This was my first sprint tri and it was a great experience. I had a prior experience with the Peak Fitness indoor tri and was convinced to give this one a go. Distances: Swim-300yds in the outdoor pool; Bike-14mi on rolling hills on closed off and managed roads; Run-5k on bike path and subdivision roads. I am an avid runner, so I didn't put much thought into the run, but I did spend some time training on my bike and in the pool in advance of the race. Things to know: the swim is in the outdoor pool in a "snake" style. You swim down a lane and back, and duck under the rope. Repeat across the next 5 lanes. If you are a real swimmer, you will push off the wall gracefully on the diagonol under the rope so you are midway in to the next lane. If you are me, you will try not to drown and bonk your head on the rope. I am not a strong swimmer, so I was happy for the way in which the swim was managed. When you register, you put in your swim time. I said 6:00. This did not account for this duck & weave. You are then assigned a number (mine was 57) based on your swim time. Everyone lines up in numerical order. There are no waves.

So how did this whole thing play out? Lovely. The transition area was crowded, as I presume most are. I leaned my Trek MBT (yes, I'm a beginner) against the fence and laid my things out. I checked out the bike mount and entry/exit areas. I then proceeded to the pool for a quick lap. Everything was very well maked, including my body. I chose to participate in a full swimsuit and sports-bra (I don't a tri-suit, again, I'm a beginner), and then throw shorts on for the ride/run.

So we all line up at the pool. You wear a chip bracelet on your right ankle. The people around me were also in the 6:00 swim range. I watched the others dive in and accomplish the snake swim, and the atmosphere was fun, supportive and awesome. They actually started with the parathletes, and it was cool to cheer for everyone since we were there to support the Chariots anyway!

So we swam (I was passed by #58, but he was nice about it). I finished in 6:20. I bolted out to my bike, threw my gear on and hopped on my bike. The bike was tough rolling hills, especially on a MBT, but it's what I have. Course was especially well marked, police and volunteers stopped traffic. My bike took about 56:00. I then threw (literally threw) my bike down and got on with my run. The run was totally flat, an out and back easy 3.1. Just over 25:00. My total time was 1:30:38. I was shooting for under 1:40.

I LOVED this tri. I will absolutely do this again! This is a perfect race for beginners and experienced triathletes training for longer races (many participants are gearing up for Ironman distances later this fall). I enjoyed seeing all of the bikes and gear as well. They also have a relay option (three participants) and a Super-Sprint, which drew a lot of kids and teens. And the parathlete tri, which was inspiring to watch.
Key things: Practice for the "snake swim", make sure you train on hills for the bike, and know that T1 takes a little longer than most. There was some food after the race, the gatorade was gone by the time I checked, but H20 is fine with me. Cookies, granola bars, and a MEDAL worked for me! The medal was on a super-neat ribbon that had siwm-bike-run icons and said "TRIATHLON" on it. It was also a "finisher" medal.

This was my first Ragnar Relay with a 12 person Co-Ed team (2 men, 10 women). First and foremost, we were all friendly with each other, had met ahead of time, and had some great leadership on our team that did a lot of planning and organizing going in to the weekend. That being said, I have explained it like camping; you can read about it and buy all the perfect gear, but until you spend the night in the woods, you just don't know what it's like. I would highly recommend being in Van 1 if you like to "get things out of the way". We had an 8am start time, and chose to drive up to Madison for our start. That was rough, because it involved heading out at 5am on race day. Also, this is a SUPER EXPENSIVE race. You rent 15 passenger vans (if you're smart), you pay an exorbitant race fee, you likely buy some safety gear you may never use again, and you probably will invest in team shirts/costume-y type of stuff you will either give to your kids or repurpose. Oh, and you'll have to pay for gas, you'll want to BUY Ragnar stuff while you're at Exchange 6 and 36 (finish), and you'll probably either have to pay ($120) for a volunteer unless your team can find 3 good friends who you will forever be indebted to. But the experience was one-of-a kind. As much as I hated myself for signing up when I got ready to do my last leg of 6.2 at 4am on Saturday morning after 45 minutes of sleep in 24 hours, I'm already saying "yes" to planning two ultra teams for next year. Here's my best advice: save up your $ for this race; rent the big vans; have at least 2 registered drivers on each van; organize who is bringing what food (don't plan on just eating bars & gu); pack your run outfits into ziploc bags; read every blog/article on ragnar than you can; use bug spray; know your route; get into the "spirit" and have a team shirt/costume and magnets to tag other vans; decorate your vehicle; BE NICE TO PEOPLE; track your own team's start/finish times because Ragnar does not do it for you; follow the safety rules; bring sleeping gear for the hard floors or to sleep in the van; cheer on other teams and runners--it REALLY made a difference for me; and do this relay if you're thinking about it.
Overall, the Ragnar organizers were great. My medal is nice, the t-shirt is great, and the instructions were very clear. My very first leg was not well marked, and I wound up in someone's front yard, but that was partly my fault. If you want to be competitive, I suggest finding another team to compete with, as it's tough to "win" (we have another team who's runner #4 now has to mow our runner #4's lawn). I am not quite sure what our team paid about $1500 for (not including our van rentals and finding our own two volunteers) because there wasn't even bottled water at the finish, so it seems somewhere, somehow, someone is making bank off of this race. However, I'm willing to do it again, so that tells you something, right???? You can also check out the Ragnar Trail series, which appears to be more camping and loop running :)

2014 was my first year running, and I will be back to defend my title in 2015! This 5k is a fundraiser for scholarship opportunities for law students, and fun time. 2014 brough the "battle of the bar associations" and the course lent itself to a quick, flat race for me. The wind was pretty bad, but I kept a fast enough pace to win my age group, and our bar association took 1st place as well. There was no chip timing, so some strategy is involved. Parking was easy, t-shirts were cotton, but the medals, and team "tiles" were significant, and the buffet????? HELLO??? a BUFFET LUNCH???? Yes, thank you very much!! The course took us around NIU's campus and back through, so it was nostalgic for me. I didn't run it in 2013, but understood the course to be different. If you run, I would definitely give yourself enough time to stay for lunch and awards. And I would start near the front of the pack, and then after you finish, head inside and proceed to the buffet line as quickly as possible to avoid the long line. And grab a beer :)

I had not prepared or planned to run this race, but signed up last minute to run a loop or two with a friend who was running the 50k. I had missed in-person/online registration, and didn't want to make the drive from Rockford to Crystal Lake only to be turned away on race day due to capacity, so I called the Running Depot during packet pick up. They put me on the phone with the Race Director, and she HELD A SPOT FOR ME! That is A+ customer service right there.
The weather was beautiful, and I located a parking spot almost on the start line (kidding, kind of). The atmosphere was super-friendly, and racers of the 5mi, 15mi, and 50k were all starting together, so everyone was busy checking in and getting ready. As I paid my fee, I joked about a "pay as you go" option, and they told me I could sign up for the 15mile, and finish what I could. DONE! The 50k was 6 5mile loops, so I thought I'd give 3 loops a go with my friend. Race Managment was seriously the friendliest I have encountered, and all of the funds were going to a great cause. They were also collecting shoes for recycling, and offered up nice reuseable bags with only a few race flyers and a sweet MUDD wristband (and some muscle gel).

We all started off after the national anthem played by some local kids, and the trail was immediately tough and trail-y. Rocky in spots, uphill and rooty. But beautiful and scenic, we even saw some deer. They had marked incredibly well with orange flags and flour, and even on the single track trail, everyone was excessively courtesy about passing and high-fiving.
In my brain, the 5 mile loop was easily divided into 3 parts, pre-legbone, legbone, and post-legbone. Pre-legbone was very uphill until you hit some pavement and limestone. Legbone was single track (tough with returners, but again, with the courtesy, it didn't matter) and rooty with rocks, and post-legbone was tough, technical, rocky steep downhill, until you hit some gradual uphill again.
I was able to knock out two loops before calling it a day. The racers filed in finishing their mileage with a shouting and cheering crowd, or greeted by friends/crew passing out food and gear as they continued on. The medals were wood burned (awesome) and the awards were hand wood carvings. The food was great (PBJ, bananas, cookies, granola) and there were nachos for after. I didn't stay for awards, but it would have been nice. They even had "virgin" awards for those running their first 50k! Chip timing, rolling trail course, nice t-shirts, great food, and exceptionally attentive and personal race management. I will be back next year (maybe for my first 50k??)