We completed the 2011 Ragnar Relay Washington DC!
This was Nikki's second Ragnar (she did Ragnar Northwest Passage in 2008,) and Michael's first.
Ragnar Washington DC is part of the larger Ragnar Relay Series, there are 15 races around the country: www.ragnarrelay.com
Ragnar Washington DC is a 198 mile relay race, from Cumberland, Maryland to National Harbor in Washington DC. Teams consist of 12 runners, alternating running the 36 legs of the race.
Team Fortune Cookies (named for our team captains Will & Shelly Fortune) started at 6:30am on Friday, September 23rd and finished at 4:30pm on Saturday, September 24th, 2011.
Roughly 35 hours of racing included only 4 hours of sleep, which was partly on a highschool gym floor and later on a tarp in a field somewhere in suburban Maryland and one trip to Denny's at 3am (for dinner or breakfast...we weren't sure. Michael didn't really care as he slept through it.)
Unlike Northwest Passage, where Nikki did all of her runs during the daylight, we ran a lot of this race in the dark. Add in rural roads and terrible fog, and there was zero visibility for us while we ran at night. It was a bit scary and disorienting only being able to see the 3-foot radius that a headlamp illuminated, but it was an excellent adventure! Below is a picture of one of our runners at night...you can see how dark it was...
Poor Michael was assigned as Runner #3 (ok, he asked for it.) His first leg, #3, was a 7.8 mile run with a 1247 foot elevation gain. He and other runners assigned that leg got a special medal for completing it. (Perhaps this difficult leg explains the complete meltdown he had about 15 hours later over a sleepng bag. A meltdown he claims to not remember having. Ask about it sometime, it's funny now that it's over.)
All in all, it was an excellent adventure!
