Ragnar 2011  -  Feb 25th, 2011 5:08pm

Ahh Ragnar.  Familiar frenemy, sadistic side-kick, dastardly dorito?  This year, like last, a group of us from work (12 to be exact) decided to repress our memories and take part once again in the only race that challenges your sense of smell as much as your endurance.

Here's the rundown in case you missed my Pulitzer winning post about the Ragnar from last year.  Its a 200 mile relay race from Wickenburg to Mesa.  Each team is made up of 12 members split into 2 vans containing 6 human victims a piece.  A van drops off a runner, rushes to the next stop and when the previous runner arrives the next runner takes off.  Rinse lather repeat until all members of a van have run then the other van takes its turn.  This goes on until the smell in your van drives you mad, your legs stop working, or your last runner crosses the finish line.

Its funny how different this year was.  Mostly due to having survived it once before, but partly due to having 1 big cohesive team.  Last year about half our group kind of went their own direction.  There were several more conservative members that really just weren't on our same wavelength and while they had a good time, it definitely wasn't the crazy time that we had.  Unsurprisingly, all of us from Van 1 were running again: McCoy, Nemo, Scott, Cupp, even Meredith who we hadn't seen in a year!  New this time were Adam, Jeremy, Jessica, Dan, Sean and Noah.

It was obvious from our first team meeting we were in for a more streamlined experience.  We filled in all the new members on how the race would basically go.  We determined a solid team name E=MC Hammered and a completely absurd concept: Run the whole race with each of us wearing MC Hammer Pants and cross the finish line in coordinated U-Can't Touch This dancing style.

We couldn't find a van to rent this year so a few weeks after that meeting I found myself prepping for my first run in Jessica's family SUV about an hour or so outside of Wickenburg.  Last year I had trained hard for this race and I had hoped to do much better this go around.  Unfortunately I had been ill the last few months so I was only able to get in a handful of runs since the 10k a few months before. I was very nervous...

Over the course of the next day or three I realized that Ragnar isn't about surviving your runs or even physically finishing.  The truth is that most of us could get through 15 miles in 2 days and sleep in a van if we had to.  Its more about conquering exhaustion, learning not to freak out when you loose the keys to the car or leave your cellphone somewhere.  Its about how to cook hamburgers in a parking lot, how to laugh when your too tired to walk, how to catch an hour of sleep on a hard gym floor.  Its about the experience of running over a mountain in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere with only your ipod to keep you company.

This is the kind of experience people write books about, not blogs - it deserves as much.  I've had a little time to digest the experience and in the end I've decided that we won.  Not in some kindergarten "everyone gets a ribbon" kind of way, nor because we finished anywhere near the top (we actually finished near the end).  We won because no one gave up, no one stopped laughing, no one lashed out, no one walked away from that experience without knowing how amazing it was or how much fun and how strong everyone on that team was... if that sounds cliche, I think I'm ok with that for now.

For posterity (and for my van-mates) - here are our final times/stats for Van 2 this year:

Runner	Leg	Distance	Start	Time	Pace
-------------------Set 1-------------------
Robo (me)	7	4.5 miles	12:40 pm	46:00 min	10:13/mile
Dan	8	3.7 miles	1:26 pm	42:00 min	11.21/mile
Adam	9	9.2 miles	2:08 pm	83:00 min	9:01/mile
Meredith	10	8.4 miles	3:31 pm	76:00 min	9:02/mile
Nemo	11	5.4 miles	4:47 pm	58:00 min	8:44/mile
Jessica	12	5.9 miles	5:45 pm	67:00 min	11:21/mile
-------------------Set 2-------------------
Robo (me)	19	5 miles	1:12 am	46:00 min	9:12/mile
Dan	20	4.4 miles	1:58 am	55:00 min	12:30/mile
Adam	21	3.4 miles	2:53 am	30:00 min	8:49/mile
Meredith	22	4.3 miles	3:23 am	38:00 min	8:50/mile
Nemo	23	3.1 miles	4:01 am	33:00 min	10:38/mile
Jessica	24	4 miles	4:34 am	46:00 min	11:30/mile
-------------------Set 3-------------------
Robo (me)	31	3.5 miles	11:08 am	40:00 min	11:25/mile
Dan	32	3.5 miles	11:48 am	42:00 min	12:00/mile
Adam	33	4.2 miles	12:30 pm	35:00 min	8:20/mile
Meredith	34	3.8 miles	1:12 pm	31:00 min	8:15/mile
Nemo	35	6.1 miles	1:43 pm	67:00 min	11:00/mile
Jessica	36	4.7 miles	2:50 pm	??:00 min	??:??/mile