Ragnar Sprint

Over the last several years I have thoroughly enjoyed doing relay races.  There really is no better way to get to know your fellow pax than by spending some quality time sweating out a tough run.  However for various reasons doing a 200 mile 2-3 day race poses special challenges that often turns off pax (and sometimes M’s).  When I came across this Ragnar sprint relay several months ago I thought it would give us an opportunity to not only challenge ourselves but avoid some of the challenging logistics (overnight stay, vans, constant driving) and allow us to get in significant fellowship with more people in a short period of time.

To that end this was a complete success.  16 pax(4 teams of 4)met up at Roses and clowned car down to Fort Mill. We were surprised by a last minute send off by the injured Sargento who was originally scheduled to slow down Quiches’s team but due to injury he was replaced by the younger faster Round Up.  Good thing because Quiche needed more speed after losing Gastone to Gump (Really?). Anyway so there was one team with special needs. Three other teams were ready for a fair fight.  Sparky prayed us in before traveling down.  Upon arrival we were treated to at thrilling, informative, saftey video that several of us wanted to watch a few times but Roscoe decided we needed to let others get into the tent to enjoy the movie so we moved on.  The first runners (Gump, SA, Seuss, and Roscoe) took off at 9:30.  I do believe they elbowed each other for the lead for 2.5 of the 3.2 miles.  Of course SA was able to row a little faster and crossed first.  The rest of the pax continued the race with a little less violence (except for Round Up who decided to punish the ground with his body and Breaker Breaker who wanted to see how far he could rotate his ankle without his foot falling off).  Others didn’t seem to be challenged too much – I don’t even think Freight broke a sweat.  Broke pushed hard the first run and ran an average 8:09/mile but slacked off on the second lap at 8:11.  Most did little complaining except for Whoopee who did not want to interput his tapering with running- tomorrow you can go back to “tapering” Whoopee.  And then there was Def Leppard who didn’t have any Werthers.  In the end great fellowship was enjoyed by all with lots of time to rest between runs.  Special thanks to Oompa who continues to embody the true meaning of never give up-this guy is a true HIM!  Thanks for the push Buckeye-couldn’t have finished strong without your threats!!  Iron sharpens Iron!