We arrived at the camping area Thursday around 5. We were directed to park and remove everything in 5 minutes. There was quite a bit of yelling about it, which was a little frustrating as our car was loaded with most of our camping gear and it took some time to unload it. There was a shuttle to the parking area which seemed to move pretty quickly. I never had to take it so I’m not sure but I heard no complaints.
After we set up camp we hit the village to get our swag and check out the merchandise tent. You had to walk up two huge hills to get there unless you paid extra to Glamp. (This is an observation not a complaint!) it was very mountainous and they did a great job with what they had. After watching a super dorky safety video, we moved on to the swag tent. The tees were kind of ugly lol but they were tech which made many happy although I missed the cotton. There were cozier. There was also a bag of other swag, I think it was blister bandaids, emergen-c and some granola bars? Our captain put them aside and in the rush to load at the end she forgot to hand them out, so I’m not sure.
The merch tent had a lot of tech as well. I did get a comfy basic tee with the Ragnar symbol on it but not much said Vermont, not even the finisher shirt.
They had lots of fun events going on all weekend but since you had to climb all those hills every time I didn’t do any! I did partake in the food trucks, although some more with meat would have been nice. Mostly vegan options. Also they had a great recovery tent with $40 unlimited leg compression sleeves. I used that a lot!
They had free dinner on Friday night and free ice cream although the dairy free sold out fast and I can’t have dairy. They had lots of choices though and it was Ben and Jerry’s!
The race!
They were on the ball with the race portion for sure. It went so smoothly and the signage on the course was spot on. It was insanely difficult and beautiful and I loved all of the trails. It never felt dangerous or unsafe in any way. They had a water stop on each loop although I wished that the red loop one was sooner! I totally get why it was where it was. it was at the bottom of a hill, which was handy. They allowed us to double up in the end to avoid incoming storms and we finished just in time.
A few complaints: the volunteer in the parking lot yelled at us repeatedly about walking too close to the road where the big scary cars were. At no point were there actual cars, and we are all adults who know how to cross a street, but there it was. Nobody enforced the quiet times however. It was near impossible to sleep at all! But we were safe from those cars lol
The bling was a super cool camping tool, and this year it came in a leather sleeve. You cannot fly with it in your carry on, it has a saw blade on it. Be sure to check it!
You have the same five minute rule for leaving the camp so be sure and pack up fast, it is strictly enforced!