Tennessee?s Ragnar Relay

Oh my goodness.  What a weekend!!!  The weekend was a total whirlwind, I feel like the last 4 days completely ran together.  Running 195 miles in 31 hours with hardly any sleep will do that to ya!  Tennessee?s Ragnar Relay ran from Chattanooga to Nashville this weekend.  While there are many other Ragnar Relays in various other states, this was Tennessee?s inaugural race.  I was thrilled to be a part of one of the 160 teams that participated.  And to top it off  I had a total blast!! 

I sure came home exhausted though!!

Last Wednesday, I left off trying to figure out how in the world to pack for such an event?..4 runs in less than 24 hours, day time running, night running, and various weather conditions.  My final solution was to just over pack.  ;)  I also discovered that rolling clothes when packing is much more space efficient than folding clothes, allowing me to cram even more stuff in my suitcase! 

My other concern before leaving for Ragnar was food.  I mean, if you haven’t noticed, I’m a girl that likes to eat! 

I ended up packing lots of healthy snacks:

I recently received Nature Pride bread from being a Foodbuzz Featured Publisher and found Ragnar as the perfect reason to use it!

Along with Barney crunchy almond Butter and this new-to-me Crofter’s fruit spread, I was able to snack on healthy PB&J sandwiches, and run sufficiently fueled during my 4 Ragnar runs.

Our team, the Hipbillies, was made-up of 11 total runners from the gym I work and my dad [far right] who went as a van driver.  Many of my Hipbillie team mates I just met last Tuesday night at our final Ragnar meeting.  However, with a love of running among us all, none of us had a difficult time getting along or striking up conversations over the course of the weekend.

The Hipbillies headed out Thursday afternoon in 2 vans, that were overloaded with running clothes, tennis shoes, and food.  Our 3 hours trip to Chattanooga passed quickly as we all got to know each other better. 

We carb loaded Thursday night for dinner at T.G.I. Fridays and ice cream at Ben & Jerry?s.

We were up by about 5:15 Friday morning??let the whirlwind weekend begin!  We received race packets, went through safety meetings/briefings, and decorated our vans.

Finally, it was our time to start running!  Our first runner, Jeremy, was ready to take off and start off our Ragnar Relay journey!

Our team was split up into the 2 vans??.runners 1-6 in van 1 and runners 7-12 in van 2, each person responsible for running 3 legs of the race.  We were down a runner [hence only 11 people on my team] so 3 of us ran 1 extra leg of the race??therefore, I ended up running 4 times in less than 24 hours.  Ragnar is organized so that everyone runs in order, 1-12, and then you repeat runners 1-12 again 2 more times.  So while van 1 [runners 1-6] is running, van 2 can rest, eat, etc.  Then while van 2 is running, van 1?s runners get to rest and eat.  It worked out pretty well, allowing us to get small doses of sleep and eat more normal foods other than just granola bars in the van.  I was runner 2.  Therefore, after Jeremy took off on his first 5 or so mile leg, I started getting ready for my first run. 

We followed along side of Jeremy to cheer him on and offer him water when needed, then went up ahead to exchange point 1 so that I would be ready when Jeremy got there to pass the baton [slap bracelet] off to me.

My first run was 6.2 miles and was run at 8:30 in the morning.

The remaining 9 runners on the HipBillie team had to run, along with Jeremy running again, before it was time for me to complete my second leg of Ragnar.

My second run was around 6:30 or so Thursday evening.  My third run at 3:30 Friday morning, and my 4th run [my extra leg since we were down a runner] was at around 7:30 Friday morning. 

On my first and second runs, I felt good.  My third run I remember feeling tired, but it was 3:30 in the morning.  However, I still had a decent time for that 3rd run.  I’m contributing it to running in the dark which was slightly freaky.  Even though I was wearing a head lamp, reflective lamp, and butt light, when you are on a back country, 2 lane, no-street light farm road, that head lamp only shines about 5 feet in front of you.  Eeek!  Run faster Emily!!!    By my 4th run, I was dead!!!  Those last 5.5 miles couldn’t go by fast enough!!  I ended up running almost 23 miles totals, in less than 24 hours, on about 2.5 hours of sleep! 

After my van was done with all of their running, we ate!!!!

Best pancakes I’ve ever eaten! 

After eating, we headed to the finish line in downtown Nashville.

The team re-connected and waited on our last runner to come in.

When Scott took the last turn and began heading toward the finish line, we joined right in behind him and crossed the finish line together.  It was awesome!!!

A huge race, earned us a huge medal!!!!

Way to go HipBillies!!!  195 miles in 31 hours……I’m soooo proud of you all!!

I loved sharing this experience with 10 other awesome runners and now friends, but I loved even more sharing this experience with my Dad!

While my dad might not have run in Ragnar….he sure did earn a medal and a team shirt!!  Being a team driver was no easy task…..I’m pretty sure he got even less sleep than all us runners! 

Running 195 miles in less than 2 days with no sleep is pretty crazy, but it is an awesome experience that I would definitely do again!!!  We’re already planning next years event!!  And if you ever get the opportunity to run a Ragnar…..do it!!!!

Would you do a Ragnar Relay after reading about my experience?

What’s the craziest race event you’ve ever participated in?