No, that title's not in reference to Ragnarok, the Norse mythological apocalypse, but to the epic running event this last weekend that's finally brought me out of my blogging drought.
Ragnar Relays are a series of 24-hour races all around the country, where twelve
crazy dedicated individuals form a team and take turns running continuously over the course of a whole day, for a total distance of around 200 miles. As one of the biggest tests you can challenge yourself to as a runner, I've wanted to do a Ragnar for a little while now, but as you may well imagine, they're something of a nightmare to organize -- the sheer logistics of organizing twelve people, leapfrog-transportation for them all, and a slew of other things has kept me away for a while.
As luck would have it, though, one of my good friends from school texted me a few months ago and said she was on a Ragnar team in need of an extra man, so natch', I jumped at it!
 |
| The Dirty Dozen, pre-race |
 |
| My friend Karina, about to lead our team off on the first leg. They never mentioned this kind of stuff in detective fiction class! |
 |
| Our team name was Zeta Theta Theta Mu --or just call us Z.O.O.M. for short! |
 |
| These legs are about to run from Hull, MA, just outside Boston, all the way to the very tip of Cape Cod in Provincetown, if you can believe it |
 |
| The beach bums of van #2 are only this energetic because we still hadn't embarked on our turn yet |
 |
| Also running this year was Lowell Sun reporter and speed demon extraordinaire (and fresh off a blistering Boston Marathon performance to boot), Rick Sobey. Rick and I shared the same legs of the course -- I'm just glad we didn't share the same pace, or I'd be typing this with an oxygen mask! |
 |
| The side of our van, helpfully reminding me of the order of our legs so I wouldn't need to keep track of such higher brain functioning |
A van would drive to a scheduled "transition zone," one of us would meet the runner finishing his or her leg within a designated area, and then the van would leapfrog to the
next transition zone, to repeat the process all over again, three times for twelve runners. I had signed on to take almost 22 miles total, with a 10-mile run at 5:30pm, a 5.5-mile run at 2:00am, and a 10k run at 9:15am. Each of those on its own didn't seem too intimidating, but together, and with hours placed between them (during which time it'd be easy for my legs to stiffen up while crammed into the back of a van), I knew this was going to be a challenge right from the outset.
 |
| My first 10 miles near the coast were hot and muggy, but I managed to finish before the deluge that began soon afterwards and lasted long into the night. I seized my opportunity in the nice weather to represent everyone's favorite wall-crawler |
 |
| Hidden in the darkness here are DOZENS of bananas, granola bars, every imaginable running aid you could think of, and several bags of increasingly-smelly laundry. It may not have been glamorous, but it was a lot of fun, besides being a fantastic crucible to make some friends with! |
 |
| The Ragnar powers that be dictated that every nighttime runner had to be equipped with a high-visibility vest, blinker, and coal-miner-esque headlamp to ensure any late-night drivers would see us coming a mile off. Having never really done a night run like that before, this was one of the most memorable parts of the whole experience for me |
 |
| After a masterclass in hand-offs, Karina's OFF!! |
 |
| Our van crew literally opened a diner in Orleans. The looks of these sleep-deprived runners about to scarf down some delicious diner fare in advance of their final leg a few hours afterwards actually prompted our waitress to ask at one point "Are you guys ok?" |
 |
| Breakfast eaten, we're rallied and ready to bring it home! |
 |
| Captain America's all about peace and freedom |
 |
| Despite a hard 40% chance that I was going to see breakfast again while running, I managed to power through the final 10k and was greeted with this as my finish line for a reward |
 |
200(ish) miles later, the new brothers and sisters of Z.O.O.M. have some nice hardware to show off.
"TO-GA! TO-GA! TO-GA! TO-GA!" |
 |
| A studious pair of scholarly-type Holy Cross alumni |
This was easily one of the craziest things I've ever done, but it was a BLAST, and was, in a word,
EPIC. My deepest thanks to everyone who made this the adventure that it was - it's sort of amazing to me that I'd only known one person in the group before we set off, considering how close we became in just a short amount of time. I'll stop now before I get any more schlocky, but I'll end with saying that, although this was my first Ragnar, it definitely won't be my last. I'll be ready to lace 'em up the next time one of these comes round again, no doubt.
 |
| Like the man said: "I could do this all day!" |
