10 Reasons Running Ragnar is Better Than Dating

Let's face it, online dating is here to stay. The pokes, flirts, winks, and punches to the solarplexes aren't going anywhere. A friend of mine (who also runs) is down on the whole scene so instead of the negative, let's do something positive and see why running a Ragnar Relay is better then dating.

#10 Shorter Profile
Why sit down and agonize for hours about what cute thing you can say to make yourself look smarter or thinner or that you're not going bald? Then you have to think about your likes (you don't really like long walks on the beach...we all know you're lying) and your perfect first date (which won't be read by anybody because all they care about is if you're going to put out). Then there's the profile picture. How well do you know Photoshop? If not, you'll have to hold your phone at arms length (proving you don't have any friends who could take it for you). But when you go to RagnarRelay.com all you need is your name (real names only... Ron Artest), 10k time (also real please) and t-shirt size. Oh and pic any picture you want. Put up a photo of Rosie Ruiz or your left big toe.

#9 Finishing Before The Others is OK
Actually finishing first is a good thing. It's a race dummy!

#8 Sweating is Encouraged
Although I've been out of the dating scene for a while, I don't think there are many of us who DON'T get nervous on a first date. You might even sweat a little (or a lot if you're one of those people). Ragnar encourages sweating. Run hard, sweat hard. However your teammates will like you a lot better if you towel off before getting in the van.

#7 Vans Aren't Creepy
Try picking up a girl for a first date in a van and chances are you'll cause her to run a 10k PR just trying to get away from you. Ragnar makes vans less creepy. Even the ones that have "Free Candy and Puppies Inside" get a measure of respect.

#6 Casual Dress Code
Shorts and sneakers are cool. You don't have to worry about stains on your sweater or if your socks have holes. We do ask that you adhere to a dating rule though, and please put on clean underwear! Unlike a first date, costumes are the norm and there is a fair amount of cross dressing tolerated.

#5 Pokes
Oh wow, I wonder who poked me? Oh he's a Jerk. Oh she's my mother's age...eww! Yep, casual contacts on the web can be unpredictable at best. When you get poked at Ragnar, you really get poked. Ouch... Oh were at the exchange? Thanks for waking me up!

#4 Dinner is Dutch
Don't fret over who's paying for dinner. If he pays will I have to kiss him goodnight? If I pay, will she kiss me goodnight? Stop worrying. Everybody can pay for themselves when you stop at a Cracker Barrel in the middle of nowhere at 2am or if you're lucky you can score a free peanut butter and jelly sandwich at Exchange 6. Breakfast is another story....there's some real pressure there.

#3 You REALLY Get to Know The People You're Sleeping With
No more guessing about the "history" of your bed mates. No more thinking...what is that thing on her leg, or that thing he does with his nose? 24 hours (plus a few more if you're not the fastest) and you REALLY get to know your fellow Ranar-ians. Everything from their childhood to (and hopefully not really) their digestive issues.  This might not be a necessary positive unless you like digestion.
 
#2 No Parental Pressure
What a nice change from your Mother pestering you about meeting a nice !  The only pressure you're going to get is from your teammates if you don't adhere to #1 on this list!

#1 You Always Get to Run Away
On a first date the running away is optional (less so when getting married), at a Ragnar Relay it's the only way to go!

There you go. So to all of you who are debating  running Ragnar or spending time trolling the bars and internet to find the right guy/girl/farm animal...stop. Debate is over...get out there and Ragnar today!

Best Marathon Ever

Don't judge my time or the hill that was strategically placed at Mile 21 buy rather judge me on that I finished.

Sure Saturday's, Garden Spot Village Marathon in New Holland, PA was my 22nd marathon and I should be old hack by now but it was more than that. It was more than just my second fastest marathon, and it was definitely more than my first race smelling cow manure the ENTIRE time!

For me it was a re-affirmation that I really can do this!

Two weeks earlier I received credit for running the Rock N Roll Half Marathon, but I had signed up for (and had fully attended to) run the full race. But race day confirmed that stomach still want done with the bug that had hit me earlier in the week and my heel was not happy with the pounding I was putting on it after weeks of wearing my vibrams. The combination proved too much and at the split, I headed to the left and the half marathon finish line. It was only the 2nd time in 23 times that toeing the start didn't result in a finish and the first time since 2005.

I was down. Even a steak and lobster feast later in the day complete with copious amounts of wine was not enough to really get me back to where I should have been. A few days later Mrs. Bloggerman put a crazy idea in my head.

Let's go out to Amish Country and run a race you've never heard of.

Hmmm. It actually sounds interesting but I'm not sure. What if I'm not over this stomach thing or if my heel is still acting up? I felt a little like George McFly, and didn't know if I could take that kind of rejection. The benefit of a small race (320 finishers) is that they allow on site registration so I had a week or so to mull this idea over. In the meantime I ran a PR 10k on the Saturday between.

With this new confidence I set out on Friday with Mrs. Bloggerman and BloggerBaby in the Toaster for Pennsylvania Dutch Country. Our smoking room in the Comfort Suites was more than forgettable but it was only for one nights sleep so we dealt with it. Race day came and getting out to the car we were greeted by the same smell of cow manure that we fell asleep to. The morning also greeted us with 45 degrees and a wet overcast sky. The pre race set up was nothing special but it was a nice touch to have the invocation end with a mention of the Jewish carpenter. Keep it classy.

The gun goes off and we took off. I opened up at a nice pace and did the front 13 averaging about 8:20 miles and even with a big climb at mile 4 I was moving a good clip. When I wasn't busy pumping the Ragnar Relay (RagnarRelay.com) I was watching out for the never ending trail of horse poop all over the street. The Amish know how to save on gas but don't do a lot of street beautification projects! The other thing I was doing was looking back over my shoulder as I passed the mile markers, knowing I'd be coming back there in the second half of the race and interested as to where that was.

Getting into miles 14-18 the pace was still going well and I was able to even pass a few people. My pace had slowed a bit but was still pushing 8:40's in. I'm getting a bit tired but still feeling ok (for a marathon).  Then we get into the dreaded miles 19-22. I'd say I hit a wall but in truth it was really two very large hills. The biggest of which went up 587 ft in a 1/4 mile. Yes...you read that correctly! To put it into perspective, The hill at the end of the Marine Corps Marathon is only 60 ft in a 1/4 mile, Heartbreak Hill in Boston is only 88ft over 1/5 of a mile, and finally Cardiac Hill in Atlanta's Peachtree Road Race is 110 ft in just over 1 mile. Yeah...the hill was that tough! So a walkin' I went. Luckily Mrs. Bloggerman was waiting at the top and that was a nice surprise which kept me running for a little while longer. But the walking set in with running mixed in and slowed down my pace from miles 19-23 with averages of about 11 min miles.

Finally we get to the downhill portion of the race and even with tired legs, I managed to pick it up and run in most of the rest of the race with a quick hamstring scare just after Mile 25, and almost getting clipped by a boat of a Cadillac just before Mile 26. But the best part came about 200 ft from the finish line. There stood Mrs. Bloggerman and BloggerBaby (now almost Toddler Bloggerman). I scooped the little guy up, hoisted him up on my shoulders and ran in to finish the race in 3 hours 59 minutes and 25 seconds. It was about 7 minutes off of my personal best but I had my kid (with the medal on his neck) up on my shoulders and I had made it through those hills.

Thankfully Mrs. Bloggerman through me in the car and we high-tailed it out of dodge before the children of the corn came to get us. I was cold, acomplished, and had a week's supply of Ten Calorie 7-Up products in my bag. Thank you to the folks in New Holland for putting on such a great race and giving me my confidence back. I might come back some day but it will be a while. Try not to miss me.

Bloggerman out (of marathons) until May brings me Boise, Idaho. Yep...I'm going Potato (the "e" is for Dan Quale)

27 Hours-2 Vans-200 Miles-12 Tired Monkeys

The race is over, I managed to catch up on some sleep, and most of the scaring has faded. All-in-all it was an amazing weekend and certainly an experience I won't soon forget.

Ragnar-The DC edition- took us 199.3 miles from Cumberland, MD to RFK stadium in DC. Posing as the mild-mannered Captain Awesome, I along with my "Big Bag of Monkeys" completed the race in 27 hrs and 33 min.

The race was a 36-leg relay with each team member running 3 of those legs. You can visit the Ragnar DC site to see the course maps. Each team was broken up in two vans (runners 1-6 and 7-12).

The morning for me started early at home with some team captain-y work on the computer nailing down some final logistics. I met the vans, who came up from Virginia, near my place and we packed them tight with decorations, running gear, and enough food to feed several refugee camps for the next 46 years.

After a few potty breaks we arrived in Cumberland and got busy checking in and getting the vans decorated. As you can see from the photos, it looked like a glorified homecoming float, complete with a 6 ft inflatable monkey tied to the back of each van!

At just after 1pm, Sonia took off from the starting line and Captain Awesome and His Big Bag of Monkeys were on our way.

Since I was part of Van 2 (the best one out there IMHO), we were not allowed to park at the exchange points that the Van 1 was using. We found ways around that though and with a few exceptions, and once parking on Department of Homeland Security land, we managed to catch most of the handoffs and even saw some of the runners in the middle of their legs.

As the sun began its decent for Friday evening our Van was getting ready to begin our legs. First up was Jimm and his sick 800+ ft climb into Berkley Springs, WV (oh we also saw Paw Paw, WV which is a real treat...I must remember to add that place to my "never go there alone" list of destinations). Evan took over from there and headed out 40 to the next exchange.

After taking a small wrong turn and getting on I-68, Van 2 found are way and dropped me off for my first leg, a 10.3 mile (the longest single leg of the race) jaunt down a bike path that followed I-68. The path was quite beautiful, I imagine, only I couldn't see that much of it as it was 830pm and the only thing illuminating was the small LED headlamp I was sporting. It was actually very surreal. I was able to judge about 10-15 ft ahead of me at any time but my peripheral vision was completely dark. I think I know what those Clydesdale's with the blinders feel like now. Actually the dark wasn't so bad, but what made this particularly tough was that there really weren't any other runners around. I got passed by one guy and saw his flashing "taillight" in the distance but that was about it for 6 miles. I did manage to catch up to another runner at that point and we hung together to finish the leg. Marianne who other then the use of her Rite-Aide hand sanitizer is the best, greeted me with a cold PBR and one leg was in the books.

We finished the rest of our first legs and handed the baton back to Van 1 at the Hagerstown Speedway. Unfortunately our last runner, James, was the victim of a produce assault when he was hit by a pear thrown from a moving car. Luckily he was ok and continued on. When we arrived, we flopped down with one of our awesome volunteers, Britney, for some well earned s'mores over a charcoal pit fire.

After some debating back and forth we decided to head to the next major exchange point and get a little rest. The exchange point was at a church in Boonsboro, MD and the people working there couldn't have been nicer. They had indoor bathrooms, chicken dinner (we skipped this as it was now 1230 am), and hot coffee. We parked the van with about 70 or so other teams and tried to catch a little sleep. This is where I should point out that the drivers seat of a 12-persin van is not the most comfortable place to get some Z's. What's worse is when you use an inflatable monkey as a pillow. 45 minutes into my sleep I got the call from Van 1 that we were running ahead of time so Jimm had to get up and ready to run his next leg through Funkstown (really disappointed I didn't get a picture here).

After another giant mountain climb for him went well except for the few minutes he got lost. Evan took over and battled up a hill of his own then handed off to me for a downhill 5k stretch into Frederick. 22 minutes and 9 seconds later I handed off to Stig (Christina) and had a new PR to add to my list.

After she took off we were warned by the course wardens that there had been some "sketchy" characters walking around Frederick and we should be alert. Well we checked in on Stig mid run and she was ok but wanted to help Marianne too so I grabbed Jimm's bike and rode with her on her 5 mile trip to Liberty. It was a great run as we saw the sun rise over the farms and almost got run off the road a few times by semis barreling down the road at 55mph.

After James wrapped up his leg we headed into Germantown to get some 630am bagels (this is pronounced with a "hard A" not a "eh" sound for the reference of that van who couldn't pronounce it right!) I introduced a bunch of southerners to what a NY Bagel should taste like. Well ok they were from Northern Virginia and DC but still...they have every right to know a good bagel from a Lenders bagel. We met up with Van 1 and got ready to finish our last legs.

Our first leg (Jimm) went right through our neighborhood so the wife and dog met us and then continued to follow us through the rest of the race. Having Mooks there gave us a bit of a lift which complemented the shot of 5-Hour Energy I popped earlier. I have to think that might have been the key to me flying through my final 7-mile leg. It might have been nice to have some better directional signage as I ran through the Rock Creek Trail in Rockville, Bethesda, and Kensington. Luckily I knew where I was going...I can’t say the same for the 5 other runners I passed.

The rain held off all race until the last three legs. Unfortunately that meant Stig, Marianne, and James got drenched. But before too long, James came bounding around the corner of RFK stadium where we all met him, (with Matt in the Banana Suit and Andreas with the giant inflatable Monkey). We crossed the finish line in a steady downpour. We were wet, tired, sore but Kate’s boyfriend brining us Valentino’s Pizza somehow made it all better.

This was truly an adventure and we are excited to have gone though it. Jimm is working on cutting the team video which I’ll post here along with more pictures in the coming days. Now to catch up on some sleep.