2011 Tennessee Ragnar Relay

I think the last time I posted about a Ragnar Relay, I used 3 full posts. Don’t worry, I’m not going to do that this time. After all, I didn’t really run this one. I was just the captain. As most of my loyal readers know, I’ve dedicated my life to bringing runners together for social running opportunities. While I’m always open to suggestions, the thing that has worked the best is getting a bunch of strangers together to run relay style for 200 miles in some of the most beautiful places in the country.

The 2011 Tennessee Ragnar Relay was my first such attempt and it couldn’t have gone much better. I announced that the Digital Running Club was putting a team together way back in June. Interest was slow at first and I started to doubt whether I might pull this off. By the time we reached the early bird deadline for the relay, we had 5 people signed up for the team. I had also promised all those people their money back if the team didn’t fill up by October 1st.

So, I took a very deep breath when I forked over a non-refundable $1200 to register the team for the relay. Fortunately, interest grew after the early bird deadline and the team filled with all 12 members only a day or two in to September. Now, you might think that putting a team of 12 strangers together could go very wrong. I was worried, for instance, that one or more of the team members would not show up. I figured that if that happened, I would just fill in. Then, of course there’s always the worry about how people will get along. Would there be drama in the vans?

Everyone got along great and they all became fast friends. Here’s how it all turned out in video form:

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If you like that video, please, please, please vote for it by clicking HERE, scrolling past the sign up form (you don’t need to fill it out) and clicking the little “vote” square underneath our video. We’ve got a solid hold on second place, but we need to catch the Trunk Monkeys for the win. If we win, we’ll get a free entry into next year’s relay and I’ll sweat much less when I register the team. Go. Do it now. You can come back and read the rest of this later.

I did manage to get an 8.2 mile run in during the middle of the night. I decided I was going to escort John, our fastest runner through his nighttime leg. I followed him closely for about a mile and then he turned it up and dropped me. He ran that leg in just over 53 minutes. I think I squeaked under and hour. If it had been my leg, I would have been happy with it, but it’s always pretty sobering when they guy you’re pretending to escort comes in 8 minutes before you.

It was funny later when I heard people talking about the “young sleeveless guy” passing everybody on that leg. Sleeveless me passed 6 people. Fully sleeved John passed 11. Clearly they did not even see him run by.

I’m so excited that this relay went off so well, though I did learn a few things for our next relay. The Florida Keys Ragnar Relay team is full and it’s only a month and a half away from lining up at the starting line in Miami! We’re headed to Arizona for the Del Sol Ragnar Relay in February and we’ve still got a few spots left on that team, so be sure to sign up if you’re interested.

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