Do the Hustle

My head is in a bit of a fog (please keep your comments to yourself) so forgive me if this post is a bit on the incoherent side. And I must apologize yet again for the lack of posts lately. I keep thinking things will settle down and they never seem to. Oh well...

So, Julie and I have spent a few days this past weekend with some pretty cool people. We were drivers for a bunch of TNT alumni who took part in the Ragnar Relay on Friday and Saturday. For those of you that don't know what the Ragnar Relay is, it's a 208-mile relay race where teams of 12 runners run 3 legs varying in length from 3 to 8+ miles and in difficulty from easy to very hard. The race start in La Crosse, WI and ends in Minneapolis at Boom Island.

There are 2 vans that transport the runners from leg to leg and we were the drivers for Van #2, which had 3 men and 3 women runners. We left Thursday evening from Jill's house and drove down to Rochester where we grabbed some dinner and had a last team "meeting". After dinner Van #1 headed down to La Crosse to the start and Van #2 headed to Winona. The race would begin at 9 AM on Friday morning.

We rented 15-passenger conversion vans to use to transport the runners from one transition area to the next. We quickly bonded on the way down and had no idea just how much we would all be sharing with each other by the time the race was through. Let's just say that nothing was off limits and pretty much everything was brought up, dissected and laughed about.

The three women runners - Stacy, Emily and Liz - stayed at a Quality Inn in Winona, and Julie and I along with the three male runners - Mark, Dan and Chris - stayed at Mark's brother's house, also in Winona. Mark went into the hotel lobby with the ladies and made sure there were no issues with the reservation and we all joked later that it was like Mark was their pimp and he was dropping them off to "work" for the night. We even created a name for Liz who had mentioned that she calculated her first two runs would be at dusk on Friday and dawn on Saturday so we gave her the name of Dusky Dawn.

Saturday morning came and we headed over to the hotel to pick up the women and head over to Target for some last minute shopping. We come to find out that the "hotel room" was NOT up to standard for an operation known as "Quality" Inn. The room number was taped to the door, the wallpaper was falling off the wall, the ceiling had been leaking and the room had that wonderfully intoxicating mildew smell. Not the best place to spend your last good night's sleep before a 30-hour run.

Mark's brother's house (we'll call his brother "Bill", mainly because that's what his name is) was a beautiful house at the top of a hill. The front of the house faced a valley and the back of the hose was at the base of a beautiful, steep bluff. Bill's family had wisely left town prior to our invasion. Mark made us breakfast while the girls ate their free breakfast at the Perkins attached to the Quality Inn.

At Target we purchased some essentials - pretzels, jelly, Swedish Fish, and some items to decorate the van. Stacy also did some clothes shopping.

By this time the runners in Van #1 (Liz, Sam, Jill, Nancy, Scott and Michele) had already started the race. We figured it would take about 6 hours for them to do their 6 legs which meant we would need to be at transition 6 by 2:30 or so. That gave us plenty of time to decorate the van and get things organized.

We got into Fountain City, WI - the place where Van #1 would hand off to Van #2 - in plenty of time to allow Stacy the ability to get ready and to also finish decorating the van. Our team name was "NorthByNorthwest Ho Pioneers Cha Cha Cha" (yeah, not really sure) so, of COURSE, we had to write "GO HOs" on the side of the van! The women also drew caricatures of the runners and the drivers on the van which was cool.

Around 2:50 PM Friday Stacy took the bracelet from Liz and Van #2 was off! Our first 6 legs took us 42 miles from Fountain City to Stockholm, WI. Everyone was nervous about their runs (which I didn't even realize until today) but everyone did a fantastic job. We would work with each runner on where they wanted us to be and what they wanted waiting for them - water, Gatorade, encouragement - and everything moved along swimmingly.

We quickly determined that the runners on the other teams would be referred to as "carrots" - something to be chased and eaten if you will. Everyone liked having someone ahead of them to key on and try to overtake. We were definitely passing a lot more runners than were passing us. There were a couple of teams that we were determined to stay in front of - the Twisted Chickens and the W.H.O.R.s (Women High On Running - yeah, whatever) - for no other reason than for team pride. Mission accomplished.

Our first 6 legs took us about 6 hours to complete and right around 9 PM on Friday night we handed back off to Van #1 as they set out to do their second legs. After much discussion we decided to stay in Stockholm for dinner as opposed to driving up to Prescott (the sight of our next exchange with Van #1) and we went into the local bar for some much needed food. Liz's husband Phil was there to cheer us into Stockholm and stayed to eat with us. Thanks for the support, Phil!

While the food was very good the choice to stay there and eat was a mistake. It wasn't until about 90 minutes later that we were finally able to get back on the road to Prescott - time that could have been spent sleeping. We pulled into the Prescott High School parking lot between 11:00 and 11:30 PM and the runners went into the high school to try and catch some z's. Julie and I decided to sleep in the van.

Around 1 or 1:30 AM (can't quite remember) we got a phone call from Sam saying that we needed to get ready as they were closing in on Prescott. Julie and I went into the school, found our runners and roused them from what appeared to be sleep, although that point is debatable depending on the runner. It's rather hard to sleep comfortably on a concrete floor.

We reorganized the back of the van so we would have easy access to food, water and Gatorade - one of the things we learned from our first legs. Mark serenaded nearly all of Prescott and we headed over to the transition area.

Stacy took the bracelet from Liz sometime around 2:30 or 3:00 AM and we started out on our next 6 legs, all of which would be run in the dark down country roads. It was definitely a new experience for everyone. We had a couple of lights for the runners to wear - one was on a harness that you would strap to your head and the other was one that Mark had purchased at last year's state fair that would attach to the brim of your cap. The lights and a reflective vest were mandatory for obvious reasons.

We were prohibited from driving behind the runners but we could leapfrog them to make sure they were ok. It was really surreal being out there in the middle of nowhere and I can only imagine what it was like to run out there on your own. We did a lot of cheering for all the runners which was very much appreciated.

When it was time for Mark to head out on his run we asked him what he would like and where he wanted us to meet him. He was really not looking forward to his run as he knew he had a deep valley that he would be running through and the hill coming back out was going to be tough so he asked us to be at the top of the hill with water and a Broadway show tune. Well, we got an indication on how tough the hill was for him - as he came up to us he yelled out "My God, why have you forsaken me!", took the water and continued on his way. After piling back into the van we serenaded him with an impromptu rendition of "Oklahoma!" as we passed him. He absolutely loved it!

Everyone did an excellent job with their night running and everyone seemed to think it was a pretty cool experience. Liz had the last leg again and ran the team into Stillwater where Van #1 was waiting to start their last legs. This was just before 6 AM on Saturday.

Having learned our lesson from the night before we promptly left Stillwater and headed to Lake Elmo Park where Van #1 would be handing the bracelet off to us in about 4 hours. Upon arriving in Lake Elmo Mark and Liz headed out into the park to sleep outside - Mark in his tent and Liz with her mat and blanket. The rest of us stayed in the van to sleep.

We got about an hour or two of sleep before everyone started to stir. By this time the park was getting pretty full with the other teams starting to show up. We scrounged together some breakfast - bagels, Chex mix, pretzels, peanut butter, etc - and everyone started preparing for their last run.

At this point everyone was getting a little slap-happy and we needed something to get the juices flowing again. We opened up the van and turned on some music. Most everyone danced along with "The Hustle", "Grease Lightning" and "The Hand Jive" from Grease, and miscellaneous disco hits. A woman from another team even came over with her hula hoop to join in the fun. The music and dancing were just what the team needed to get psyched up for the last push into Minneapolis.

I can't remember exactly what time it was that Liz from Van #1 ran into the park to hand off to Stacy but the sun was out and it was starting to get hot. In my opinion these last legs of the race is when we really had the most fun. There was a light at the end of the tunnel and everyone was pumped up to finish.

Stacy plowed through her leg and finished very strong. Mark's route took him right into the heart of the Breast Cancer 3-Day walk. He rolled with it and had fun with it. The women loved Mark's cowboy hat and they did a great job letting him pass by. He had the perfect personality to handle this unforeseen inconvenience and he did his typical awesome job running his leg.

Dan probably had the most boring leg of the last six to run and cruised past some "carrots" on his way to Emily. Part of Emily's leg would take her through Crosby Park where we would have no way of supporting her and she came out strong and energized.

Chris had the joy of running back up to Mississippi River Blvd from down in Hidden Falls and he crushed the first 1.3 miles up the hill in around 7 minutes. He passed off to Liz who ran the last 5.8 miles into Minneapolis and Boom Island.

Throughout the race Liz had said she would maybe run a 10-minute mile pace and thought she would have a very difficult time with her last leg, but throughout the race and especially during her last leg she was on a very strong 9-minute mile pace. Awesome job Liz!

Liz and most of the rest of the team ran across the finish line around 2:30 PM on Saturday - 29 hours, 30 minutes and 35 seconds after it all began. Everyone on the team did a fantastic job and kicked some serious a$$!!!! CONGRATS!!

Everyone seems to already be talking about next year's race and wanting to do it again, which would be awesome. Julie and I have already volunteered to drive again and I'm sure it will be as much fun as it was this year. Below are some additional highlights from this year's event, some of which I may blog on in future posts.

Ragnar Highlights:

1) Oklahoma!
2) The cowboy hat
4) Foot foot joke
5) Bowel movements, or lack thereof
6) The wet seat
7) “My God why have you forsaken me?!”
8) Piggly Wiggly
9) The toaster
10) The hotel room
11) Shopping for clothes at Target
12) The Hustle
13) The Hand Jive/Grease Lightning Dance Party
14) Pitching a tent
15) Julie playing chicken with on-coming traffic on the way to Winona
16) Bananas
17) Bladder evacuations on the side of the road
18) Carrots/Kills
20) Swedish fish
21) Twizzlers
22) How much time do you need for your constitutional?
23) Trading stories of being pooped on by birds
24) “Drying” the safety vest by hanging it out the window
25) Dusky Dawn
26) Mark “the pimp”
27) Adam the friendly dog/Chris the non-receptive one/Liz the allergic one/Julie the spoiler
28) Rummy
29) Windy City Shuffle – the Barry Bonds of relay racing
30) The crazy old man with the funky hat and only one hand on the steering wheel
31) Liz’s eyeball story/the electric car story
32) More cowbell!
33) Curb!
34) The water/Gatorade cocktail
35) Plus many more yet to be shared...