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Interview with Ragnar Relay Founder Tanner Bell.
81 Plays5 years ago
We interview one of the founders of Ragnar Relay, Tanner Bell in the first of our new Podcast episodes. Enjoy! #ukrunchat
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Transcript
Introduction to UK Run Chat Podcast
00:00:04
Speaker
Welcome to this, the first of our new podcast from UK Run Chat. I'm Joe Williams, and we will be bringing you interviews with people from all aspects of the running world. So they may be elite level runners who have just competed. They may be community members completing their first 5K. We'll have experts in their field, such as physiotherapists, ecologists, podiatrists coming on. We'll have event directors, people from behind the products that you buy.
00:00:33
Speaker
and more and we'll be asking them to talk specifics and answer your questions which we will gather from you through the UK Run Chat social media channels. We hope you'll enjoy listening and of course join in.
Interview with Tanner Bell: Co-founder of Ragnar Relay
00:00:46
Speaker
First up we're really lucky to have joining us all the way from the US is Tanner Bell. Tanner is one of the founders of Ragnar Relay. Now for those of you who already know about this event or are already a Ragnarion
00:01:01
Speaker
you will know that this is a team event with a difference. Think you, nine of your friends jumping in two vans and hitting 170 ish miles of the beautiful scenery that runs from Sittingbourne to Dover and on to Brighton in a running relay format.
00:01:18
Speaker
Yes, that means day and night runs whilst you have a great time with your teammates. The 2020 event takes place in September 19th to 20th, weekend off. And if you want to know more about this event, then you can take a look at the website, which is runragnard.com. You can also chat to the team on Sunday, the 26th of January when they join us on the UK Run Chat, our responses. And of course, you can continue listening to our interviewer Drew speaking with Tanner now.
00:01:48
Speaker
Enjoy. Hello and welcome to the UK Run Chat podcast with your host, Drew Diamond. That's me. And my guest today, Tanner Bell from Ragnar Relay. How are you, Tanner? I'm good. Yeah, thanks for having me. Excited to be talking with you. No, it's an absolute pleasure. So I've got a pile of questions for you. Are you happy to get going? Crack on. Let's do it.
00:02:16
Speaker
So the first and obvious one from me, what is Ragnar relay and how, and where did it originate from?
What is Ragnar Relay?
00:02:22
Speaker
Yeah, it's a great question. So, uh, Ragnar is a overnight. Well, it's a series of overnight running relay races, uh, both road and trail relay races. So, um, we typically do 10 person, the road relay is a 10 person.
00:02:40
Speaker
overnight running relay where you take turns running different legs from start to finish, from point to point. So the UK version starts, it's Ragnar Whitecliff, it starts in Maidstone and ends in Brighton and it runs along the coast. So it's this beautiful overnight running event where teams of 10 take turns, you know, handing a baton off and running all through the day, through the night and into the next day.
00:03:10
Speaker
Um, so you have, you know, two vehicles that start, uh, two vehicles and you put five people in one vehicle, five people in the other vehicle and those vehicles basically leapfrog each other the whole way. So it's kind of a overnight running party. Um, and then our trail relay is a, is a teams of eight and with a central village that starts and ends with a three loops that start and end in the central village and sim similar format, instead of moving from point to point, you have a, uh, a tent.
00:03:40
Speaker
and your team camps out at the village, and you take turns, the teams of eight take turns running all three loops. And when teams run all three loops, they're done. And it originated in the US. You probably guessed that by my accent. So it originated in the state of Utah. I'm one of three original founders, myself and the two other founders. We had heard about this race in Oregon.
00:04:09
Speaker
state called the hood to coast. And we love the concepts. We brought it to our home state of Utah and it was wildly successful. So we, uh, that was back in 2006 and we've just been expanding, um, ever since. And I think we have now something like, uh, you know, 48 races around the world. Um, so it's just been this really amazing movement. Yeah.
00:04:33
Speaker
It does sound amazing. I can imagine as well that some of the views you get on that course you've just described to me are amazing. Yeah. Yeah. And I missed the, so we have a trail relay in the UK called the Ragnar Trail Forest of Dean. That's going to be the first year this year. We're super excited about it. It's a beautiful course.
Ragnar Trail Forest of Dean: A Festival Experience
00:04:54
Speaker
And it's such a unique concept, the trail running, the trail running concept where you run three loops, you run through the night, you have, you know, bonfire, you have music, you just have this really great kind of tribal festival experience. It's kind of like, you know, take a music festival and mash it with a trail run. And what you get is, is, is Ragnar Trail, Forest of Dean. And then the White Cliffs is, I mean, that was the very first international race
00:05:22
Speaker
For us, Ragnar, international race we ever did, and it just blows my mind every time. I love, it's one of my favorite courses in our whole series. Yeah, running through Diehl and Dover and Seven Sisters and finishing at Brighton is just fantastic. So yeah, so it's a really great adventure. It really does sound amazing. Now I've heard a lot about Ragnar from my fellow runners, from people in the
00:05:52
Speaker
running community. What is it specifically do you think that's built up such a cult following with the Ragnar series? Yeah, you know, I think that we, I think that the format of the race lends itself I mean, running is generally a solitary sport, right?
Ragnar Events: Team Sports and Inclusivity
00:06:10
Speaker
We're worried about
00:06:11
Speaker
you know, when you run on your own, you're worried about your nutrition, you're worried about your, your PR, you're worried about your, you know, your fitness, your training. And Ragnar kind of flips it on his head and makes running a team sport, right? And that's why, you know, I think we've seen so much success with some of the London based running clubs, right? These big city clubs like London Midnight Runners or the Midnight Runners and
00:06:43
Speaker
the, uh, uh, what's the other ones that brunch club, London brunch club, and a bunch of others because running all of a sudden has become a team sport and Ragnar has been a big part of, of growing that sort of team sport. And so all of a sudden you go from, it's not so much about the running as much as caring about your teammates. Right. And, and then it's also about that connection in the van. And so having those conversations in the tent at the camp ground or in the van,
00:07:08
Speaker
You know, a lot of times we hear like, you know, running is a bit of a byproduct of Ragnar. It's really about spending quality time with friends and teammates and meeting strangers and going through this whole adventure. And so it's really a transformative event where, um, where by the finish line, you have become sort of best friends with these complete strangers that you've been running with. Um, and that just really lends itself to really being committed to, you know, these deep
00:07:37
Speaker
people build these deep connections with Ragnar and we call ourselves Ragnarians. And I think that's where the sort of tribal feeling is like we feel that everybody feels like they're in it together. And the other thing that we've always strived to do, I mean, they are somewhat challenging events, but we really strive to make them accessible to the broadest group of athletes possible.
00:08:02
Speaker
Um, and so what we find is that we have, you know, it's very unique that a beginning runner can run, can train and run with an advanced runner on the same team. And so that also has this, like, it kind of brings this, everyone's into it. Um, everyone's in it together. And that's where I think that tribal following of Ragnarans come from. So. Yeah, I absolutely love the sound of that. I can really understand why people rant and rave about it.
00:08:31
Speaker
So you mentioned a couple of key words there. I heard that you need a van and I also heard the word Ragnarians So what do I need to be in a team and how do I become a Ragnarian? Yeah, so we so we do so it's a team of 10 for for the white cliffs for our road relay Reebok Ragnar white cliffs, so
00:08:56
Speaker
It's a team of 10, so typically what you'll need is yourself and nine other people. And that sounds a little bit daunting. I always hear people say, oh, I only have two friends that run, right? But really all you need is two people, because then those two people can find two people, and those two people can find two people. Before you know it, you actually form a team.
00:09:18
Speaker
So the first thing you need is a team. You can also join by doing half teams. So if you only want to do a team of five, then we can pair you up with another team of five. And if you just want to join a team as an individual, or maybe you have two friends that want to join, then you can jump on our Facebook page and find a team. They're always looking for runners. So first of all, you need to find a team.
00:09:45
Speaker
Um, second of all, you, uh, you know, we have a training program, so you go on our website. Um, Ragnar is built for everybody. It just, you just need a little bit of training. Um, so, you know, the nice thing is this, you're training with friends, right? So you got people depending on you, you got people pushing you, meet up with them on the weekends to train. Um, and then you need, uh, you just need to make sure you have two vehicles. So two vehicles that'll fit five people in each vehicle.
00:10:13
Speaker
I always recommend that you bring three changes of clothes because you'll run three different legs throughout the race. So you run one leg during the day on Saturday, you'll run once you get night on either Saturday night or Sunday morning, and then you'll run one leg the next day on Sunday. And then you want a pair of clothes for just kind of hang out in between your legs.
00:10:43
Speaker
So that's, yeah, that's all you need. And then a good attitude and an adventurous spirit. Yeah, of course. I think anyone with an adventurous spirit will be really excited by what you've just told me. So is there a cutoff point at all for these races? Because obviously they sound quite intense, but also quite accessible. Is there a cutoff point? Is there a bare minimum? Yeah, so the cutoff point, you know, typically
00:11:12
Speaker
Typically, it's not something that you need to worry, that people need to worry about, but there is generally a minute per mile cutoff point of about, say, an average pace of 11 minutes per mile.
00:11:32
Speaker
So typically it's not something that people buff up against because you can have a person that's running 12 minutes per mile and then you can have somebody running eight minutes per mile and you average out to 10 minutes per mile.
00:11:45
Speaker
So there is a cutoff, but we generally work with those teams. If they do bump up against that cutoff, then we work with those teams and help them move them forward to make sure that we give them every chance to get across the finish line. To be fair to the other teams, to be fair to the other teams, we don't include those people if we bump them or if they skip portions.
00:12:12
Speaker
Um, then we don't include them in the official results, but at least people are still getting across the finish line together. Um, and you know, getting a medal for finishing. So nice. I really liked that touch. Um, so you've just mentioned the medals there. Now I've spoke to a few people and they tell me they're really epically special. Can you tell me a little bit about the medals and the design?
00:12:34
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. So we, I mean, that's one thing that we kind of did from the beginning is we wanted to be known for our medals. And so we, we go, we go a little heavy, a little bit in your face, a little bit blingy with the, with the medals and really put thought into every year, you know, coming out with
00:12:55
Speaker
the new and exciting medal for our participants. So every year we've just got a large, unique, very intricately designed medal for the year. And then we actually do medals for people that run all of our races in one year. If you run all your races, then you get a giant medal called the immortal medal. So yeah, we take a lot of care
00:13:23
Speaker
with our medals and just the normal medals are generally probably some of the biggest medals that our participants have seen. So it's a really important, we look at it as kind of a badge of honor. Ragnar, the Ragnar name actually came from the ninth century Viking king. He was a conqueror, a wanderer and a wild man and that's where the logo comes from. It's kind of this warrior mask and we like to
00:13:52
Speaker
We like to say that everybody has a little bit of a warrior, a little bit of a Ragnar inside of them. And so, you know, getting that medal, the finish line is kind of your badge of honor that you finished. So we want to make sure that it's big and in your face and very nice. I absolutely love that. I am a sucker for an interesting medal.
00:14:16
Speaker
Yeah, that's right. So you spoke a little bit there about the origin story of the name, but what was the origin
Origins of Ragnar Relay
00:14:22
Speaker
story behind the race? So you've said that there was three of you originally in Utah. What was the thought process that led to this being all developed? Yeah, yeah. So, um, as I said, the, um, the two founders and I, we had, um, one of our founders had participated in a race in Oregon called the hood to coast. And it was a similar overnight running relay race.
00:14:46
Speaker
And so he was actually, it was myself, my friend, and his father. And it was his father who had run the Hood to Coast. And he came back to Utah and said, man, it would be so cool to do a race like this in Utah. But he never got around to doing it. He was very busy. He was an attorney. And we were young. And so he talked about it for years, but never got around to doing it. So finally, when we were in uni, my friend and I
00:15:16
Speaker
We had been hearing him talk about this grand relay for years, and we decided we were going to do it. So we started that relay in 2004. That relay is called Reebok Ragnar Wasatch Back, and it runs along the backside of the Wasatch Mountains in Salt Lake City. It's just a beautiful course, and that race started at 262 teams, so 22 teams.
00:15:44
Speaker
And then the next year it was a hundred teams and the next year it was 300 teams. And, and it just kept growing from there. Um, and so we, we kind of knew we had a tiger by the tail. And so we started to launch races, you know, we launched a race in Oregon, a race in Washington. And, and it really just blew up and it became this huge movement in America. And then four years ago, three years, three and a half years ago, I moved to the UK. So I actually lived in.
00:16:11
Speaker
in Surrey for three years and helped launch our UK events, as well as our events in Sweden and Germany and Spain. And only recently moved back to the US. And we have a great team in the UK that's putting on these incredible relays in the UK. So yeah, so I'm missing my second home quite a bit. It's been six months since we've been home.
00:16:38
Speaker
And, uh, you know, seeing the white cliffs every year and participating in that event is something I definitely miss. So I'm excited to come back out. Yeah. I can imagine it is a truly special place. Um, and what a setting for a race as epic as that. Yeah. Yeah. Between that and forested Dean. I mean, I think those are some of our most beautiful courses that we have. So we're really excited about them. Yeah, of course. So if.
00:17:08
Speaker
If I was to join a team today, what is my day going to look like? If I join the Reebok Ragnar Whitecliff race, how is that going to go for me? How am I going to work alongside those teammates? And what do I do when I'm not running? Yeah, that's a great, that's a good question. So that's right. So the way it works is you have one.
00:17:28
Speaker
One runner, you know, runner one starts, uh, at the start line and they run a, each leg is roughly five or six miles, right? So they run say five miles and then they hand off to runner number two. And then runner two runs a leg, but five miles. And then he had to run a number three and then it goes all the way through the team up to 10, right? And then runner 10 then passes off to runner one. And then runner one has already done one leg. So then they do their second leg.
00:17:55
Speaker
So you rotate in order through three legs. And then so you're right. There's only one team member running at any one time, which means the other nine people are hanging out in the van.
00:18:07
Speaker
And it sounds like in two vehicles, I should say. And that sounds like, oh man, a lot of downtime. But that's really where the fun happens. While your team is running, or where your team member is running, you're following your team member and you're cheering them on. You're making sure that they're getting food and water and getting what they need.
00:18:31
Speaker
It's just sort of that team bonding experience. You're also, you know, the other vehicle maybe will go and get food while they have a little bit of break so they'll get food or they'll get sleep. You don't get a lot of sleep on this event, but generally you've got, you know, people will rent a hotel or just sleep on the ground and bring their sleeping bags and get, you know, if they're lucky, a couple hours of sleep and then keep running. So it's sort of like a running slumber party for adults.
00:19:02
Speaker
Sounds like my kind of night, but from the sound of what you've just said, you'll be running in the dark as well. How does that work? Yeah, that's right. Everybody will run one leg at night. At night, you're required to run with a reflective vest and a head torch, and then also a tail light, a blinking red tail light. You need to bring your own reflective vest, head torch, and tail light.
00:19:31
Speaker
And that is one of the most unique aspects of Ragnar. Honestly, it is such a unique opportunity. Generally, people just don't get the opportunity to run at night. And if you run at night, maybe in the evening, people run in the evening, sure, but do you get the chance to run into the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere, under the stars,
00:19:57
Speaker
I mean, it's just generally what I hear for new Ragnarians, that's what people are the most nervous about. And then by the end of the race, that ends up being their favorite lake because it's just a kind of transcendental, surreal opportunity to kind of run and yeah, just run under the stars and connect with nature and be cheered on by your team in the middle of the night.
00:20:24
Speaker
Uh, it's a, it's generally a very unique and exciting experience for people. It really does sound that way. You've mentioned a few of the other races that you, you host. What are the other Ragnar type events that you guys run? Just talk me through them a little bit. Yeah. So I mentioned the road relay. That's the Reebok Ragnar white cliffs. Um, and then also, um, uh, we have a trail relay.
00:20:52
Speaker
Reebok, sorry, Ragnar, Forest of Dean. And that one we talked about a little bit. That is a central village with three loops starting and ending in the central village. So it's kind of a clover leaf format. And one loop is easy, one loop is medium, and one loop is hard. So easy.
00:21:15
Speaker
easy, medium, and then hard. Basically what you do is a team of eight, and you rotate through, so runner one runs the easy leg, runner two runs the medium leg, and runner three runs the difficult leg, and then runner four runs the easy leg, so you just keep rotating through. Each team member gets a chance to run all three legs, and once those legs are done, then you finish.
00:21:41
Speaker
And that's also an overnight event. So everybody will run one leg at night. Once again, you don't have to wear a reflective vest on the trails because you don't have vehicles. But you still, of course, you wear a head torch. And that's a really great experience running the trails at night, something people don't get to do. And those are the two events we have in the UK. We also have some other events in the US, a shorter distance
00:22:06
Speaker
Um, or a shorter distance relay road relay that doesn't go overnight. And then a sunset concept. That's the shorter distance of our trail relay that doesn't also go overnight. So those are the, um, those are the events that we have. And we've got lots of new and exciting concepts coming. So we're excited to bring those to the UK, um, in the, in the short term also. That really does sound fantastic. So I don't know about everyone else, but I'm ready to be a Ragnarion. So.
00:22:34
Speaker
If me and the listeners want to start a team, where and where and how much will it be if we want to enter this year's race? Yeah.
Registering for Ragnar White Cliffs
00:22:44
Speaker
Yep. So, um, so you can enter at, um, you can go to run Ragnar.com. Um, and then you can, uh, and then go to the white cliffs, uh, event page, um, or you can just go to run Ragnar.com forward slash UK. And that will take you directly to the event page, um, to register a team.
00:23:05
Speaker
We have two types of teams. So to register a team of 10, you can, it's a 950 per team, 950 pounds per team. And that goes until February 7th. And then we have also an ultra team. So for those more hardcore runners that want more mileage, you can run it as a team of five.
00:23:35
Speaker
Um, the team of five, then you do double the mileage. So instead of running the standard team of, uh, of 10, we'll run about 15 miles total, 15 to 20 miles total, um, per person. And the ultra team per person will end up running double that. So between 30 and 40 miles, uh, total per person over the, over the two days of the event. So they'll, the ultra team runs.
00:24:00
Speaker
Double the legs and double the mileage. And that team right now is a 575 pounds until February 7th, and then the price goes up. So yeah, go to runragner.com. Go to the WhiteCliffs event page and register before February 7th. You get a little discount. And registration is open until August 5th, but the price will go up February 7th.
00:24:27
Speaker
Fantastic. I am so tempted and I'm going to hump myself some teammates. So the only important question, when is the actual date of the race? When do I need to be fit for? Yeah, I missed, uh, I missed the most important thing, right? Um, so yeah, the event is, uh, I just lost it actually. I just had it here. Um, hold on just a moment. I had the price and the location.
00:24:55
Speaker
And the date is September 19th and 20th. So plenty of time to train, register and get your team going on the course. So September 19th and 20th, sitting born Dover to Brighton. Absolutely. I'm sure I can lose these Christmas pounds by then.
00:25:18
Speaker
I'm sure you will be fine. You know, like I said, one of the great things about Ragnar is we got all shapes and sizes and beginning runners to experienced runners. So yeah, plenty of time to get out and get training and make this a reality. So we look forward to having anybody who wants to come run with us. I'll definitely fit in there then. Tanner, it has been an absolute pleasure. Thank you for joining UK Run Chat today.
00:25:45
Speaker
And we wish you all the best for the event. It sounds like it's going to be fantastic as always. And hopefully many of our listeners and myself will see you there. Sounds great. I'm looking forward to it. I love the event and, uh, just love the, love the, uh, the vibe that happens at white cliffs. It's one of my favorite events. So I'm really excited to see everybody out there this year. Fantastic. Thanks for your time. Wonderful. Thanks. Have a good one. Take care.