2012 Chicago Ragnar Wrap Up

It's hard to believe we've now got two Ragnar races under our belts.  Ultra Team Tight Butts Sweaty Nuts ran 198.3 miles from Madison, WI to Montrose Beach in Chicago in about 32 hours.  We had four returning runners- Holly, Matt, Tom and Taryn, and added two new faces to the group - Jaclyn and Mike.  When building a team that will require people to be in close, sweaty quarters, chemistry is key.  We were pretty confident that our new runners would be positive additions, and we were right!

 We unpacked the van outside the hotel parking garage after discovering that we wouldn't clear the height restriction by only millimeters and then ate our pre-race meal at a former church turned restaurant, Bellini's.                                   

 At the start line in Madison.  Groups of about 25 teams are released every 30 minutes.  From there we saw many of those same teams at the exchanges again and again.

 For no apparent reason, the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile was at an early exchange, perhaps for some photo opps?  Mike's socks may be an inspiration for next year's team name.  Stay tuned.

Kevin was our driver - all 650 miles of it - and Amy was our navigator and Safety Officer.  Both supported each runner getting to the exchanges on time, finding mid-points to hand out more fluids, and in general kept going for 30 straight hours.

In some ways we knew what to expect - exhaustion, uncontrollable fits of laughter, friendly competition between other teams, etc. but the main difference this year was the weather.  Last year was cold and rainy and most of us were woefully under dressed.  This year we were dealing with 80+ degree temps and heat indexes in the triple digits, many times with no shade.  Fluids became so much more important this year.  Water alone, we calculated just under two gallons was consumed by each runner in 32 hours.  We didn't get a chance to calculate the Gatorade.

Many of the exchanges were the same as last year.  We had a particular affection for Dousman, WI this year and last because it was one of the few early exchange locations that actually had a restaurant. We gobbled up Denny's pizza and chatted with some of the locals who had no idea who the crazies were invading their town.

The exchanges were always full of energy and runners would always make mental notes of how many "kills" (people passed) they had during their leg.  As night fell, the energy did not wane, but instead usually surged.  Everyone - running or not - had to wear a reflective vest.  Runners additionally had to wear headlamps and taillights out on the course.

Eventually the sun rose again and we headed into day two.  Here, we're either in Kenosha or Racine.  Day two becomes much more physically exhausting from lack of sleep, weird food and, of course, all that running.

Van decorating is a must.  We were quite tame compared to others.

Eventually we crossed the line with all six runners and two support team members still in bi-pedal mode.