got to meet a lot of great people. Naturally I am going to be recapping the entire experience, but that’s going to take me awhile to sort out. In the meantime, here are a few photos:

After the events of Ragnar, which spanned Friday morning through Saturday evening, I crashed at my Dad’s house. Conveniently, Sunday was Father’s Day and I got to spend it with my dad, his girlfriend, and my little sister. My dad also happened to get tickets to go up in the Washington Monument for this weekend, before he knew I was even going to be there. They’ve only recently started allowing people to go back up in it. It was a really neat experience and the views were amazing!

After the Washington Monument we spent a little bit more time walking around DC. We checked out the World War II Memorial and the Vietnam Memorial, where flowers had been laid out by family members for Father’s Day.

On Sunday afternoon I headed home and finally got back around 9:00 PM. I was completely exhausted from being up for 42 hours straight Friday through Saturday and from all of the traveling. Unfortunately, this is where the bad started happening. Shortly after I got home Hank had a crisis. He is doing okay now, but is not quite out of the woods yet. Large dogs are prone to bloat and that’s what happened to Hank. When it happens, it is a life threatening situation and you have to get them to the vet immediately. That’s exactly what we did. It was the longest drive ever (about 25 minutes) and it was terrifying. He was crying the whole way and I thought we were going to lose him.

We got to the vet and they tried to pass a tube to his stomach to get the gas out. But his stomach was twisted and they ended up having to do emergency surgery. During the surgery there was a complication. They found that his spleen had blood blisters on it and it started bleeding. They ended up removing his spleen in addition to repairing his stomach. He is now recovering and is doing alright, but is still very lethargic. We haven’t been to see him, because we don’t want him to get confused/upset when he can’t leave with us. But they sent us this picture. Hopefully he can come home this evening.

During all of this poor Scout has been having a very tough time without him. She is mopey and cries when we leave and just lays around staring blankly. She wants her Hank home, too. Send us some thoughts and prayers for our big guy.

Did you have any firsts this past weekend?
Have you ever been up in the Washington Monument?

Last night after work I hit the road to travel up to the DC area. Ragnar Trail Appalachians is finally here!

Debbie invited me to join her group. Although I have a few reservations about running in the woods in the dark at night, I am really excited. I have really grown to love trails over the past year and am always up for a new trail-related adventure. Not to mention I’ll have a buddy to run with, and I’m always a little braver when I have company.

The relay is made of up three loops that all start and end at the Ragnar Village. Team members alternate legs, so that when it’s all said and done each runner runs each of the three legs. In total, we will cover roughly 120 miles. From the Ragnar website:

From 5,000 acres of pristine trail running, we carefully selected 15.7 miles of Appalachian badassery for you and your team. This trail running Mecca provides you with some of the most exciting and challenging trails on the east coast.

Trail running Mecca? Count me in! I crashed at Debbie’s house last night and we will be carpooling with a couple other teammates to West Virginia this morning. Our team will be starting at 12:30 PM today and should wrap up before Noon tomorrow. No vans this time around. Instead our team of 8 will be camping at Big Bear Lake Camplands (the word ‘bear’ being in the name better not be some kind of sign….). Time to run, camp, sleep (maybe), and then repeat!

Have you ever done a trail relay?
When was the last time you went camping? We went camping last weekend. As for tent camping… well, it’s been awhile!

It’s Wednesday and that means it’s time for another Wednesday Word, a linkup hosted by Debbie. This week’s word is fortitude.

Merriam-Webster has this to say about fortitude: mental strength and courage that allows someone to face danger, pain, etc. So to have fortitude you have to be mentally strong as you encounter hardship, or some other type of adversity, while being unafraid. Personally, I think patience and fortitude kind of go hand in hand. How can you face something without a little diligence. A bit of stubbornness helps, too.

It’s ironic that this week’s word is fortitude, because I’m having the kind of week that requires a lot of it. I don’t usually talk about work on my blog, but yesterday I spent nearly 8 hours total driving round trip for a two hour meeting. Today is going to be a long, 12+ hour work day that will also be mentally tough. After all that I will be headed up to the DC area tomorrow night and then over to West “by God” Virginia Friday for the Ragnar Trail Relay.

I’m really excited about Ragnar, after having a blast at the DC Ragnar Relay last fall. However, it also means that once again I’m having to face my fear of the dark – this time while running through the woods. I will definitely need to find some inner strength, some fortitude, to push through!

What does ‘having fortitude’ mean to you?