Race Recap: 2010 Ragnar Relay

This past weekend was the Ragnar Relay Great River and I was part of Team #94 "Java Junkies"

If your not familiar with Ragnar Relay it is a 200ish mile 24+ hour relay race and Ragnar Relay Great River specifically is 193 miles from Winona to Minneapolis. The relay team consists of 12 runners divided into two vans of 6. The runners take turns running their legs 1-36 and switching vans at the major exchanges; 6, 12, 18, 24, 30. Each runner is assigned a runner number and they then run three legs throughout the course of the relay. Leg distances are anywhere between 3.1 and 8.5 miles and the total distance that each runner cover is between 12.4 miles and 21.8 miles.

Kris and I (Kris was Team Captain) put together our Java junkies team from our family and friends, a lot of them coming from TNT. Van 1 consisted of our friend Brady and several TNT friends, Dan, Lance, Rich, Dawn and her friend Melissa. Van 2 was myself, Kris, Michael(my brother), his wife Cari, Kris friend Mandy and my best friend Steve.

 Van #2 Pre-Race Lunch (We all look good now)

We got up early on Friday morning to drive down and see Van #1 get started on their first set of legs, not really necessary, as Van #2 can start at exchange #6 the first major exchange, but we wanted to be a team and start this adventure together.

Prior to the race Ragnar provides you with a Race Bible which summarizes the rules and breaks down each of the race legs including distances, elevations and map directions. It also classifies legs as either Easy, Moderate, Hard and Hard. Those classifications take into a couple of different factors, distance and elevation changes. The one thing that the race bible does not really touch on is the various weather conditions during your different legs, and since this race is in the middle of August, heat is an issue.

During the relay, I was runner #8 and my legs were as follows: Leg 8 - 5.2 miles, Leg 20 - 5.4 miles and Leg 32 - 6.0 miles.

** Side Note - Before the race, I finally got a chance to buy a GPS training watch that I have been saving for a long time. I had been planning on getting either the Garmin 405CX or the 310XT but a few weeks ago I saw that Timex has a new Ironman Global Trainer and it not only had all of the features I was looking for but it  is also considerably cheaper then the Garmins. During the race was the second time I have ever used the new GPS trainer and I love it! I have included links in my times that take you to the online data from the Global Trainer.

First Leg: Leg 8 - Hard - Start Time 5:30pm - Temp 82; Dew point was close to 70 degrees - My first leg was by far the hardest of all three. It was defined as hard because of two major hills in the middle of the leg. Most of the morning and early afternoon was cloudy and that was helping keep temps down even though it was still very humid. While we were at Exchange 6 and waiting for runner #6 the clouds cleared out and it got very hot on top of the humidity and by the time I got on the course it was mostly sunny, fortunately the first hill was mostly in the shade.

The second hill was just torture, no shade, long and you could see the entire hill all the way to the top.

I am in this picture, I am all the way at the bottom, just a tiny speck.

I ended up walking a bit on both hills just to keep from over doing it. On the second hill, while I was walking I turned and looked to my right and it was Scott Dobbins, a friend from TNT, so I started running again and Scott helped pull me up the hill to the top. 

Running next to Scott to the top of the hill.

First Leg Done! 5.21 Miles - Time 45:19 Avg. Pace 8:41

In between our first set of legs and the second set of legs we were at the Prescott High School, Exchange 12 where your could take a shower, sleep, eat. Kris and I choose to skip the shower and try to get in as much sleep as possible. For a $3 dollar donation to the school athletic fund, you could sleep in the Gym or library, but we choose to just throw our blankets on the grass by our van. We ended up getting about 3 hours of sleep before we had to be up and getting ready for the exchange back from Van 1 to us. Combined with the 4 hours of sleep we got on Thursday night that made 7 hours total from when we woke up on Thursday morning until we went to bed at 10pm on Saturday night.

Second Leg: Leg 20 - Hard - Start Time 3:58AM - Temp low 70's; Heavy Fog. My second leg was in the middle of the night and from my experience during my last Ragnar, I was looking forward to this leg. There must be something about running in the middle of the night in the middle of no where. Two years ago I had an absolutely amazing time with clear skies and a beautiful moon to run in. This year I had a completely different experience but by any means no less enjoyable. While Kris was running her leg, we noticed how hazy it had become, not quite fog but think humidity in the air that you could see. After she handed of the snap bracelet to me at exchange 19 the fog started to really settle in. This time my leg had one serious hill but only because I had to go down into a deep river valley at Kinnickinnic State Park. As I approached the valley I really noticed how think the fog was getting and I even had to turn my head lamp down to it;s lowest setting so I was not running through a white out caused by the lamp and all the fog. Again the hill got the best of me and I had to spend a bit walking just to save some energy. One of the tings that the race bible can't tell you about is how your energy start to fade on the second leg, not enough food and defiantly not enough sleep starts to eat away at your energy reserves. So up out of the valley I climbed and my team was able to toss me a poweraide that i carried the remainder of the leg. By this time the fog was getting rediculas, at one point I even got to within 5 feet of another runner before I could see him, he did have a blinking red taillight but it was really weak and I only saw it at the last minute. All in all this leg provided me with another very enjoyable, if not sureal Ragnar experiance that I will always remember. Leg Two Done! 5.32 Miles - Time 41:40 Avg. Pace 7:50

The second big exchange was at the Lifetime Fitness in Woodbury. At first I did not put two and two together but this worked out beautiful and Kris and I Lifetime members and we juts grabbed out gear, went into the club and soaked in the whirlpool for a while, showered and rolled out our muscles a bit with the foam rollers. That felt really good! And I don't think I would have been in as good a shape as a was starting my last leg.


Third and Last Leg: Leg 32 - Hard - Start Time 12:10PM - Temp 74; Dew point 68 and overcast. Third and last leg and I was not even sure what to expect from this leg. As I started out I wasn't thrilled with the first half of the leg, a lot of urban running on the side of the road smelling car exhaust, not very  fun but at about the half way point the route turned off onto a path the runs along Battle Creek. This was beautiful! I have never been here before and I was not sure what to expect but this is an amazing trail. I had so much fun and I think it showed in my run. Most of this leg was down hill and I was able to keep up and strong pace, never stopping or walking.

 The only downfall of this leg was that is was mostly downhill, and it was very hard on my legs, ankles and knees. I was very sore the next day. During my other legs I had been mentally counting the number of runner that I passed and the number of runners that passed me and came up with a net number for each leg. Just before this leg at exchange 30 I figured out that is called road kills. Learn something everyday. I got 6 roadkill's on this leg. Something that I think we will track during our next Ragnar. Leg 3 and my Ragnar Done! 5.83 miles - Time 45:00, Avg. Pace 7:43 My best performance of the race, even though it was my final leg, which by then I was exhausted.

My sister in law Cari, was our last runner and I give her tremendous credit, that last leg was almost 6 miles and it had gotten incredibly hot again, she did a great job and as she was finishing we all joined her to cross the finish line together as a team. Total time for Java Junkies #94 - 31:00:57 We came in 220/286 teams and 145/192 Open Division - Mixed. We easily would have been well under 31 hours had Cari and several other runner had not been stopped by a train for about 8 minutes with about a 1/2 mile to go. Next time!!

Java Junkies - #94 at the Finish Line (minus Brandy and Lance)

Van #2 Cari, Michael (w/Michaela), Me, Kris, Many and Steve.

Is it too soon to start thinking about our next Ragnar? I have done Great River twice now, perhaps a different Ragnar? They recently took over a relay from Madison to Chicago and next June will be the first running of that Ragnar Race. Mmmmmm.......

Next up Minneapolis Duathlon on August 29th