The Hopewell House

This post is long overdue, but I've decided better late then never.

In August we decided to participate in a Ragnar Relay {Great River}.

To give a little background on a Ragnar Relay,

It's basically a relay run made up of 12 people who run a collective 200 mile race over a two day period. The team of 12 is then split into two groups of six and each team rides around in a van to get to each exchange. Each participant takes 3 different assigned legs of the course and the race itself runs all day and all night. Each runner would have anywhere from 11-20 miles {collectively} that they would run that would be split up doing an average of 3-10 miles for each leg.

[there were some "ultra" teams that were only made up of about 2-6 people. These individuals just would add on miles based on their team size- CRAZY.]

The race we ran started in Winona, Minnesota, through Wisconsin, and then all the way into Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Based on what legs/van a participant signs up for determines the time of day they will run. 

Since Dave & I were in van 2, we had the heat of the day, middle of the nights, and late afternoon runs. It was super tough, but SO much fun.

Honestly, my favorite portion of the run was running at 3 AM through the middle of Minnesota. I have to probably thank the adrenaline for that one, but it was still pretty cool.

Of course I did yoga throughout the run, starting the morning of the race day.

Let me tell you, it made a HUGE difference during my race.

This was us still near the beginning.

Van 1 was finishing up their first portion of the race and Van 2 was getting ready to start.

It was awesome getting chances to meet up together throughout the race. Next year we want to figure out how to meet up more frequently. Maybe two teams of 12 to have partners to run with?!

After each leg of the race we completed, we marked off on our van.

Other vans would also mark their "kills" (people they passed).

I think our van was just more focused on the "finishing" aspect. 

haha.

And of course, no race is authentic without carb-loading. 

Also, 

I PR'd on my 3 AM run.

7:30/miles.

Best I've done in a REALLY long time.

I was pretty syked.

Ragnar,

I can't wait to run you again next year!

Thanks friends for such awesome memories.