The New Ladies Night: 200 Miles of Relay Running with 12 Best Friends
Ladies night and weekend getaways continue to be a way for women of all ages to bond and share memories. Given the demands on ladies from careers, families and more, it can be hard to get away.
Increasingly, many are turning to new types of lady night activities that incorporate fitness, travel and fun all in one. Take for example a Ragnar Relay Race . Ragnar Relay is the largest overnight team running event in the world. In 2012, more than 80,000 people will participate in the 15 scheduled races, each averaging about 200 miles and running over two days. Teams of twelve (and in some cases six) take turns running and then cheering on their teammates in vans.
Ragnar Relay Series has grown from one race in Utah's Wasatch Back Valley in 2004 with a mere 200 runners to 15 races nine years later, including can't-miss runcation getaways in the Florida Keys, SoCal, and Las Vegas in November.
Runners of all levels join this "slumber party with a bit of running" to enjoy camaraderie and an experience unlike any other of true team building. You really get to know your friends (or event strangers) after the 24-36 hour experience of spending time in vans sweating, wet and tired. Some sleep, some don't, but everyone has a blast and story to tell. Runners call themselves members of Ragnar Nation, and you can tell it's a Ragnar if you see people in costumes or highly painted vans driving up and down the road.
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They run during the day and they run throughout the night with headlamps and vests. And it's increasingly becoming a destination for ladies to get away.
Consider the story of Team FAB, a team of 12 moms from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Team FAB just finished their third Ragnar Race. The team came together after a baby shower, a pending 40th birthday, and a bunch of emails. They just finished the Ragnar Northwest Passage Race in Northwest Washington, which takes runners from the U.S.-Canada border to near Seattle, after having previously traveled for the Ragnar Chicago (June) and Ragnar Great River (near Minneapolis).
They describe their team as a group of moms from Sioux Falls, SD who love to have the excuse of a "Team FAB meeting" (at a bar) to take a break from the business of our lives to see each other, talk running, support each other, and look forward to the next run. The team consists of marathon runners, small business owners, community volunteers, teachers, bosses, casual triathletes, a designer, a photographer, a non-profit director, an attorney, a nurse, with 33 children among them. Team FAB is just one example of how women continue to enjoy the Ragnar experience. In fact, more than 65 percent of Ragnarians are women, and some produce the best videos you'll ever see in the video contest .
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Ragnar offers races for ladies year round, starting in January with the Florida Keys, a can't miss run from Miami to the tip of the Florida Keys, all the way through November with the final race of the year in Las Vegas. Come on out ladies and be a part of Ragnar Nation! Visit www.ragnarrelay.com for more information.
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