Ragnar Relay - Great River

I'm wearing my standard red racing shirt.

I ran the Great River Relay for the third year in a row. This year was the 4th year of the race. The start was changed to Winona from LaCrosse and the finish was at Boom Island, Minneapolis. The route is up the Wisconsin side of the river to Stillwater and then down the MN side and over to St. Paul and up the river to Minneapolis.

You can search for other blogs that give very detailed accounts of the race. I don't feel like typing very much today so mine will be relatively short.

There were 216 teams that finished. Most were 12-person teams but several were ultra teams of 6 runners. Based on the team's estimated average pace, starting times were assigned from 7am to 4pm. I was on a 3pm team as were 9 other teams. 5 teams started at 4pm. There were no 2pm teams so you may see how this is going.... We started with other teams that were mostly faster than we were. A couple of teams were slower. The fast runners got ahead of us quickly and all the other teams had at least a 2 hour head start. The effect of this is that we were essentially running alone. It wasn't until the next morning when we were starting to catch earlier teams. I run faster when I'm chasing someone and it was my third leg when I finally saw a runner in front of me. I got so excited that I started running faster (sub-7:00 pace) and blew by the gal like she was standing still. A half a mile later I was done for the race. 18.9 miles total.

We finished 21/216 teams with a 7:41 average pace vs our 7:45 pace prediction. We were right on target! Way to go team!

I managed to charge my Garmin before I left for the race and recorded my runs: Leg 2, Leg 14, and Leg 26.

I had a great time with my friends and although I slept for only 5 minutes total, I managed to stay awake until 8pm Saturday night and can't wait to run it again next year.

Next year I'll be running slower as I want to run it as an ultra team. Last year at the race I told my friends to never let me run it as an ultra. Well, I've changed my mind. FYI - this year the 6 ultra runners each ran these totals: 35.7, 31.4, 40.3, 32.3, 27.8, 25.5.

NONE of my running friends have switched over to thinking of running this as an ultra but I have a year to work on them. :-) Even if I convince a few of them, I'm sure to have openings on my team. Keep me in mind if you are interested in running with me next year.

--Mark

Ragnar Relay - Great River - this Friday 8/21

Next race coming up is the Great River Relay. Third year for me and this year the start was changed from LaCrosse to Winona. Twelve runners per team and a 195 miles to cover. This year we plan to average a 7:45 pace and we have a chance if the weather is reasonable. The only thing working against us is that one of our runners had to drop due to a bad knee so we have one Van with only 5 runners.

Anyone out there up for the Fun and Challenge of joining my team for this race? Let me know. We (both Vans) are meeting in Woodbury at 11am Friday to head out to the start. My team has a 3pm start time so there will be 200+ teams in front of us, giving us plenty of runners to pass. :-)

--Mark

Ragnar Relay, Great River (finished)

This was my second year of running the Great River Relay. I'll be reserving this weekend for the relay for years to come! It was another great experience. I won't say much here but I really love running up a 2-mile long, 450 foot high hill at midnight! You really have to experience it.

The 12-person team I was on, Live to Win, did not win but we were 20th overall out of 168. We finished in 27:18:12 for a 7:57 average pace over 205.8 miles! Yet another race I look forward to running next year.

--Mark

Ragnar Relay, Great River

This coming Friday and Saturday is the Great River Relay. I'm on a twelve person team and each of us will run 3 legs to cover the 205 mile race. We start in LaCrosse, WI at noon on Thursday and finish at Boom Island in Minneapolis 28 or 29 hours later. This year our team name is: Live to Win. This is the third year of the relay. The first year there were 30+ teams, 100 last year, and 180 this year. My posting from last year is here.

--Mark