The Ragnar Trail Relay is a trail race that we did with a group of our friends at Vail Lake in Southern California. The race consists of three trail running courses – Red, Yellow and Green
Running Course Map
Vail lake is in rural area of Temecula. We drove in and dropped our camping stuff at our team camping area.
We then parked our car in a parking lot in a dirt lot a couple of miles from the camping area and then waited for the shuttle(Trolley) to take us back to the camping area.
Ragnar has a village where all of the action happens for the race.
You eat in the village – dinner the first night
Get preRun Instructions
Get your drinking water
Get warmed up for your run
And watch for your team members. Here is a video of the village gathering area.
Video of Village
The race consists of three Trail courses: Red, Yellow and Green. Each team member (8) have to run each of the three courses. The courses range in difficulty from Hard (Red – 4.5 mi), Medium (Yellow – 3.9 mi), Easy (Green – 6 mi)) and these ratings are based on hills and technical terrain.
We got our tent and gear setup and then it was time to walk with the team down to the village for our first runner to start at noon on Friday…
Our first runner was Susan
and we went with her to the transition tent where the first runners lined up to start the race with the green loop.
Each runner gives the team the average time they think it will take them to run the loop, and then they go back to camp until it is their time to run. Outside the transition tent are video monitors which let the next running know when their runner has crossed the timing mat a quarter mile out.
Here are our runs:
Red Trail – this was our first run at about 6:30 PM on Friday. The Red Trail is medium distance but has extreme hills and terrain.
Yellow Trail – our second run started at 1:30 AM on Saturday morning. This is the shortest run but has lots of short steep hills and single track. It was very surreal running with a small amount of moonlight and the sight of headlamps bobbing up and down in front of us.
Green Trail – our last run started at 10 AM on Saturday morning. The sun was up and beaming hot and it was very still. The trail went around the edge of vail lake and then circled through the forest to the parking lot and back around to the connection point of all three runs.
Our last runner came in around 1 PM on Saturday..check this out..
Video of Finish
And here is the team with their medals
And how can you forget the awesome medal – which also doubles as a multi-purpose tool
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