RAGNAR RELAY

What has 24 legs, 8 wheels, a royal blue wristband, 12 medals and a very funky smell? Of course! A running relay team at the end of its journey. Recently, I spent a July long weekend along the coast of Washington State as part of a Ragnar Northwest Passage Relay Team. Our goal was to run from Blaine, a small town on the Canadian border, to Langley, north of Seattle (on Whidbey Island), about 189 miles in and around the bays and straits of the Pacific coast.

Relays are becoming increasingly popular with runners. Generally, the rules are that the teams are classified by their make-up, e.g., a Male Masters team would be an all male team, each member over age 40. I ran in on a Mixed-Open team, meaning we had 6 women and 6 men of varying ages. This proved to be the most competitive category, but that's an aside--this event is all about the adventure and the challenge. (And we did win an award of a different kind--the Nom de Plume, for best team name.)

We flew into the Seattle airport from various points across the country (Illinois, NC, California, D.C., Philly) to converge at the condo of our one Seattle based team member. We rented two vans, loaded them up with our gear and provisions and headed north late on a Thursday afternoon.

After a quick dinner and grocery stop, we rolled into the Anchor Inn in Blaine early enough to catch a spectacular sunset over the Pacific. Several of us took individual strolls along the shore; an impromptu action compelled not only by the beauty of the setting, but also by the realization that the next couple of days would be utterly lacking in solitude or privacy.

We regrouped in the parking lot of the Inn to go over rules, last minute details and to decorate our van. In addition to running, an important component of relays is team spirit . Certain amounts of "trash talk" are inevitable. Some teams keep track of "road kill" on the side of their vans, which means the number of runners passed during the individual legs of the race.

The rules are that each team member runs three distinct legs in a race that takes roughly 24-hours to complete. There are 36 legs in the course. The legs, ranging between 3 and 9 miles, vary in difficulty. Overall, the relay race is physically demanding, but legs vary in difficulty. My legs were labeled hard, moderate and moderate while another teammate had 3 hard legs and a third had 3 easy legs. This relay format makes the Northwest Passage an accessible race for beginners yet challenging enough for the more competitive runner.

Think of the race as consisting of 6 segments. Each team is allowed two support vehicles with 6 runners in each. Each vehicle covers 3 segments. The first (Van #1) drops off the first runner, then drives ahead a few miles where the 5 teammates cheer the runner on, and provides water, snacks, and support. That vehicle continues ahead to the first exchange point to drop off the second runner, and pick up the first runner when that leg is complete. It repeats this pattern for six legs until handing off to the second vehicle (Van #2). This leapfrogging pattern continues all the way to the finish line. One van is thus active for 6 legs while the other has time to regroup, then it goes into action. You can see why the motto of the race is "Run. Drive. Sleep? Repeat."

I was in Van 1 with 2 other women and 3 men; in the Mixed Open division that equal split is required. Runners must run in their assigned order in all 3 segments. Van 1 covered legs 1-6, 13-18 and 25-30 while Van 2 took 7-12, 19-24 and 31-36. I ran anchor for Van 1, so my legs were the 6th, 18th, and 30th. Our team started the race at 11 am on Friday. (Not all teams start at once; we had to predict our finish time and were staggered accordingly, so that slower teams started earlier in the day.) I rode along in the van starting at 11, cheering, handing out food and water, providing support until 3:30 pm. Finally, I get to run! Leg 6, a 7.7mile stretch through the city of Bellingham, presented me with a few stoplights I had to wait at due to heavy traffic and a number of tricky turns. My van was waiting for me at every spot where I might have gone off course, cheering me on and pointing me in the correct direction. Motivated to "get 'er done for dinner," I handed the blue relay bracelet to Katy, runner #1 in Van 2 about 56 minutes later. Van 2 was in control and we had the luxury of several hours off, our only charge to get to exchange 13 before Dave, my anchor counterpart in Van 2, finished leg 12.

Friday had turned out sunny and hot so we opted for the shower tents erected at the park, even though they were cold water only. We then headed south toward the next major exchange in search of a friendly spot for dinner. We found a local family restaurant and settled in for a real meal. As we were finishing, the cell phone rang. "Where are you guys?" exclaimed our Team Captain from Van 2. "We've been waiting for you for 10 minutes!" Gak! We choked...for a split second. If you remember "The Odd Couple," our van had already established itself as the Oscar to Van 2's very definite Felix personality. We cracked up, as Van 2 never would have waited for 10 minutes had we been AWOL. Indeed, they were calling to alert us to their ETA into the exchange, giving us plenty of time to arrive and have our runner 1 ready for his second leg of the relay.

We went back into action just before 8 p.m. There are hard and fast rules about wearing lights and reflective gear before dusk and after sunrise so we suited up our guy and sent him out into a summer evening that promised great running, and delivered. We loved the cooler temperatures and reveled in another sunset to remember as a full or nearly full moon shone down. By the time our 4th runner started her 4-mile leg, the clouds had started to darken the skies. At night, you are allowed to pace your runner so long as you are properly clad with a safety vest and have a light. Abby needed her inhaler, so I hopped out to deliver it and run with her for a while through Mt. Vernon. My own leg 18 started at 10:35 pm. It had darkened and we were now in the country, so my van made several stops along my 5.8 leg to let me know they were there and to insure I stayed on course. Several other vans were out doing the same for their runners, so I was able to keep up a good pace and greeted Katy in about 42 minutes. Two segments down, one to go for Van 1. This was the half-way point of the relay.

Even though warm showers were available at this exchange, we eschewed them in pursuit of sleep. I hopped in the van; we headed out to the start of leg 25, just beyond Deception Pass. Brushing our teeth with water from our water bottles, we staked out territory in the van, set the alarm for 2:30 am and tried to get at least rest, if not sleep. From the snoring that developed, some of us were successful. Getting up to prepare for our 3rd and last segment was the hardest part of the adventure. We were tired, stiff, and chilly and shared the apprehension of our runner. This leg was nearly 8 miles long and was graded "hard" as it included some killer hills. It was now really dark. The van was really smelly. We got our motivation going, started planning what we would do in a few hours when we would make the final handoff to Van 2. As we stood awaiting Dave to come flying in (he's fast) on his downhill approach, we chatted with our teammates from Van 2, who'd arrived and traded gibes with the other teams. By now, several were very familiar as we passed and were passed by them along our legs. Teams have to have names and are encouraged to have identifiers; we called ourselves "Postfontaine" and had green and yellow jerseys ala Pre's Oregon one.

Before long, we, or at least, Todd, our runner 1 was off toiling up the dark hill. We bade Van 2 goodnight, wished them some shuteye, and set out to see to our final legs and watch the sun rise. The sky was already lightening with the dawn as runners 2 and 3 completed rather short runs. Abby remembered to use her inhaler, leaped out of the van with a determined look for her last 4 miler and passed 4 people before she relinquished the blue bracelet for the last time. Leg 5 was another long, hilly one, leaving me plenty of time to get work out any kinks and be ready for my shortest leg, a 5.2 rolling route along Penn Cove in Puget Sound. I grabbed the bracelet at 7:20 am, focused on the great views and fresh air and hit the exchange in well under 40 minutes.

Relief! Our van's work was finished! We took showers (cold again) and headed as a unit for coffee. There is abundant good coffee in the greater Seattle area and never was it so deeply appreciated. Ahhh. Next up, according to our plans made at 3 am when we'd started our shift, was breakfast. We were too wound up with adrenalin, endorphins and power bars, however, to do anything other than hop back in the van and go follow along behind Van 2 to cheer our teammates on in their final legs to the ultimate finish. We caught up with them in the middle of their runner 3's last stint. Our team captain was running the 4th leg in this group, and we had lots of support --along with other things (recall we were the goofier van, equipped with noisemakers, water balloons, etc.)--for him as he tore through a very fast 6 miles. Runner 5 got a fair bit of teasing as she moved through her 3.9 miles, as she (at the Captain's bidding) was calling us regularly when we were the active van to get our split times, tell us their progress, and provide other advice. Finally, she handed off to Dave, who had two runners not too far out in front of him. Of course, they could have started at different times or might have been in a different category, but who cares? We got fired up and cheered on Dave, urging him to pass these guys (recall "road kill"). At mile 2, he was less than 3 minutes behind the closest runner, with 4.3 miles to go. By mile 4.5, he'd passed him and was closing in on the next guy, who looked weak. We had to get to the finish and park the vans, so we left him, waving a bottle of champagne as a final motivator.

In less than 15 minutes, we happy 12 sprinted over the finish line, arms high, exuberant, elated and exhausted. Our finishing time was 25 hours, 22 minutes and 56 seconds.
We placed 14th out of 58 teams, about 4 hours and 10 minutes over the winner (21:11:25) and 8th out of 27 in our division. Interestingly, we were faster than all but two of the Men's Open Teams; the winner of that division came in at 25:05. (Third place was 25:39:50).

This was a unique experience that I'd recommend to any group of runners so long as they commit to the organization it takes to get the team to the race and ready to run, and of course, to the team itself. The challenge is not the distance you run, but the running and stopping and running again and oh, right, doing it while you are increasingly sleep-deprived.

There is another side to this event. Each Ragnar Relay race benefits Operation Kids and directly impacts children in that community (there are other relays in Utah, Arizona, and Minnesota-Wisconsin), each event gives back to the locality through Operation Kids. Operation Kids is a national children's charity dedicated to serving the needs of the Whole Child... their education, safety, environment, health and well being...by supporting a diverse community of effective, efficient and deserving children's charities.