It's a little like a moving circus. There are vans decorated in every fashion you can imagine. And every stop is filled with more and more people. But most of them are dressed in running shorts and singlets. And they cheer and ring cowbells whenever a runner arrives to hand a bracelet to another waiting runner.
I can hardly think of a better celebration of the sport of running. Some teams are serious. Some are just in it for the experience. And others are just hoping to make it from the start in Madison, Wisconsin to the finish at Montrose beach in Chicago. But all are in it to have fun.
And it's hard not to have a good time in the Ragnar Relay. Several of my teammates, very experienced runners, were talking about how tough it is to arrange our schedules to be able to do this at this point in our busy lives. They questioned whether it was worth it. Until we got going. Then everyone remembered how much fun the team concept, the running, the sights, the sleeplessness, and the sheer craziness of what we were doing can be.
What we were doing was running with a 12 person team from Madison to Chicago, through Milwaukee. 196 miles, straight through the night. Each person runs three legs averaging about 5 or 6 miles each. Our team, Old Souls, consisted of a bunch of great guys, and strong runners, all over 40. We were competing in the masters division.
My total mileage for the relay was about 15 miles, spread out from about 1:40 Friday afternoon, until about 5:30 Saturday morning. Along the way I got maybe two hours of shut-eye sitting in the back of the van or sprawled out on the floor of a church at one of the exchange points. We also stopped to eat some donuts and drink coffee at about 2am at that Lutheran Church outside Milwaukee where the youth group had set up a great spread as a fundraiser.
This is now the fifth time I have participated in one of these relays, and each experience is unique and memorable. Because you shuttle from one exchange point to the next in a van with six runners, you spend a lot of time in the van with five other people. You get to know them pretty well, if you didn't already. I met many of these guys running the famed Hood to Coast relay last fall. We haven't seen each other since then, but we easily fell back into the teammate concept.
Of course, there was plenty of last minute drama, as several of our runners had to drop out in the week before the race because of injury or work commitments. Our captain, Dan Daley, was asking every master's runner he knows to join us as the last minute. Somehow he pulled it together. And I owe a debt of gratitude to Ray Hecker from my Elmhurst Running club for jumping in at the last minute to fill a spot. He not only ran better than he predicted, but also proved quite the photographer and gets credit for the picture above of me finishing my first leg.
My experience in these relays is that I usually run the first leg really fast, because I have so much nervous energy built up. That was the case this time as well. I thought I was going to die after my first mile. But I was forced to slow down after about three miles when I had to stop for traffic when I had to wait for a green light crossing a major road.
But we were all ahead of our projected pace for the first leg. The second leg hit during the timeI would normally be at work during the 10:00 news. So I was wide awake. I was running on a path near Milwaukee in pitch dark, with only a head lamp to light my way, but lots of red lights indicating other runners ahead of me. The teams start according to projected pace. The slower teams start earlier, so everyone finished at close to the same time. So faster teams tend to pass a lot of other slower teams along the way. For us they served as targets, as I passed about ten of them along my 4.4 mile leg.
Then came the dreaded third and final leg. As the race moves along, most of us spend less time stretching and warming up before our legs. By the time I got the bracelet after five in the morning near Racine, Wisconsin, I shook out my legs a few times and was off. Apparently it was not enough. After running the first two legs at about 7 minutes per mile pace, I struggled to run near 8 minute pace for the final leg. It was a beautiful leg, along the harbor, and the lake, and finishing on a nice path through the woods. Unfortunately, I missed a turn and added a little bit of distance to the leg before a runner behind me called out and got me back on course.
It was slow, but that it didn't dim the euphoria I felt finishing my final leg and being able to relax and cheer on my teammates without preparation for my next leg constantly on my mind. I ran the second leg of our relay team. This was the first time I got a chance to ride in the first van as one of the beginning legs. Every other time I've done a relay like this, I've been one of the final runners, so you end up waiting a long time to run, and trying to save up your energy.
It was fun being done early. I got to enjoy some of the sights, like Tigger and Pooh cheering runners at one of the exchange points. But one of our early runners, Dave Miller, finished his third leg and was recruited to run a fourth for an injured runner in the second van. We were all grateful he was willing to do it so none of us had to!
We crossed the line at Montrose beach just before one o'clock on Saturday, running 196 miles in a little less than 24 hours. As I write this, I'm not sure of our finishing place in the master's division. We all hoped to place well in our age group, but as we finished our long day of running, we were all a little too exhausted and giddy to care much.
Another successful relay, and another round of memories to add to the books! Thanks guys!
See you on the roads!
It was such an awesome experience, this was my first time and I'm hooked! We were down two runners, thst 4th leg killed me! Congrats to your team!!
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Posted by: Kimberly Laczniak | June 12, 2011 at 10:14 PM