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By far one of the most fun and challenging things i’ve had the pleasure of doing recently is the Ragnar Relay, it’s a 177 mile two day relay race, and yes you run right through the night!

All you need is 9 friends and if you’re that unpopular or just plain crazy you can enter an ultra team and have only 5 in a team including yourself.

When in teams of 10 you have two vans with 5 of your team in each, this allows one van to let one runner do their leg while racing off to the next check point and swapping runner. When van 1 has completed 5 stages and run around 35 miles they tag van 2 and the next 5 take over before you swap 2 more times.

Now i’m not much of a runner, in fact I dislike running I much prefer having a barbell or some weights involved in my training, having said that I appreciate it’s good to clear the mind. I also have to say I was pretty proud of myself to finish the race and running the furthest distance I have ever run.

If you’re not feeling too much like reading today you can just watch our highlights video here!

Depending on the levels of the runners you can select who does what stage with some being easier than others and some being beautiful scenery, Leon did the 4am 10 mile leg and got to watch the sun rise between Dover & Brighton. If you’re too hardcore to care about the scenery then try to aim to finish in under 24hours for a special medal and bragging rights, it took us 27 hours.

Be prepared!

Bring food, water, compeed as you WILL get blisters and sleeping bags, we had 40 mins sleep in 36 hours which just made everything much worse! Oh i’d also advise bringing some headphones. However don’t make my mistake of playing ACDC on your first leg and run 7 min miles only to trash your legs in the first round.

Things I learnt

  • I can actually run way faster for way longer than I first thought, it’s far more mental than physical.
  • It’s really fun to do things that you’re not sure if you will be any good at.
  • As always with life, it’s about the people you have around you, lucky for us our team was awesome!
  • It’s not everyday you get to draw all over a van so take advantage.

Ultimately if you fancy a challenge with your friends wether that be avid runner or not, you WILL get a kick arse feeling when you complete the Ragnar Relay.

You can find out more and your closest Ragnar here https://www.runragnar.com/event-detail/relay/whitecliffs

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