Ragnar Woes

Getting a Ragnar team together at the last second can have its downsides. When I first heard about the Ragnar Relay it was from the University of Arizona running club. Before I joined sometime last January (something I never got around to doing actually) they were trying to pull me in with this Ragnar race. I was like “whoa, 202 miles?? You guys are CRAZY” and I brushed it off. Then, sometime in the lull of summer, I checked it out again and I really REALLY wanted to do it. I tried emailing the new captain about joining up but never got a reply (jerk). I’m guessing because they already had their team, or something. Anyway, moral of the story. It’s easier to get a team together when you do it every year. When they first told me about it, I seriously doubt they would have let me run it. I probably would have been a driver. They were just getting me psyched for the next year. Which they TOTALLY did. So when my friend Kevin said he was interested in doing it AND the deadline for early registration was coming up in a week, I was SO IN. We checked on Facebook and DailyMile for any takers and we had our team in week. 

Now, we still have our team, for the most part. There are at least 10 of us who really want to do it. We had 2 people drop out in the last few weeks, one of which wanted their money back. Which in my opinion is COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY RUDE. Find someone else to take your spot and pay up and THEN ask for your money back. It’s hard enough on our teammate, who laid down $1000 for us and then waited for our checks. He is still out $90 (we never actually got a 12^th teammate) and now this other guy wants him to be out $180? Crazy. It’s our fault though. We never laid down the rules in the beginning about people who decide to drop out and what not. I guess we got too excited about our team and never even thought for a second someone would drop out. Silly us. 

Things have changed now. We’ve learned. We let everyone know that if someone decides to drop out, they need to find their replacement and either let them use their money or have them pay for it themselves. One of our gals drop out due to family issues and she found her replacement immediately (and she didn’t want her money back, so he was even more willing!). However, she was our 6^th girl. Since we are a co-ed team, we need AT LEAST 6 girls, so it’s fair. And now we need to find another one. 

So, we have two spots open. At least one of the spots is open to a girl (or both!). I hope no one else drops out. We have about 12 weeks until the race in February. Our team is going to a Ragnar 101 info meeting this Monday at Fleet Feet. Maybe they’ll tell us how we can look for more runners. *crossing my fingers*