Run, Drive, Sleep? Repeat.

Last year right about this time I headed up to Washington DC to run 200 miles with 11 other women I had never met. It was my first Ragnar Relay – one of the twelve-person relay races held all over the country.  My team’s name was “Does this Tutu Make me Look Fast?” And yes, we ran in tutus for the entire race.

(Just FYI, I am 5'9, standing in the middle of the back row -- so the girls to the right of me? At least 6'2. And they ran like the wind.  Like Kenyans floating in the wind. Team Tutu came in third place -- so evidently the tutus did make look fast --  and won the prize for best running costumes.)

Since then I've run other Ragnars. And I'm running four more in the next 12 months. I keep trying to talk my husband into running a Ragnar race with me. I explain it in as accurate and appealing terms as possible: 36 hours cramped in vans amid 11 other sweaty runners, with little sleep, and crappy food; running for long miles in often dark, unfamiliar places, usually alone, where you might get lost.

Shockingly, I haven’t been able to talk him into it yet. Words like juvenile, stupid, asinine, not orphaning our children, get thrown around. Whatever. I don’t listen. It’s obviously just the jealousy talking.

Ragnar recognizes its own ridiculous nature in its slogan: Run. Drive. Sleep? Repeat.

Ahh… Full-On Stupid. That about sums it up.

This weekend I run the DC Ragnar race again. This time with team “Honey Badger Don’t Care”. The race starts in Cumberland, MD and goes through the Appalachian Mountains (cue: dueling banjo) and ends in downtown Washington DC. This time I'm racing mostly with people I know, rather than strangers. But the no sleep, crappy food, and running in the dark will still be the same, I'm sure.

I can’t wait. A full update will come next week. But you can follow my thoughts on the absurd brilliance of it all *live* on twitter: @janiecrouch