Ragnar Great River Relay

After hearing from two different people in the same week that they actually read this thing, I thought I might make an update, and lucky for me I have something substantial to write about. 

This weekend eleven other people and I ran from Winona, MN to Minneapolis MN, a distance of 193 miles for the Ragnar Great River Relay.  It was without a doubt the most fun I’ve ever packed into a single weekend.  The race begins in Winona, crosses into Wisconsin,  and follows the Mississippi river upstream to Minneapolis.  Each person runs three of the race’s thirty-six legs. 

I first found out about it a few months ago when my high school cross country coach contacted me and told me about this crazy relay race and asked me if I would be part of the team.  I’d been training hard and felt like I was in good enough shape, so I signed on.  The team ended up being composed mostly of people that I haven’t seen since high school and a few other friends of friends who I met for the first time Thursday night before the race began. 
My section was relatively short, coming in at about 12.8 miles.  Due to some poorly marked sections of the course I got a little lost on the third leg and boosted that distance to around 13.5 miles.  I found myself running down an onramp thinking, “This can’t be right.”  As a cement mixer sped uphill toward me, my suspicions were confirmed.  I lept the concrete guard rail and dropped about ten feet to the ground, crossed a train yard, tore through a little brush, found the Mississippi river, and kept it on my left until I found a foot path.  Eventually I popped out just ahead of the exchange.  My teammates were surprised to see me run from the opposite direction to make the hand-off.  All in all it cost us about five minutes of time, which wasn’t so bad considering we still finished three hours ahead of our projected end time. 

I feel so fortunate to have been able to run with such an amazing group of people.  Throughout the race, even late at night, we cheered on one another, as well as runners from competing teams.  I can’t say that any team I saw had so much spirit or enthusiasm, and I look forward to running this race again next year with the same group. 

Here’s to friends, some old, some new, all incredible.  I’m going to miss you until I see you again.