We are officially 9 days out from the start of the Ragnar Relays 2012 Chicago edition!
So today’s focus will be on 9 things Ragnar “Chicago Style”!
- The Chicago Edition of the Ragnar Relays includes 198.3 miles of run fun which travels the Midwest from Madison, WI to Montrose Beach in the Lincoln Park area of Chicago.
- Each team participating will have either 6 or 12 participants. The 6 person team is considered crazy an ultra team, meaning that each member will be running more than the 26.2 distance over the course of the event. Here is my crazy ultra team – You Just Got Chicked. We are Team #85 and we start our fun run at 7:30 am on Friday, June 8th.
- The race will blow thru 3 college towns: Madison, WI (University Wisconsin – Madison), Evanston, IL (Northwestern University) and lastly Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood for a view of the Loyola campus and a run down the beautifully shaded Sheridan Road.
- The course will include two big name trails: The Glacial Drumlin Trail and the Oak Leaf Trail. The Glacial Drumlin Trail is 52 miles in length and considered to be one of Wisconsin’s best bicycle trails. It is an abandoned rail trail, which always means flat and fast if you are looking for speed. Expect to pay a fee for a day pass to enjoy this gem.
The Oak Leaf Trail is free and consists of a network of trails surrounding the Milwaukee area. This trail is also a rail trail of 108 miles in length. Of those 108 miles, the trail boosts over a quarter of its mileage along the shores of Lake Michigan! 
- Those of us familiar with relays are probably going back to our school days and thinking about passing the baton. No, we do not need to carry a baton for 200 miles. Each team will be issued a slap bracelet which we will transfer to each new runner. Photo source: Team – My Big Fat Ragnar Wedding, Ragnar Napa Valley. See recap HERE.
- Each team will travel in 1 or 2 vans to get runners to/from exchange points. We will have 1 van for our 6 lovely chicks. Hmmmmm, how to decorate the van to suit our team/personalities?
- Each team may, or may not, have a driver to navigate the course. I believe as of last week, our runners serve as the athletes, drivers and spotters/navigators. I think the navigation scares me more than the running and driving. 🙂
- Short of injury or illness, we must keep the same rotation of runners. I’m “Chick 3” and will be running the legs for runner #3 and runner #9. The legs include: #3 (2.7 miles – easy), #9 (8.2 miles – very hard ……gee, I hope it’s dark too), #15 (5.3 miles – moderate), #21 (5.3 miles – moderate), #27 (5.6 miles – hard), #33 (4.8 miles – moderate). Total for Chick 3 = 32.1 miles and I’m dedicated to an 8:30 pace.
- Our race starts at 7:30 am on Friday, June 8th and if we maintain pace, then we will be finished and sipping beer on Montrose Beach approximately 30.25 hours later, which is 1:45pm on Saturday, June 9th. Look for us, we’ll be there .
Have you ran any relay races? Any tips for us?
** Happy Running ** Amanda – TooTallFritz ** amanda@tootallfritz.com
TooTallFritz 
You girls are gonna kill it!!!!!
Thanks! We will give it our all.
I want to do this next year – it looks SO fun! Good luck, you are are gonna SMASH it!!
I know a team that is still looking for 2 runners…..wanna give it a go this year? It’s a regular team, not an ultra. 🙂
You’re going to do amazing!!! I’m excited to be there to participate! After my volunteering shift, I may stick around to see you guys finish… I don’t have anything else going on that day!! 🙂
Where are you volunteering, Kelly?
At the finish line from 5am – 11am!
HUGE shout out to our volunteer, Kelly! Thank you!
One of our team mates was telling me that the Ultra runners do 2 legs at a time x 3, 1 (1,2) 2 (3,4) and so on, your way sounds better, I think…Hopefully we will see you out there!!! I am runner #12 for our team, #66 Dude where the van? I am getting more worried, we keep having some major injuries on our team and they are dropping like flies……argh!! Our start time for van 1 is not until 10:00 am, so you will have a nice head start on us, I am in van 2 and I think we start around 2:00ish. We have a regular team (12 runners), not like yours(6 runners) which is really crazy, ours is a mix of guys and girls. Some of us may be running a little more than we are scheduled for, due to the injuries that are constantly popping up everyday leading to the event. Also, our runners serve as the athletes, drivers and spotters/navigators….we have some seasoned Ragners and Newbies(Me). Not sure what we are doing on the decorating of the van…..Good Luck to you and your team and hope to see ya out there, I am looking forward to it!! It should be FUN!?!
Should be fun! LOL! We wanted to try alternating the legs rather than running them back to back to see if we would be fresher and be able to hold a consistant pace. The race director was agreeable. Most locations require the ultra team runners to run 2 consecutive legs. I’m liking our decision……I think!?!?
Never did a relay race before. But…only thing I can suggest…is to not think of anything except running one leg at a time. With the time between legs, you should be able to recover to handle the next leg. Focus on hydration, fueling and stretching or massage in between legs….and some nap-time too! You chicks will all do fine!
Not sure how much naptime we will get…..we are wearing so many hats but we will be sure to hydrate, stretch and stay fueled.
Have fun! The Ragnar I ran on an ultra team we had to do back-to-back legs (though I highly doubt anyone would have known if we did it differently). Your way sounds even more interesting and might actually be more difficult since you are running more often!!
Most Ragnar teams run the legs back to back but we decided to do it this way to keep the legs shorter and hopefully a bit faster. 🙂 We’ll see how that works out.
I wish you a fantastic Ragnar! You and your team are going to do AWESOME! Can’t wait to read your recap and see the pictures!
Many thanks!
I have no tips but WOO HOO LOYOLA!!!!! C/O 2004 🙂
I’ll be thinking of you when we pass thru Loyola!
WOOOW!!!! This sounds like SUCH a blast!!!!!! GOOD LUCK!!!!!! I am SO doing this someday!!!
I know a team with 2 open spots if you want to give it a go this year. 🙂
aww thanks! 🙂 I don’t think I’m quite ready for that sort of running yet!!! But thanks so much for the offer!! 🙂
This sounds amazing fun. Have a great race and enjoy. Can’t wait to hear all about it.