For as long as I’ve been running I have always appreciated the
excitement of racing as a team and the amount of reliance and team work that is
involved. The Ragnar Trail Los Coyotes race
is a beautiful challenge. If your ideal
weekend consists of getting together with seven of your friends or family
members, camping, running on trails around the clock, exploring, and not
getting much sleep, it doesn’t get any better than this. Traditionally, Ragnar has only hosted road
relay races but since unveiling the trail series in 2013, it has grown to
sixteen relay trail races across the United States including one in Ontario,
Canada. California is home to two of
these races; Ragnar Trail Tahoe at the Royal Gorge Cross Country Ski Resort
near Soda Springs, California, and Ragnar Trail Los Coyotes on the Los Coyotes
Indian Reservation near Warner Springs.
The previous summer, Janet and I teamed up with some of our
friends and participated in the Ragnar Tahoe race and enjoyed it
immensely. So, when my friend Denis
invited us to join a team he was putting together for Ragnar Los Coyotes, we
jumped at the opportunity and at 7:00 AM on a chilly Friday morning in November
2017, I found myself standing in line to watch the Ragnar Safety video on the
Los Coyotes Indian Reservation near Southern California’s Cleveland National Forest. The short video which outlines safety rules
and tips for trail running is required to be watched by all participants prior
to the race. Accompanying me was my
wife, Janet, and our friends Tony, Denis, Yesenia, Monica, Anthony, and another
Janet, who we’ll call Janet H to avoid confusion. Janet H’s fiancé, Zach, an active member of
the Marine Corps, had also joined in on the trip to be our volunteer, as it is
required that each team has an extra person to volunteer for one shift during
the race. Our team was scheduled to
begin running at 7:40 AM so after taking some team pictures, Yesenia, our first
runner headed to the start line while the rest of us walked back to our camp
site to set everything up. Each team
consists of eight people and there are three trails; a green one which is just
over three miles in length and the easiest, a yellow one which is also just
over three miles in length and slightly more challenging, and a red, which is
by far the most challenging both in distance and terrain, measuring just under
eight miles. Each team member runs all
three of the trails once for a total of twenty-four legs. The running order is chosen before the race
and is followed consistently around the clock.
All three of the trails begin and end at what is called the Ragnar
Village which includes bonfires, food trucks, company booths, gift shops, and
entertainment. Our campsite was about a
quarter of a mile away from the village along the trail where runners would be
passing by day and night. We were much more
prepared for this race than we were for Tahoe.
The year prior, we hadn’t thought to bring a canopy for shade, a camping
stove to heat up food, or an air mattress to sleep on comfortably. We took mental note and brought everything we
needed this time around. Once we had our
tents and canopy set up, we heated up breakfast burritos with our camping stove
and cheered on runners as they ran past.
Yesenia is a quick runner and was closing in on the green loop, so Tony,
our second runner prepared to head to the transition area to meet her. Tony is an endurance sport animal who had
participated in the Chicago Marathon, The Elk 50K in Oregon, hiked Cactus to
Clouds, and completed a Tough Mudder in the four weeks leading up to Los
Coyotes. Moments after he departed the
campsite, we saw him running down the trail heading out on the yellow loop. Tony arrived back at camp a short time later
and Monica, our third runner headed out to tackle the red loop. With 1,750 feet of elevation gain and measuring
nearly eight miles long, it was the toughest loop on the course, so we expected
that it would take Monica around two hours to complete this section. Almost exactly two hours later, we received
the notification that she was a quarter of a mile away from the finish, as our
fourth runner, Janet H, anxiously waited to begin her first leg of the journey.
Upon arrival, Monica had told us that
she encountered a man on the trail around the three-mile mark who had twisted
his angle after stumbling on a rock. It
was a desperate moment and he felt helpless, so Monica followed a great example
of what a true runner should do in such circumstances. She peeled him up off the trail side and
paced him for the rest of the loop. When
he wanted to quit she encouraged him to keep moving forward and reminded him
that yes, he could do it, and that his team was awaiting his arrival. Although the pain was intense, he made it the
whole way and they crossed the finish line side by side. Janet H took off upon Monica’s arrival and
finished her loop a short while later.
When we asked her how it went she said it was great except her ribs were
hurting. We found out that just nineteen
months ago she was hiking on a snowy trail in the San Bernardino Mountains up
to Cucamonga Peak when she lost control of her footing and fell six hundred feet
down the side of a mountain. She was airlifted
to a nearby hospital where she spent the next week and a half recovering, and
it required tremendous amounts of hard work and physical therapy to get back to
where she was now, which was still not completely one hundred percent. I was shocked but delighted to hear that she
was out here hammering tough miles on rugged trails a mere nineteen months
after she had nearly died. Anthony went next. A long-time friend of ours, he has
accompanied Janet and I on many adventures and races over the years. Although he is built more like a line backer
than a runner, he displayed pure grit and determination, and always raced at a
consistent pace with a strong finish. This time was no different, and he tore up the
trail, finishing with flying colors.
Denis headed out next, our team captain.
Denis was an accomplished racer in his own right, having participated in
several Spartan races, marathons, and numerous challenging hikes. He ran at an impressive, steady pace and when
he arrived back at the transition area, Janet, my wife was up next. Although she runs on flat surfaces somewhat
regularly, she hadn’t done much hill training and I knew that the hills on the
trails would slow her down a bit. I was
the last runner so after she finished, it would be my turn. I changed into my running gear in our tent
and prepared to head to the transition area, but upon exiting my tent, the rest
of the team informed me that Janet had passed by a few minutes prior. I quickly made my way to the transition area,
surprised and proud of her for finishing so quickly. Upon arrival, I began my first leg, which was
the yellow, moderately difficult loop. The
course climbed up a narrow fire road for the first mile, then dropped down onto
a single-track trail that zig zagged through the woods and eventually deposited
me back onto another fire road that led back to the village. When I returned, Yesenia was waiting for me
and began her second leg of the journey.
We were now one third of the way done and had gone through our entire
line up. After having dinner and wandering
around the village, Janet and I decided to get some sleep for the night shift. She was scheduled to run the red loop
beginning around midnight and I didn’t want her to be out there all alone in
the dark, so, following Monica’s advice, I joined her for this leg of the
trail. Shortly after leaving the
village, the course climbed a wicked one-thousand-foot ascent on a grated fire road. To conserve our energy, we hiked up the
incline to the crest of the hill, which proceeded down a narrow single-track
trail into the midnight wilderness. With
our headlamps lighting the way, we followed the winding path through the woods
and up a gradual incline through a meadow.
It was a beautiful night in the mountains. The moon was partially hidden by thin, dotted
clouds, and millions of stars filled the sky brightly. Other than the sound of our feet tramping on
the ground, it was complete silence. We
proceeded through the meadow and out to the peak before continuing onto another
fire road that descended for the next couple of miles. As we made our way down, we had a nice
cadence going and Janet was making great time.
We eventually arrived at a junction where the fire road crossed a paved
road where there was a water refill station.
The course continued onto another dirt road and began a tough incline
similar to the one at the beginning of the course. About half way up this climb, Janet stopped
dead in her tracks. She looked at me
like a deer in headlights and said, “It’s times like this when I wonder why I signed
up for this”. There we were, out on a desolate
fire road in the middle of the night in the mountains. We only had a mile and a half left but the
village might as well have been on another planet. It seemed as though the incline would never
end. What were we doing out here? But Janet had been here before. She had been pushed to complete exhaustion,
but she knew what to do. She took a sip
of water, a deep breath, and plowed forward up the incline. Eventually the path flattened out and the
lights of the village came into view. We
finished a short time later and I was so proud of her! She had almost no hill training and just gutted
out eight miles on one of the hardest courses in the entire Ragnar Trail Series
in the middle of the night. I gave her a
big hug and congratulated her. After we
crossed the finish line together, Janet departed back to the campsite and I
took off to run my leg of the green trail.
She later told me she was so hungry that while I ran the green loop, she
woofed down two Hershey bars, a handful of Doritos, and two breakfast burritos
at our campsite before passing out in our tent.
As I approached the village towards the end of the loop, it was nearing 3:00
AM. A string of headlamps come down the
path in the opposite direction as other runners made their way out to the
course. I shouted words of encouragement
as I passed them, and made my way to the finish. After finishing my second loop, I refilled my
cup full of coffee, bundled up, and sat under our canopy watching lit up runners
glide by. I decided around 4:00 AM to
try to get some sleep. I entered our
tent and snuggled up next to Janet on the air mattress, not removing my jacket,
socks, or long pants. Even with all
these layers and a blanket on, I struggled to stay warm in the forty-degree
weather. I was able to sleep for a couple
of hours and when I woke up, we had some breakfast and cheered on runners. By this time, Janet H was on her final leg of
the race and we estimated that our team would be finished around 1:30 PM. We lounged around camp and shared stories
until it was time for my wife, Janet to begin her final leg. This meant that when she was finished, it was
my turn to run the red loop and then we’d be done. She tore through the yellow loop in fifty minutes
and when she arrived at the transition area, I took the bib from her and began the
final leg of the race. I knew it would
be difficult since I had been out there the night before, but I was thankful
that I knew what to expect. I took it easy,
running slowly up the incline to the ridge where the trail continued down the single-track
trail. The scenery was beautiful as the
path wove through trees and forest and rolled over small hills in between
boulders. As I ran, I thought about all
the stories I had heard in the last day.
I thought about how hard Denis had worked putting the team together and
coordinating the race, how many races Tony had done in the past month, about
Janet H was running not even two years after a horrible accident, her fiancé Zach
volunteering for us, Monica helping the injured man, Anthony and Yesenia toughing
out the difficult terrain without much hill training, and my wife for hammering
through the red loop the previous night even though she was having such a tough
go at it. I thought about how unique and
awesome our team was, how everyone had their own stories and experiences, and
how much of a true team effort this race really was. I thought about what an adventure it had been
over the last twenty-eight hours and how close we were to being done. I was only four miles away from our team
finish. And just like that, I went into
go mode. I hammered down the fire road,
passing runner after runner, proceeded past the road crossing, and ran up the
incline when the village came into view once again. The last quarter of a mile was ran with lots
of excitement. I as I approached the
finish line, I searched for the rest of the team. The tradition for Ragnar is that the whole
team joins the last runner during the last hundred feet or so of the course so
that everyone can cross the finish line together as a team. Unfortunately, no one was to be found and I
looked at my watch realizing that miraculously, I had finished about twenty
minutes before my projected finish time.
Eventually, they emerged from the village and we all joined hands and
crossed the finish line together, finishing right around our estimated time of 1:30
PM. After a round of high fives, hoots
and hollers, we collected our medals, took team pictures, packed up our
campsite, and hit the road. We rendezvoused
on the way home at a Mexican restaurant for lunch in Temecula where we exchanged
more stories about the race and congratulated each other.
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