Friday and Saturday, April 1-2, 2016
Ft. Knox, Kentucky
What do you do when you have Spring Break, Southwest Airlines non-rev tickets, and a good running base? Find a Ragnar team looking for a member that weekend! Ft. Knox, Kentucky probably wouldn’t have been our first choice for a Ragnar, but it was the only choice that weekend, so we hopped on the Facebook page for it and looked for posts from team’s in need. We ended up joining a team that only needed one person, but that meant we only had to pay one entry fee, and because Ragnar lets people pace at any time, we could both run each loop together. We flew to Indianapolis the day before the race, rented a car, and drove down through Louisville, to a hotel outside of Ft. Knox.
We had only done two other Ragnars, both at McDowell Mountain, so it was interesting seeing the differences. Unlike McDowell Mountain where the campsites are defined with chalk in the formation of a tightly packed tent city, this much smaller Ragnar had plenty of open space in grass and under trees to spread out. It had rained the days before the event, so the ground was pretty muddy in most places. I was glad I had brought two pairs of running shoes, though three and a pair of galoshes would have been even better. You could barely walk through Ragnar Village without getting your shoe stuck or slipping and falling down. Eventually they deconstructed some hay bales by the fire pit and spread hay down the main drag of Ragnar Village in order to make it walkable.
I hadn’t been running much during the weeks leading up to the race because I had been dealing with some minor injuries, so my first run, the Yellow Loop (4.8 miles), felt a little stiff that afternoon. Stephen was surprised that I wasn’t moving faster, but I did not feel well for most of it. The single track trail left the village right behind our campsite and went through the hills nearby, over leaves on the ground, under trees, and occasionally through a particularly muddy spot. All three trails converged on a wide dirt road for about the last quarter mile, and there were large sections of mud that you had to run around. Otherwise, the trails were generally in pretty good shape at this point.
By the time my second run rolled around, the Green Loop (3.9 miles), in the middle of the night, the trails had gotten worse from hundreds of people expanding the mud pits as they ran through. This was the shortest loop, and it was fun running in the dark in a very different environment. The mud on the trail wasn’t too bad, but that last quarter mile had turned into a road that alternated dry dirt for a few steps followed by nothing but slippery mud that you couldn’t avoid for a few more steps. It was like mud hurdles that were impossible to leap over. Our shoes were caked in mud when we finished.
I should also mention that it was cold the entire time we were there. When I took my shoes off after the Green Loop, my socks were steaming from my warm feet in the frigid air. Weird. And gross. I didn’t feel prepared for the cold at all, and I shivered through most of the night. It was cold to the bone. Getting up early in the morning for my final run was difficult.
The Red Loop (7 miles), which is the longest, was my final loop, and I actually enjoyed it more than the others which is especially strange because you’re always so tired by the time the last loop rolls around. I actually felt pretty good. This one was also very pretty because of the morning light, and it ran alongside a wide creek for a good while. The mud had gotten worse though. Not only was it pretty bad in a lot of sections of the trail, but that final stretch coming into Ragnar Village was nothing but mud as far as the eye could see. You could see people with their arms out to the sides, carefully picking their way through, trying not to fall down. Luckily we didn’t fall at all, but that would have been pretty devastating considering we had to pack up camp, get in the rental car, and drive to Indianapolis to get on a plane that evening. What a mess that would have been!
Overall I really enjoyed this Ragnar adventure. It was so much fun meeting a whole team of new people from a different area of the country. They were great! Though I didn’t race my best, I was extremely proud of Stephen. Not only did he run every one of my loops with me, but he also ran every one of Felisha’s loops with her (right after me). He did a Ragnar Ultra, about 31 miles…and he wasn’t even registered!
