Ragnar Napa Valley 2019: An Unexpected Turn Of Events

There's a lot of things I love about running, but the thing I love the most is perhaps the unity.  Running brings people together in amazing ways.  It's great to see people of all ages, all ethnic groups, and all walks of life coming together and bonding over a simple physical activity.  One Sunday morning, the Mountain View Area Run Club, a local group I run with on weekends, orchestrated a collaboration run with the San Jose Vietnamese Run Club.  I had so much fun meeting the members of SJVRC, I suggested to the group leaders that we do more collaboration runs.  But running groups aren't the only organizations bringing people together.  Sanctioned races, depending on their size and level of fame, sometimes attract people from all over the globe to share a common goal of reaching the finish line.  One race series that is known for uniting people is Ragnar.  What is Ragnar you might ask?  It's a series of long distances relay races held all over the country, most of them about two-hundred miles in length, in which teams of twelve take turns running individually.  There are thirty-six segments and each team member runs three times.  That's the website's definition.  My definition is: twelve people, friends, strangers, or both, connecting with each other by hanging out in a van together for thirty-six hours with some running in between.

One Thursday morning in late October, as I was getting out of the shower, my phone buzzed.  When I checked, I saw that I had an unread message on WhatsApp from my friend Anthony.  In roughly twenty-four hours, he and I, along with ten other people, were going to be toeing the start line of Ragnar Napa Valley in San Francisco and embarking on a two day and one night adventure of Ragnar-ing, as I like to call it.  We would go north through Marin County, to Petaluma, to Santa Rosa, turn around in Healdsburg, then head back south before turning at some juncture and heading east to the finish line in Napa.  In an effort to streamline communication among the group members, Anthony had started a WhatsApp thread with the entire group.  I opened the message.  "Hey guys, should we be concerned about this Kincade Nor Cal fire?".  Fire? What fire? I thought.  But once I keyed "Kincade fire" into Google, I learned that a wildfire had ignited in the middle of the night up in Sonoma County very close to the race course.  Upon reading the news, we all began checking the Ragnar Napa website and Facebook group, which advised that the Race Directors would make the decision later on in the afternoon as to whether or not the race would still happen.  We checked throughout the day and by 1:00 PM, sure enough, we received an email that the event was cancelled.  With the air quality in the Sonoma wine country deteriorating, and the fire spreading onto the course, the Race Directors had no choice but to call the race off and issue refunds to all the participants.  There was nothing that anyone could do about it, but it was disappointing situation, nonetheless.  Some runners had been looking forward to this event for several months and people had traveled by plane from all over the country to participate.  Despite our unfortunate situation, our team decided to meet in San Francisco that night for dinner, as originally planned.  When I arrived at the restaurant later on, I quickly spotted Anthony and some of the other team members near the entrance.  Once the rest of the team showed up, we were seated in a large space in the corner.  As I sat among the group sipping a beer and enjoying a top notch Margherita pizza, I got to know our team:

Anthony: Our team captain and ring leader, Anthony is a friend and old co-worker of mine from the Los Angeles area.  We bonded over our shared passion for running while working together at Cornerstone, and we've since ran several Ragnar races together.  Although his physique more closely resembles that of a linebacker than a scrawny distance runner, running has played a prominent role in his life for several years and he participates in at least one Marathon every year.    

Travis:  Travis and I met each other during Ragnar Los Coyotes the previous fall when his girlfriend Alyssa, another former co-worker of mine, recruited me to run with her team alongside Travis, Anthony, and a handful of their friends.  Strong, fast, and born into a military family, Travis sets a rule for himself that he always follows when it comes to distance running; "I run fast enough to the point where I feel a little uncomfortable.  That's how I know I'm pushing hard enough".

    

John C: A Software Engineer, and former co-worker of Anthony's at Cornerstone, John has done several long distance multi-day hikes through the mountains of Europe and has aspirations to someday run an ultra.  I told him I recommend giving it a try!

Kristen: A co-worker of Anthony's, and the one responsible for giving our team the epic name of "Pour Decisions", Kristen is originally from Virginia and moved to the Los Angeles area three years prior.  Loud, silly, and exuberant, she seemed to be skilled at making everyone around her laugh and enjoy themselves. 

Tony and Kim: Unlike most of the team who had traveled from Southern California to participate in Ragnar, Tony and Kim, a boyfriend/girlfriend couple, had flown in all the way from Minnesota.  We had gotten in touch with them through the Ragnar Facebook page and quickly added them to our lineup when we realized they were looking for a team to join.  Kim keeps busy working as a teacher and Tony as a Technician, but they make plenty of time to do the things they love, and aspire to golf and run a race in every U.S. state.  Coincidentally, they reside in the same rural Minnesota town that I will be traveling to in January to run a forty-mile winter ultra in St. Croix State Park.

Patrick:   Also a Minnesota resident and co-worker of Kim's, he flew back home after he found out the race was cancelled, so unfortunately I didn't get a chance to meet him.

Wendy:  Originally from the Bay Area and now residing in Seattle, we also found Wendy on the Facebook page while searching for team members.  When she found out the race was cancelled she decided stay in San Jose for the remainder of the weekend to spend some much needed time with her family, so unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to meet her.

Matt:  Originally from Buffalo, New York, Matt was the only other member of our team living in the Bay Area besides me.  He had gotten to know Anthony while working at Cornerstone before moving to San Francisco and has participated in several road races. 

Ed: Another Cornerstone employee and co-worker of Anthony's, Ed was not only supposed to be running Ragnar with us this weekend, he was also one of the lucky runners who would be participating in the New York City Marathon the following weekend, which was going to be his second 26.2 mile journey.

John:  He was sitting way at the other side of the table, so unfortunately all I got out of him was that his name was also John, and that he was a co-worker of Anthony's.  I think...

After dinner, the group dispersed for the evening and I told everyone I'd see them on Saturday night before heading back to my parked car.  Anthony had rented a house in Fairfield through Airbnb for an overnight stay on Saturday night after the race, and since nearly everyone in the group decided to keep their original returning flights to their respective hometowns, a handful of us would be spending Saturday night in Fairfield and returning home on Sunday morning.  Even though I had taken the day off work on Friday, I went into the office to get some stuff done, and when Saturday night rolled around, I drove up to Napa to meet the group at a local steakhouse for dinner. The group, which consisted of Anthony, Travis, Kristen, Tony, Kim, Ed, and John C, told me stories of their adventures over the last couple of days, running along the San Francisco Bay, exploring the Bay Area, and visiting local breweries.  Over a couple of bottles of wine and delicious food, the eight of us shared lots of laughs and stories before making our way to the house we rented.  When Travis and I from a beer run, we found the group huddled in the mini theater upstairs trying to get the giant TV to work.  The host left instructions, but after an hour of frustration, we gave up and decided to play a game instead.  Being a board game enthusiast, I thought for sure Travis had brought a game along, but when it turned out he hadn't, we decided to play a makeshift version of Codenames by ripping a few pieces of paper into twenty-five squares and laying them out on the floor in board game format.  After a fun and amusing night of beer drinking, red wine spilling on the carpet, me resorting to cheating at Codenames because my team kept losing, lots of laughs, and a whole decanter of wine nearly being tipped over, I finally went to bed shortly after 2:00 AM.  When the sun cracked the horizon over the hills outside by bedroom window the next morning, I opened my eyes and felt as if I were sleeping in an icebox.  The air conditioner was cranking and I cocooned myself in the blankets trying to keep warm.  I eventually rose from my bed and stepped into the hallway, looking over the railing near the stairs as the house filled with orange light through the windows from the sunrise.  Anthony emerged from his room a few minutes later.  "Morning dude.  Why is it so cold in here?"  He looked at me and began laughing.  "You know how you and I were trying to turn on the A/C last night and couldn't figure out the thermostat?  Well, I guess kinda figured it out after all..."  I walked into the theater room and saw the wreckage from the night before; a deflated air mattress, several empty alcohol containers, and ripped up pieces of paper leftover from Codenames.  "Who was sleeping on the air mattress?" I asked.  Anthony just shrugged.  I headed downstairs towards the kitchen and saw Ed sound asleep on the floor wrapped in a blanket.  When he awoke, he explained that he couldn't inflate the air mattress, so he tried sleeping on the downstairs couch but it was too uncomfortable, so he finally just passed out on the floor.  Once the rest of the crew woke up, we made a homemade breakfast together while episodes of Goosebumps and Prank Encounters played on the living room TV and a fire roared in the fireplace.  Eventually, our check out time came, and by 12:30 PM we had said our goodbyes, and I headed back home, while the rest of the team either went to the airport or killed some time exploring the area before their flights departed later on.

As I said in the beginning, running brings people together in amazing ways.  I would like to add that after this experience, it also brings people together in unexpected ways.  When I stepped into the shower on Thursday morning I felt excited about how this running adventure would bring the group together.  But later that day when I found out the race was cancelled, that excitement dissipated.  Although I would still be spending time with the team, I doubted that I would get what I was hoping for out of the experience; a chance to form new friendships with a diverse group of people through running.  How could the bond form if there was no running?  The simple physical activity that brings people together.  The key element of this adventure.  I knew it wouldn't be the same, but I remained optimistic throughout the experience, as did the rest of the team.  As I drove home that day, I reflected on the fun weekend I had.  I realized that although the weekend took an unexpected turn and we didn't end up running, this group of people from several different walks of life managed to bond and connect.  We may have all initially gathered in the San Francisco Bay Area with running being the highlight of the weekend, but in the end, what really brought us together was having dinner, drinking, playing games, cooking, and spending time together as a group.  "You have seven new friends now" I told Kristen at the house on Saturday night.  Once everyone had parted ways for good later on that night, we messaged each other through the WhatsApp thread promising that we would get together again.  Tony and Kim encouraged us all to visit Minnesota to run a Ragnar race that would be taking place out there next year.  Through it all, I had gotten exactly what I hoped for out of this weekend, but in an unexpected way.  I knew I would always remember this Ragnar experience.  I'd also like to add that even with my blatant, over the top cheating at Codenames towards the end of the night, we still never won a friggin' game...