Michelle and I signed up for the Ragnar Relay – Great River race with others from the Cedar Valley Running Association. Well, Michelle signed up first and they ended up needing another guy so I had no choice but to accompany her. Ragner Relay is the idea of an overnight running event with 12-person teams covering designated legs over a spectacularly scenic stretch of rural roadways. The Great River version starts in Winona, WI (by La Crosse) and ends in Minneapolis, MN.
The total distance our team will cover is around 195 miles. Thankfully, our team is comprised of 12 runners who will run three legs each over the course of 24 hours. For example, my three legs will be about 7 miles each. I will first run at 3:30pm on Friday, again at 1:00am on Saturday, and for the last time around 8:00am on Saturday. It will take our team about 24 hours to finish the entire race, or noon on Friday to noon on Saturday. Sure, I have run 21 miles before but never in three stretches like this. It will definitely be interesting, especially running at night with a head light, reflective vest, and tail light.
Our team of 12 will travel in two vans of 6 people each. Sleeping might be an issue as each van of 6 people will have about 4 hrs between their legs. I will try to get in a quick nap but we’ll see with everything going on. The logistics for putting together this kind of events takes a lot of time and I’m glad we have a team captain who has experience. This Friday, we’ll get in a late night training run at 12:30am to get used to running late and in the dark. For anyone who has never run at night, it’s quite enjoyable. Very quiet and peaceful unless you run by a local watering hole.
More about the race when it gets closer…
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Hi,
I have read your blog about running and thought you might be interested in letting your readers know about a useful new app for Android phones. I have heard many complaints from friends who participate in the Ragnar Relays about how difficult it can be to track runner statistics and coordinate exchanges between multiple vans. Not only that, but they were surprised and frustrated to find that there were no suitable Android apps to address this need–only iPhone apps. I recently created Relay to respond to this need.
Relay allows for easy statistics tracking and coordination. 1. Enter the runners’ paces. 2. Enter the phone numbers of any devices you wish to link. 3. Press “Go!” It’s really that easy. Relay tracks the current running time, the projected running time, distance, elevation, and actual pace of each leg and each runner. Plus, it maps the full runner course and your current position, making it easy to find exchange locations without any hassle.
I have released Relay – So Cal (for the upcoming event on April 15-16) free of charge and only hope to get some good feedback on how to make this great tool even better for future events.
If you have any questions, check out the listing in the Android Market at https://market.android.com/details?id=com.relay.ragsocal.
Thanks,
–Trevor Lacey