RAGNAR So Cal Trail Relay

One of my favorite runs that I’ve ever taken part of was the Hood to Coast relays from Mt. Hood to Seaside Oregon. Which is approximately 197 miles spread between a team of 12 runners. I competed in Hood to Coast for 5 years in a row on team “The Fit, the Fat, and the Elderly” in the early 2000’s and since then have gone through over a decade break without being on a relay team. That all changed last weekend when I was allotted the opportunity to race the RAGNAR So Cal Trail Relay November 8/9 with Team Sweat Equity lead by Esmeralda Gonzalez who I know from Playa Venice Rotary.

I arrived in the morning at about 10:00am after the 2 in a half hour drive from Los Angeles to the Los Coyotes Indian Reservation which is literally less than an hour from where I was the week before at the Borrego Springs event. We had two teams with start times of 10:30 and 11:00am. I was the second runner on team 2 so my start time was just before noon which gave me plenty of time to settle in before hitting my first easy loop. The way the course is set up each runner runs a series of three loops of different distance and difficulty. Green loop is 3.1 miles and the least aggressive, Yellow loop is 3.2 miles and has a decent amount of climbing, and then the red loop is 7.9 miles and is moderately technical single track with substantial climbing and a fair amount of exposure during the day. My team comprised eight runners (Eric, Blanca, Oscar, San, Alvin, Diego, myself and the yellow looper).

I started my first run with the Yellow loop and covered the 3.2 miles in approximately 48 minutes. Nothing to write home about, but a week off of a 24 hour cycling race, and my feet still slightly numb I’ll take it. One of the aspects of relay races is after your run you have an abundance of time before your “up next”. This gave me time to meet the team, explore the RAGNAR main pit area, catch up on my journaling, take a little nap and basically fill the eight hour gap between runs however you wish. During the afternoon one of the runners started on Yellow loop and then decided that he didn’t want to do any more running and headed out from the event. This left our team with a Red loop and another green loop that runners would have to pick up. For me my goal was to get as much mileage as I could and so an extra 7.9 mile red loop in my opinion just drops the $’s per mile that you’re paying for the event. I convinced Alvin our taskmaster that I would do the red loop leading into my green loop (11 miles combined) and then he had another runner pick up the green loop leading into his yellow loop (6.3 miles combined)

I started the red loop at approximately 8:00pm about 2 hours after nightfall and I have to say I had so much fun hiking up the hills, running down the steep descents and navigating the twists and turns of the course under the moonlight and my single headlamp. I made a few silly errors at the beginning of this run which I should know better. It all stemmed from me taking an ice bath before my run around 6:00pm and feeling a little chilled I put on a sweatshirt to go out for the run. I naturally run very hot so putting on a sweatshirt is not the best idea. Within half a mile into the almost 8 mile loop I was dripping sweat and had to take off my sweatshirt. In the midst of this process I knocked off my headphones and spent a few minutes scouring the trail to find them and quickly gave up conceding that I probably didn’t need to listen to music or a podcast anyways and should just soak up the natural beauty around me. I tied the sweatshirt around my waist and a few miles down the trial had to stop again to properly store the sweatshirt in my running pack. I was impressed how well my body held up to the terrain and was basking in the joy of being back out on a night trail run. It is a rare joy that I think the rest of the world that doesn’t participate in long hiking, cycling, or running excursions miss out on. Being out in nature and pushing your body and mind in those quiet hours is hard to explain how it transforms you and centers you to who you are and allows you to gain a deeper understanding of yourself. Anyways, the trail miles flew by and before I knew it I was at the aid station in an hour and fifty minutes and quickly changed from the red bracelet to the green bracelet and went back out on the course. During the first little climb on the green loop a runner passed me and asked if I was the guy that switched straight from the red to green loop and I told her about our runner dropping and that I was just picking up his slack. She said the guys in the transition tent were dumbfounded that a runner would go from the red loop into another loop and gave me huge props. “Obviously this isn’t the ultra community I spend much of my time with but I’ll take any compliment I can get” The green loop was surprisingly extremely easy and comfortable. The only touchy part was the last mile has some ruts in the road that you had to be vigilant not too loose your footing. All went well and I came back to the pit area and finished up the green loop in approximately 49 minutes.

I went back to camp and got ready to head to the tent around 11:30. I don’t tend to sleep well camping, especially the first night, so I layed there very comfortably on a padded mat wrapped up in a sleeping bag, blanket and my pillow and rested my legs and my mind through the night but I don’t think I ever did manage to fall asleep. In the morning I got up around 5:00am and did another ice bath and got ready for my last run on the red loop. I started off at around 6:30am right after sunrise and felt great leading into the long almost three mile climb of about 1400 feet that starts the loop. It was a blessing seeing the same trail in daylight that I had covered less than ten hours prior in the dark of night. After hitting the ridgline you decent back down on twisty trails now familiar to my mind and feet then climb back up to the next ridge. There you run across the top looking at the hills and valleys around the reservation before taking a gradual two mile decent on a fire road. There are water breaks on the red loop at mile 5 and about 6.5 which I imagine is especially necessary in the heat of day. During my climbs my per mile pace was in the 17 minute range, and once I hit the ridgeline that dropped to 14, and then 12, and finally down to about 8:30 pace as I continued down the fire road towards the last few miles.

I decided to run this event as fast as I felt comfortable. I didn’t want to just cover the ground but wanted to feel good about pushing it with my current ability level. As I came into that last few miles my legs still felt fresh, and I kept my steady run/walk routine through the small hills and twists in the trails. On the red loop you hit the timing mat that lets your team know you are getting close to the handoff about a half a mile from the timing station. I passed our team tent and yelled out “Alvin” our team battle cry reminiscent from Alvin and the Chipmunks and made a strong push to the timing tent where I finished up and passed the timing chip onto the next runner. I managed to finish up my second red loop 2 minutes faster than my first in a time of one hour and forty-eight minutes.

After finishing my run I decided to be a good team player and wait until all the runners had finished so that we could take our group pictures and celebrate together. That gave me almost seven hours to continue to get to know the group, do some post run massage in the recovery tent and enjoy the quiet time soaking up this incredibly scenery less than three hours from the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles city life.

It was so nice to have a relaxed Saturday afternoon with new friends and to pack up the camp with the team and cheer on the last few runners from our group. After our team pictures we loaded the vehicles and were on our way back to normal civilization. I have to say that I’m a pretty big fan of the pit area style transition for ease of use and given the right group of runners would definitely consider another RAGNAR trail event. It’s a great excuse to get out for a nice camping weekend with friends and I love how open the RAGNAR community is to outsiders joining the camping alongside the runners.

Next up on the race schedule is the Red Rock 50-mile trail run next weekend!!! This event is pretty much equivalent to running the Rim to Rim to Rim (R2R2R) on the Grand Canyon with approximately 11,000 feet of climbing over the 50-mile course. I feel like the RAGNAR trail race was a significant milestone for me to feel prepared for the course ahead of me and always a joy to engage with another group of athletes on these different courses.

Event Information: Los Coyotes Indian Reservation, CA |Team Sweat Equity II

Website: https://www.runragnar.com/event-detail/trail/socal#overview