Ragnar Recap, Renee's Rendition

And we had fun, fun, fun
'til our Tommy drove the 'burban away ...
(sung to Fun, Fun, Fun by the Beach Boys. Tom Williamson provided his Suburban as our vehicle)
What a great event! Even with the massive sleep deprivation, I'd do it again in a Ragnar minute. Lionel Cheng provided a great write-up of the event on his blog. He's also got lots of wonderful, creative photos to share. I will try to provide a recap from my point of view without reiterating what Lionel has on his blog...

Here's a bit of a Billy Joel song that came to Tom Williamson's mind during the event:

But I made it home alive

So you said that only proves that I'm insane

You may be right, I may be crazy

But it just may be a lunatic you're looking for

Turn out the light, don't try to save me

You may be wrong for all I know, but you may be right ...

(You May Be Right --Billy Joel)

Were we crazy to attempt to run as a team from LaCrosse, WI to Minneapolis, MN? Without a guaranteed place to slumber other than our seats in the car? Without a shower when we really wanted and needed one? Eating granola bars and bananas and whatever else we brought along in our food bags? Perhaps. But we wanted to find out for sure. And the only way to find that out was to give it a try. So we signed up. I was 'runner 9' with runs of 7.9 miles, 5 miles and 4.5 on my 'race card'. We weren't doing this for time, but I wanted to get in a good workout so I told Mike Schmitt, our team captain, my goal pace overall was 8:00 minute miles. And I wanted to keep that promise.

Our vehicle (Judy Weller-runner 7, Suzanne LaPalm-8, Renee Saxman-9, Paul Christian-10, Tom Williamson-11, Lionel Cheng-12) started our adventure just north of Fountain City, WI.

When we disembarked from the cool and comfortable Suburban, a blast of very warm, humid, windy air hit us. We knew pretty quickly that hydration was going to be key during the first several legs of this running experience. I'd heard the forecast and was concerned even before we'd left Rochester. We quickly met up with Reggie Oeltjen and team, also from Rochester.



They were at exchange 6 waiting for their runner to come in. We didn't have our registration materials from the other van, so the park service was kind enough to let us into the park anyway where we made our way to the rest area and sampled Prolytes (electrolytes), Myomed (pain relief gel) and something that looked all-to-much like bird seed (amaranth seeds, mixed with dried fruit) but tasted OK. We were a little nervous trying all these new things right before a race. A short time later, we left the park and made our way back to highway 35 to wait for our (van 2's) first exchange.

Laura Lenz from van 1 cruised into the exchange zone looking pretty warm and handed off the wristband to Judy. I'd heard some folks in the crowd mention that the exchange wasn't quite in the right place, so the next leg would be 2.5 miles rather than the projected 3 miles. I'm not sure whether Laura or Suzanne, who followed Judy, got to enjoy the extra half mile. :-) Both Laura and Lin said it was 'really hot out there' and 'hydrate, hydrate, hydrate'. This wasn't making me feel any better. I wanted to run 8:00 my pace if that was possible and plausible given the weather.


The event provides no support on the course other than signage and portable toilets. The sponsors had Prolytes and Myomed at the major exchanges (multiples of 6). So all the support was up to the teams. I carried my waist pack/water bottle and was very thankful that I did. My first leg commenced at 4:57 pm and it was still plenty hot and humid. The van would leapfrog the runners, going on down the road after the runner started, stopping and asking how you were doing, then going on for more of the same. I asked for a bag of ice two times during that first leg. I dumped some of it in my water bottle (which I also refilled at least once), mopped my forehead with the bag then tucked it into my sports bra for some cooling effect. It eventually melted and I stopped and got a refill. It helped A LOT as I was able to finish that run in 1:04:14. I passed 10 or 11 runners, and didn't get passed. I was very pleased. And wet as a dish rag. I felt bad having to get in the vehicle in such condition, but I mopped off as best as I could, sat on a beach towel, and then we were off to leap frog runner 10, Paul Christian.

Pictured below is Tom Williamson, the first in our group to run after 7 pm, after which time reflective gear was required.


One thing that really deserves mention is Lionel's first run (7.9 miles). It was dark, and about as soon as Lionel took off, the heavens opened up and it started raining. Hard. It let up, but then started up again. And again. Poor guy. We really felt bad for him. But he's so good-natured that he didn't let on how miserable it was out there. He said he thinks he swallowed about 10 bugs. The next morning, Lionel had perhaps the most profoundly funny quote from the whole trip: "And after dinner, I coughed up a (bug) wing." We just laughed. Poor guy--had to eat bugs. Anyway, after Lionel handed off to Todd, we ate a late dinner at Gelly's in Stockholm, WI (we were starving by then--10 or 11 pm I think). In the parking area who should we run into but Andy Shulha who was running with another team that had parked right next to us! We made plans to meet up with him after the event and get him back to Rochester in one of our vehicles.

After dinner, we drove 30+ miles to Prescott, WI where we knew that showers ($3) and possibly some sleep?($2) would be waiting at the high school. The (communal) shower felt wonderful. (One thing about Ragnar: if you're a highly regimented and/or modest person, this might be the event for you. You really have to be able to go with the flow on this one ...!) It was nice to be provided a towel, but it was about the size of a hand towel and covered little of nothing on this body! Sleep was supposedly available on a wrestling mat in one of two gyms or a hallway, the first two of which were full. We managed to find some random spots in the large gym and laid down to rest, and sleep if we were lucky. The school and gym were not air conditioned. The doors to the brightly lit hallway were opened and banged shut about every 30 seconds and people were using flashlights (some of which were shone right in my face) in the dark gym looking for sleeping spots. I'll be optimistic and say that I got 15 minutes sleep. I know I looked at the time on my cell phone well after 1 and we got a call to depart for the exchange point before 2:00 am.

After rousting myself out of my sleepy stupor, we made our way to the exchange point which was just on the edge of the high school property. We noticed people sleeping outside, right on the high school track. It was dark, but it was probably an all weather track, and not cinders. ;-) People were trying to grap some sleep wherever and whenever they could. Again, Laura was the one to provide the hand off to van 2. She seemed to really enjoy her run in the dark, save for the drunk who ran up behind her then off into a field or yard only to be caught by the cops! We leapfrogged Judy and Suzanne, then it was my turn. My course was a straight shot down highway 35. It was 4:11 am and still very, very dark with no lights on the road, but the stars were out and the temperature and humidity much lower. Pete Schommer had mentioned that the night run was the best run--he was right. Nothing but me, my headlamp and LED, the road, and the van driving by with cheering teammates a couple of times. It was fantastic. Peace. Quiet. Loved every second of it. Even climbing 5 hills wasn't all that bad after the miserable conditions of the first run. This leg made the event seem memorable, as we never have road races in the pitch black early mornings. Definitely a run to remember. One weird sighting ... a female doing a back bend right on the road, right in the middle of the night. Hmmm...

Lionel had a good run this time, enjoying a sunrise and run down the hill and across the lift bridge into Stillwater.

Poor Lionel ... at the end of his run, after cruising down that nice long hill into the exchange zone I had to tell him that there was a delay in the other van getting there and he'd have to wait in the chute until they got there. It seemed like Lionel was getting more than has fair share of bad breaks here! After van 1 arrived in Stillwater, van 2 was off to Suzanne's home for clean-up and some blueberry pancakes, scrambled eggs, and juice/coffee compliments of her fiance Pete. Thank you, Pete! What a wonderful treat. Then some of us even caught a few more minutes of shut-eye (I probably got about 10-15 minutes once again).

We met up for another van-to-van exchange at a park in Lake Elmo where we encountered Kevin Torgerson from team "Bad Yoga" ...

and Madison and Jodi Bates ...


My last run was 4.5 miles along Shepard Road, part of the Securian Frozen Half Marathon course along the river. The temps were more pleasant on Saturday than Friday, but I ran into a stiff headwind the whole way which was very discouraging. Also, the signage on the last legs seems to have gotten sparse. There were no '1 mile to go' signs for us and there was a point where I could have veered left or right on the path along Shepard Road and there was a runner ahead of me on both those paths. But I remembered the map indicated the van route was the same as the run route and as the left option would have continued right along the river, I chose to stay close to Shepard Road. Luckily, this was the right choice. I was tired during this run. I'd been treating all of them somewhat like races so I was essentially running my third race in 24 hours. So I was pleased with my 34:14 finish time, even though it was a couple tenths short of 4.5 miles. I was happy to let Paul, or whoever, run those for me. :-) During Judy's final run, we met up with a guy who missed the turn into the Lake Elmo park and was now 4 miles into the next run, so he ended up turning around and running back, for an extra 8 miles. ;-(

Then it was time to wait for Lionel at the finish line for our group run into the finish for our finishers medals.

In the finish area we saw RTC member Brandon Bungum (right)!

Thank you from van 2 for Karen Williamson who not only volunteered in Alma, WI at an exchange point, but then served as our driver for the remainder of the run. She wins the 'Most Excellent Chauffeur Award'. Tom wins the 'Best Sleeper Award'. Judy and Suzanne win the 'Most Busted' award for leaving the 'beer tent' with their beer. Twice. John Shonyo, also a volunteer for our team, wins the 'Most Interesting Bystander' Award ...

After a late lunch/early dinner at Longfellow Grille in South Minneapolis, it was time to bid farewell to Ragnar 2008 and head back to Rochester and try to catch some of the men's marathon. After I cleaned up and sat down to watch, Ted called to me from the office. 'I need your help in here.' He'd super-glued two fingers together. Again. Previously, acetone nail polish remover would do the trick, but this time that didn't work. He eventually cut through them with a razor blade. I couldn't watch. Luckily, no blood was shed. :-)

Well, I'm going to bring this post to a close. Here's my slideshow.



TTFN.