The King's Kaleidoscope: Ragnar Weekend!!!

Sorry it has taken me so long to regale you all with tales of my adventure in LA. But happy day you do not have to wait any longer. This is not where my adventure started. That was on the taxi ride from the LA airport to my sisters new home in San Pedro. Considering the only other taxi ride I have ever taken was on my honeymoon, I feel like it went pretty well. Having Cathy and Tom along made it much easier and eased my anxiety. Our cab driver was from Armenia and spent the 1/2 hour trip telling us about all the famous people who were Armenian. That was fun for me considering my sister served her mission in Armenia and I was able to learn a little about the culture she had served in.

This is where are 22 hours of fun started. Jeanine was our runner #1 and had her game face on. That was until 8 min before the start of the race she goes to the bathroom and drops her ipod in the poopy toilet. As horrible as that sounds it didn't suprise me at all. Things like that have a way of happening to Jeanine.

(re-enactment pose)

Our fearless team captain (Nate) smiling for the camera.

Cathy and Patricia getting their pre race groove on.

The girls of van 1 (Jeanine, Lissa, Cathy, and Patricia) Poor Nate had to spend 22 hours with us. On the upside though I am sure our van smelled alot better then van 2.

Tom standing with decked out van 2. Nate's company Clark Construction sponsored our team. 9 out of the 12 runners were employees. Cathy is enjoying a well earned piece of chocolate cake and our dinner stop around 9 pm.

Well I can tell you that there was no sleep to be had during the night. We tried to catch some z's in the van, on the grass, on the beach. Jeanine even tried to sleep in the parking lot right outside our van door until someone opened it trying to find her and almost stepped on her. It was one of those night were I was just praying for morning to come. I was so tired and uncomfortable. I think Nate was the only who actually fell asleep for more then an hour. My favorite part of the evening came at about 3 am. Jeanine and I were sitting in the fromt of the van looking at our leg maps because we couldn't sleep. I told her that i was going to be running by the LA river and she laughed at me.

"It's not a river" she said, "It's just filled with sludge"

"We'll if I don't come back soon, come look for me. I probably fell asleep and fell in."

Jeanine starts the maniacal laughter and says, "and the homeless people will eat you!" She just keeps repeating herself and laughing. It freaked me out slightly. But what else do you say at 3 am. Then she got out of the car and turned the radio full blast and danced in the parking lot to warm herself up for her 4 am run. Got to love her!