Pre Race: The pre race of this experience was pretty good. The event was small, compact, and well organized. I like the fact they e-mailed everyone to inform that carpooling would be in everyone's best interest due to the size of parking lot and space limitations. I saw multiple people follow their instructions and space limitation became a non issue. There also wasn't any confusion or miscommunication amongst the staff and racers so that's always appreciated!

T-Shirts/SWAG: Wasn't too big of a fan of the t-shirt. It's 50% cotton and feels kinda heavy. One of those shirts that you don't want to do much running in. Also there was a random toothbrush in the swag bag, I wasn't sure what that was about. Definitely a first for that one!

Aid Station: Aid station was centrally located at the start/finish line for people to access when they were finished with their loop. They had ALOT of food with different varieties of things. What was also nice was that they had some people riding around on ATVs asking runners if they wanted water, and volunteers at random water stations on the trail. Really solid job on their part and kudos to the volunteers.

Course Scenery: What can I say? I really love the woods and running on trails. Going from sandhill in higher regions to the lower flatwood communities, to lush floodplain swamp and marshes. The Julington-Durbin Preserve is beautiful set of wide, flat trails through scenic pine forests. The trails are mostly hard packed grass and gravel sections with a few areas of soft sand. The trails are lined with pine trees but there are both shaded and sunny areas on the course. I saw mountain bikers out there, hikers, and other trail runners not apart of the race enjoying the trail. I wouldn't say it's the most scenic trail here in NE Florida, but it's definitely in the top 3.

Elevation Difficulty: As usual it's Florida so elevation isn't really a factor. There is only one or two trails here in Florida where I've experienced elevation and that's pretty minimal at best.

Parking Access/Race Management: As I touched on during the pre race section, the people who put this on did an excellent job with both of these. Kudos to the fine folks over at Empower Coaching & Fitness for all the work they put in to make this happen and I would like note that a portion of the proceeds of the race went to benefiting Foundation Pierre Smith Mondelus, an organization set forth to empower and equip residents of villages in Northern Haiti. 

Would I recommend this race for a friend? Absolutely! There are three ways to run this race

- 5k
- 18 miler
- 18 mile relay

The medal we received which I really should upload a photo of is made of all wood and is hands down my favorite so far. For anyone who experiences this race in the future, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Pre Race:

We arrived in Atlanta at 4:30, found a spot to set up our tents and canopy, and did all the check in stuff that was required. While unpacking my stuff I realized that even though I brought my hydration pack, I didn’t bring the bladder that goes inside of it. Someone from Nathan, the company that specializes in running gear, over heard that I had forgotten mine and provided one to my team for free. Big thank you to the people at Nathan!

One of my favorite thing about Ragnar trail events is the camping and seeing all the creative things that everyone else does with their campsites. I also love that it includes a bonfire, smores, movies, free coffee, and etc. During our time there they showed Jurassic Park and Top Gun.

Before the first wave of runners took off there was a planking event that latest about 10 minutes and came down to an 8 year old and another guy, the 8 year old ended up winning with relative ease.

T-Shirt/Swag: Love the Ragnar shirts that they give out. If I can collect like 5 of them I might never need to buy another shirt to run in again. In the swag bag there is also a bunch of coupons, and food tokens for a Friday night meal.

Aid Station: There wasn't much of an aid station per say. On two of the loops there was a table with water but outside of that you make it back to base camp every 5-10 miles so you can always fill up from there before going off on a different loop. If given the choice, that is one of the things I would change. If they set up those spots to have some sort of additional nutrition even if it was run by volunteers or people not participating in the race. I would be more than happy to man one of those stations.

Course Scenery: While I had a better experience running the loops in the night time than in the day time, I really enjoyed what this course had to offer as far as scenery is concerned. My first time out there I couldn't stop taking pictures. The course went from really dense areas to really wide open fields and then back into really dense areas. It had a little bit of everything and I really enjoyed that.

Elevation Difficulty: So I have to be honest, I come from Florida and elevation isn't a thing here. Florida is as flat as flat can get. The 492.00 ft elevation gain felt brutal at times but I'm aware that this laughable when it comes to trail races so I need to find a better way to fit elevation into my training, even if it's *grumble* the treadmill */grumble*

Parking Access: Parking was kind of weird. They had us unload our gear at a designated spot, and then drop off our vehicles about a mile or two down the road before taking a shuttle back to the campsite. The drop off spot filled up really quickly so pushed everyone to drop everything off as quick as possible. It made for a really awkward situation and staff threatened to tow cars that were there for too long.

Race Management: You can tell that they've been putting this race on for awhile because everything ran like clockwork. Runners got lost on the hard loop at the beginning and I overheard rumors of mountain bikers coming in at night and switching up signs because they weren't allowed on the trail. If this is the case, Ragnar fixed things rather quickly and I even witnessed them putting up additional signs just to be on the safe side to ensure that the runners didn't get lost. The race director was very personable and all of the staff stayed behind to cheer the very last team that crossed the line.

The course is at Cary State Forest in Bryceville, Florida, on a 25K loop. There is an 8 hour time limit. This was my first trail race of the year and I couldn't have asked for a better experience. The event was well organized, the trail running community was out in full force being caring and supportive as they are known to be, and there was pie!

T-Shirts/SWAG:

There was no gift bag full of stuff that I probably won't use. Heck, there wasn't even a medal or a belt buckle. There was simply your own apple pie, and a coffee mug waiting for you at the end. Honestly, I couldn't have asked for anything better. I enjoyed that warm apple pie with two scoops of vanilla ice cream as my reward to myself. We also got a pretty sweet polyester/cotton long tee which I'll definitely wear out in about.

Aid Station:

The aid station placement was pretty clever. We ran on three different trails but each trail looped around and hit the same aid station. What was awesome about this aid station was that it was pretty much a one stop shop. Chips? You got it. Pretzels? No problem. Gels? Here you go. Hydration? Pick which one you want. Plus the guy that was manning the station was a pro. He would take your bottle from you to fill it up while you gathered your belongings or grabbed some food.

Course Scenery:

You aren't going to find the beautiful mountain tops and the lush forest of the PNW here in FL, but man do I love seeing the sunrise come up from just beyond the tree line. I remember thinking at that moment just how blessed and fortunate I was to be out there doing something I loved while being able to witness such a scene. Honestly, it felt as if the world didn't exist outside of that trail.

Overall:

Definitely doing this run again next year for as long as they have it. There is a campground near by so chances are I'll get some camping in before the race to take full advantage of all that Cary State Forest has to offer. Every single person out there helped make this run feel special.

Where do I even begin with this race? It's was one of the funniest races I've ever participated in. Wish I could accurately paint a picture of what it felt like, so I'll try. We left Thursday evening so that we could get a decent camp site and check in on time. Unfortunately for us we didn't take into account traffic through Orlando and arrived at the site in the dead of the night. A polar vortex from the north happened to be swinging through as well so the temperature dropped substantially which made things even more interesting.

In my teeth chattering, cold-induced haze I came across some of the camp sites that had some pretty awesome creative themes, for example there was the U.S.A-holes, The Hecklers, a military themed campsite who's name I can't remember currently, and some others with Christmas decorations. One camp even had a celebratory Christmas tree lighting with a countdown and all.

Shivering in the unexpected cold we were able to set up camp, get our canopy and lighting in place, and dive into our tents right before the rain started. The next morning the first leg was mine. 9.9 miles on an easy loop and intermediate loop. The green loop was full of flat lands, wide open fields, and great scenery before merging into the other loops and finally the finish line. I fell during this time and ended up breaking my glasses. I knew I should have had contacts in with shades, and looking back I wish I would just put those on instead of breaking my prescriptions. Lesson learned!

The intermediate loop was more of a roller coaster that went deep into the heart of the woods with a decent amount of up and down elevation. As they described it, "you might discover perpetual motion and feel the effects of G-Force as the trail dives and climbs, twists and turns, and swoops and soars." They weren't lying.

When I finished those two I immediately used a shower pill, cleaned up, changed clothes, and grabbed some food. What was nice about this event was that they gave you meal tickets and allowed you to use those instead of having to bring cash or credit card with you, and they had a number of food trucks out there you could choose from.

After eating I grabbed some sleep and prepared for my next leg which would prove to be the most difficult. I started this one around 8 PM EST.The red(or hard) loop as they called it was 5.9 miles of twisting, turning, up hills and drops along narrow passage ways. One slip up and you could find yourself tumbling down the side of the hill and into swampy looking waters, or into a deep chasm that would've proved difficult to get out of. I found a lot of runners took this one as slow as possible, except for on some uphills when you needed a little momentum to get up them. After completing this one I finished up with the 5.9 green(easy) loop. The easy loop doesn't feel so easy after you've put so many miles in and just tackled mental and physical warfare that the red loop puts you through.

I met a runner on the green loop that was having...as she described it as the 'worst time in her life'. She said she hated the outdoors, she hated the roots she kept tripping on, she hated running at night, and hated feeling so exhausted. I thought to myself that it's relatively common for tired runner to feel so cranky so I didn't think anything of it. I stayed with her till she was finished and she seemed to be in really good spirits when she crossed the finish line.

Next was pretty much rinse and repeat. Get some food in me, change my clothes, use a shower pill, and get some sleep so I could prepare for the next 13 mile leg. Unfortunately one of our teammates tore something in his leg so he ended up pulling out early which led to my turn being around 3:45 in the morning, and I had to tackle the yellow and red loops again. The first 5 miles were brutal. I was feeling nauseated whenever I tried to pick up the pace so I settled for that 'ultra shuffle' of somewhere between running/walking. Once I hit the halfway point I downed a cliff bar that I had stashed away in my hydration pack and willed myself to keep going. That cliff bar made the world of difference. Not only was I not nauseated anymore, but I had energy for next 7 miles that I didn't have in previous 6, and seeing how I was coming up on the hardest part of the terrain, I definitely needed it.

I finished just as the sun was coming up. It was beautiful, life-affirming, and exhilarating. Never before had I been so happy to see the sun. As I told someone else, I've spent the last 36 hours or more freezing, sleep deprived, sore, exhausted, hungry and thirsty, but I've never felt more alive. I've now found myself in love with all things trail running.