Ragnar Registration Day has been one of the most exciting days of the year for me. It bears with it the promise of adventure. It’s a feeling both exhilarating and daunting.
Sometimes I find myself busting at the seams with exuberance as I’m so ready to hit the road with the teams. Each year and team have been different from one year having friends and family from my childhood filling up one van and being together in one place for the first time in forever, void of any responsibilities other than our running assignments, and joking around about old times to a group that’s been tweaked and molded that’s slowly formed a core of both devoted runners and fundraisers. That might sound more formal but it’s not become any less fun.
Other days, when running in the cold of the early spring or late at night to avoid the heat of the summer, I’m thinking about why on earth would I ever do this again? That feeling usually creeps in hard again when it’s 3 a.m. and I’m running down what feels like a deserted highway, the pitch blackness of the night enveloped all around me, and nothing but the next 4 ½ miles separates me from my team, a warm van, and probably the only decent amount of sleep I’m about to get.
Running a Ragnar Relay and operating a growing fundraising team operation can be tiring for sure and I’ve found myself just disconnecting from it for a few weeks after the race and I’m not just talking about the team operations part of it. I’ve stayed off of the running path altogether nearly every year, finding a few pounds along the way I might add.
That all said, the grind and the challenge of it remain. I’ve said it before and I mean it, although that could change after this next May when I run the Indy Mini, running a Ragnar Relay and organizing the team are by far the hardest thing, at least athletically related, that I have ever done but yet almost instantly, even if I lay low after each one for a bit, look forward to the next opportunity.
So with that, Runnin’ Not Walken is going to Ragnar Relay Michigan in 2019!
Runners Doing Good 