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.