Ya know how sometimes you find a thing that you love and you try to do that thing as often as you can? Well, I’m pretty sure that’s the relationship I have with Ragnar Relays.
I ran my first in Washington DC back in September of 2017. And, a couple of weekends ago, I finished my fourth Ragnar Relay, my second time at Cape Cod.
If you’re unfamiliar with Ragnar here’s how it’s worked with the teams I’ve joined: 12 people (strangers, actually!) in 2 vans covering 200-ish miles. 6 people per van called, oddly enough, Van 1 and Van 2. Van 1 usually starts pretty early in the morning and runs ‘legs’ of varying mileage. Then they meet up with Van 2 and those runners take over the next 6 legs, while Van 1 grabs lunch, or goes to the next meetup spot (called a major exchange) to meet Van 2 again. Then the whole thing repeats 2 more times so each person has 3 ‘legs’. Unless you are on an Ultra team and then….I don’t know, all craziness happens!!
I was runner 1 in van 1 this time around. Which is the same position I ran last year in this relay. This meant that I took off at the start line at 5:15 Friday morning and covered the first 5.03 miles of our adventure!
When our last runner finished and we had handed off to van 2 for the first time we headed out and had lunch then made a quick stop in Plymouth to look at the Plymouth Rock. Which is VERY small for such a significant part of our history.
Then it was on to our next exchange with Van 2 – only there was no meet up with the other half of our team due to some construction so it was a “virtual” exchange. This meant that when our runner 12 got to the end of her ‘leg’ it was communicated to the start of our next leg and our team and arrival/departure time was posted on a screen (a HUGE improvement over last year!). So Tammie checked in at 4:11 and I took off for my next leg of 4.2 miles at 4:12.
We finished up for the evening around 9 pm – and made the decision to just drive to our next starting point and see if there would be any sleep. On the way we stopped for some folks to grab dinner. Once we got to the high school I put on the clothes I would be running in and pulled on my sweats. I thought I could manage to stretch out over the seats in the van and get a bit of sleep. I thought kind of wrong! But no worries, I didn’t have too long to wait before I set out for my FINAL leg!
At 1:57 I set out for my last 6.9 miles – and this meant I would be finished before sunrise! We ended up meeting Van 2 at the last high school stop on our route and Grant, our 6th runner, came in like a bullet at 10:55! Now, we had until van 2 finished up their longest legs of the weekend. The two guys in our van, Clint and Grant, had gotten a room for Saturday night right next to the finish line so we headed there to shower and change and wait for the rest of our folks.
While we waited we went to the finish line to turn in our crossing flags and grab some delicious BBQ from Big Pig BBQ (their cornbread is AH-MAZing!!) and decided we wanted a cocktail. So we headed back to the hotel, thinking that the lounge was open. It wasn’t. But we somehow met up with the manager of the hotel (I think, I missed this part!) and one of our runners, Chep, said all she wanted was “a little rum and coke with 2 ice cubes!” so this awesome guy said “Okay, don’t tell anyone but…” and we all got a rum and coke (diet for me of course!)
Our last runner managed to get lost along the way, due to some misdirecting signs – either blown down or intentionally moved. But she made it and we all ran across the finish line together!!
Then it was off to dinner and then some runners stayed near the finish and the rest of us headed back towards the start – me to pick up my car and get home and the others were staying overnight and either leaving in the morning or exploring Boston before heading home.
As I mentioned this was my 4th Ragnar. My 4th Ragnar with people who were complete strangers on Thursday afternoon and not at all strangers by Saturday evening!
If you’ve ever considered Ragnar you need to get yourself on a team! It really is the most fun you can have not sleeping in a van, running through the night and coverning 200-ish miles in a couple of days!!
Up next, I need to find a Ragnar Trail team….
But until then, I’ll stick to the road!
outrunningthefork 