What
is This Thing Called Ragnar?
You
would think that someone with my job would be a social butterfly who loves to
go out and be around people all the time.
You would be mistaken. I am about
as anti-social as they come. I do what I
have to for my job, but when I am off hours I prefer to just be at home with my cat Liberty
(insert your joke about the spinster cat lady).
I started not being a big fan of people early in my life. I can still tell you the names of the 3
little boys who gave me the name “crotch rot” and used to yell it across the playground. It went downhill from there. There are a few exceptions. Our current intern seems to think I am far
from anti-social. Maybe it’s just a “once
I get to know you” thing. Who knows.
Anyhow
I do the vast majority of things by myself, including my running. I have done a couple of races with friends,
at our own paces … the start together and meet you at the finish type of
together I have only run with someone
once in my life and that was the high school daughter of a friend back home in
Iowa. I am getting better and most of it
is due to my running. I do love standing on the sidelines after I finish a race to cheer on the other runners. Also, as you’ve seen, this year I am a Pacers
Running Store Ambassador so having to be more social is a must. I have no problem talking up what a great
store and race organizer they are, it’s just the social events I shy away
from. I didn’t do too badly during my first
volunteer stint, though.
Despite
my propensity to be insular, there is a running activity that has held some
allure to me. This thing called RAGNAR.
I saw pictures and race reports from a few Daily
Miler teams that participated last year and somehow it looked like …. dare I say fun? One of my Daily Mile friends recently put
out a call for people interested in forming a team for Ragnar DC in September. The
Ragnar DC page describes it as follows:
“Ragnar
is the overnight running relay race that makes testing your limits a team
sport. A team is made up of 6-12 individuals,
each individual runs 3 legs. The legs of
the race vary in difficulty and distance from 3-8 miles, allowing elite and
novice runners to run together. Over 2
days and 1 night, teams run across 200 miles of the country’s most scenic
terrain. Pair that with crazy costumes,
inside jokes, a great finish line party and unforgettable stories. Some call it a party without sleep, pillows or
deodorant. We call it Ragnar.”
I
really want to do this. What more fun
could a girl ask for than being crammed in a van with 11 other people, sleep
deprived and stinky? Awesome way to
break all the way out of the shell, huh?
I am intrigued by Ragnar too. A relay sounds like great fun. I need to lobby my running group to put a Ragnar team together. There is a relay here in Virginia in September, but it is not Ragnar, but still would be fun.
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