The Ragnar Relay is a multi stage, point to point team relay race covering hundreds of kilometers in one straight shot. Only 90 minutes from Toronto, right outside of Orillia lies an adventure seeker’s paradise known as Hardwood Ski and Bike. Your team of 8 members (or 4 ultra members) will conquer a set of three trails, or “loops”, that start and stop at Ragnar Village.

Teams start on Friday morning, run through the night with headlamps, and finish on Saturday. When you’re not running, you’ll enjoy camping with friends, bonfires, s’mores and party vibe that is unique to Ragnar. This overnight running relay is everything you loved about summer camp as a kid, with WILD trails to enjoy, billions of stars overhead, and no curfew.

There were 3 local teams involved in Ragnar. 1 - The Slurry Sisters (report included), 2 - Team Bear Bait with Xavier Icardo and 3 - Orange Mud Ambassadors with Henry Wong and Tricia Grynspan

(see photos below)

Slurry Sisters conquer Ragnar Trail Relay

WAKE UP…..IT’S YOUR TURN TO RUN!!!

It sounded like so much fun at the registration party, take 8 of your best run buddies, run, eat, sleep and laugh through 190 km of trails. It turned out to be a cold, hard, happy, painful yet amazingly satisfying challenge. The Slurry Sisters with Blisters entered the Ragnar Trail Relay at Hardwood Hills, We Found Our Wild, We Became Ragnarians and we are all ready to do it again next year.
190 km in total, 24 km each, through the day, night, heat, cold, fog, trails, roots, rocks, bridges, sticks and dust of Hardwood Hills. We camped, ran, ate, slept (not really), recovered and repeated for 28 hours and loved it. Each team member ran 3 loops, 1 green (easy), 1 yellow (intermediate) and 1 red (hard) in alternating order so that some ran them in the day and some at night. Thank you to Keegan, Jess and Hillory for braving the red trail in the pitch dark…you are our heroes.

The weekend began innocently enough with a 5 am wake up to get to the venue and watch the safety video prior to being allowed to check in. You know it’s going to be ‘fun’ if there is a mandatory safety video first. Once we checked in we sent Hillory off to start the day, she was joined by Christine, our amazing team volunteer who actually ran 2 loops just for support, you rock sista!!. We then set up tents, snacks, our mascot and developed the plan for making sure we were awake and ready for our night runs….this relay just got real!

We had a rotation, we knew who to follow and who to wake up before we could nap. It actually worked quite well; cheer someone in, run your loop, be cheered in, wake up your snoring teammate, help them get coffee before they run in the dark and then you can have a nap. The Ragnar transition tent system was just as smooth, they slapped a bracelet on your wrist that matched the colour of trail you are heading out on and as you came in they took it off so you got a new one each loop. If you forgot what loop you were on, (at 2:00 am this is possible) you just took a look at your wrist and made sure you followed the trail signs with the same colour.

There was a village set up around the transition tent, it had a screen that tracked the teams coming through so you had a warning when your teammate was 200 m out from the finish, a big bonfire, a phone charging station, hot chocolate, coffee, s’more station, music and portable heaters….which were much appreciated given the dip to 2 degrees that night.

The trails were true to their description, the green trail, which I got to run at night, was an easy flow of mostly single-track switchbacks that allowed you to keep a good pace going, was relatively flat, maybe rolling, and visually easy to follow, even at midnight.
Yellow found you dipping into a valley and of course enjoying the down pace until you had to climb your way back up and out, around the single track, up and out through the pine bed and then up and out through the double wide grassy hill, oh and then up and out one more time, to reach the trail merge that brought you to transition.
Red was just ughhhh, I had saved the best for last, my legs were less than happy with the constant up and down over definitely the most treacherous of root and rock combinations with some log and boulder obstacles thrown in and a ‘plank walk’ that sent you about 2 feet down off the end. I have no idea how one of our 3 night runners didn’t land on their face.

Ragnar put together a well organized and fully supported event. Check in was efficient, the Friday night dinner they supplied was a buffet with plenty of choices, there were indoor washrooms that felt like pure luxury and outdoor portapotties close to the camping area that were kept exceptionally clean.

It is very satisfying to run in the last 50 m with your team and receive your 8 medals that fit together, just like your well-oiled team. When you put the medal together, they formed a slogan, our read ‘Together we conquered Ragnar Trail, Together we can do anything, We are Ragnarians’. They also conveniently act as a spoon, fork, bottle opener, wrench and screwdriver.

I’m so glad I jumped in on this adventure, thank you to my trail sistas, who along with running strong all came together to make a great team;
Hillory, you braved the first run, the night run and the painful run all with a smile
Helen, you brought laughter, as usual, particularly as you tried to set up your air hammock
Jess, you stayed after a Mayhem meeting just to see what this was about and you rocked it!
Tina, you saved us at the last minute without (much) hesitation
Katrina, you made sure we had a proper kitchen and outfitted our mascot
Keegan, you brought ‘the money makers’, young fast legs : )
Brenda, you brought us together
Christine, you brought true volunteer spirit, smiles, cheers and support

Thank you Sisters.

Photos Here

Will's Marathon Report:

In August 2017, Tawnecia & I ran the Petra Desert Marathon in Jordan. The run starts out in the UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the "New 7 Wonders of the World" - Petra . It is a city carved out of red sandstone mountains, and the race started out with us venturing past the tombs and caves in Petra before running through the Jordanian desert.

With an elevation gain and loss of over 1.4km according to my Garmin forerunner and temperatures in the high 30's degrees Celsius range with little shade, this was by far the most difficult marathon that I have completed and half marathon that Tawnecia has completed. Two female fellow runners who had each run over 100 marathons, and another male runner - all three of whom had also completed IronMan's stated that the Petra Desert Marathon was the hardest marathon that they had done and was harder than the IronMan's that they had completed.

This was also the first race in which I had gone through my mind that I have had enough and felt like giving up (the heat was nearly unbearable at the start of the mountain climb, and I felt very sick). It was arduous to get past this feeling and to regain the "believe in yourself, and all those that have supported you - have the courage and heart to continue to pursue your dreams". It definitely helped to talk to fellow runners from around the world and hear that I was not alone, and that they were clearly suffering as well. We encouraged each other to push through the doubts and pain.

With a dream-like mountainous lunar landscape, and beautiful colours of gold, brown, orange and red offset by green flora the course is absolutely stunning. The local Bedouins with their camels and goats on the course also added to the exotic feel of the run. I went through more water than I can measure, 4 gels, a pack of energy chews, 3 bananas and several cups of electrolyte beverage and coke during the race. The course is well supported with three doctor's on course, and aid stations with friendly and helpful Jordanian volunteers every few kilometres serving some combination of water, electrolyte beverage, coke and/or bananas This was a very rewarding race to finish, especially with new the new friends that we made.

The Petra Desert Marathon was continent 4 of 7 for Tawnecia to complete the Seven Continents Half Marathon club, and continent 5 of 7 for myself to complete the Seven Continents Marathon Club.

I have attached a link below to the race video that I captured on the course.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eOi01nY_t4

Tawnecia's Half Marathon Report:

My experience was a little different from William's as I did the half instead of the full marathon. Switching from the full to the half was a very tough decision to make and it took me right up to the last few minutes to make the change. This was due to several struggles I was facing at the time. My training had not been going well and shortly after the long plane journey and then the drive down to the lowest point on earth (which was incredible to float in the dead sea) my ankle and calf on my right leg swelled up. I am not sure if this was due to the fact that it was the first time I had not worn compression socks on the plane or just some fluky thing that happened but it worried me. These and a few other things were my deciding factors in making the switch. I did feel like a bit of a failure at the time, however, half way up that mountain I knew I had made the right decision and was very happy that I was doing the half.

My race went very well, I never once felt sick or that I needed to stop even though it was crazy hot and supper hilly. I kept a steady pace of mostly walking the up hill portions and running everything else. I took in very little water and nutrition compared to everyone else but I did have 1/2 a banana and a small sip of coke which is something I normally do not do while running but it did seem to help.

I had a great time on the course which was beautiful and I was able to stop for photos, and spent some time talking with another runner while we were climbing the big mountain; however I did end up losing her at some point because I started running again and I think she just kept walking for a bit longer. During this time we had passed a gentlemen who was not feeling so great (he did finish) and another lady who seemed to be struggling a bit as well. He encouraged her to keep going as hills were her strong suit and they were because once I lost the other lady I was running when this lady came up behind me and we basically spent the rest of the race together. We both pushed each other without having to say a word to one another. As I would start walking she would start running and pass me so I would start running and pass her once she started walking...This went on right up to the last km of the race when I pulled ahead and put in the final push to the finish which was downhill all the way in, she was however right behind me.

The course was grueling with the constant uphill battle, and the down hill in the last 4 km was not your usual let gravity take you in kind of down hill. This was more like running down a sharp drop off with gravel and uneven pavement. That last km however was nice and smooth and although my entire body was sore I was not hurt so I gave it all I had.

The finish area was very nice and just what you would have wanted at the end of that run. Some shade in the Bedouin style tents with some food and pop/water to drink while relaxing and cheering on all the other runners. Our hotel was just across the street from the finish and I had every intention of going to shower then coming back to see William finish but I was having such a good time talking with other runners and watching everyone else finish that I stayed to watch the last person cross the finish line. This was one of the best running experiences I have had in such a unique setting.

Cheers,
Tawnecia

One of the province’s most scenic areas to host second fall classic road race…

A stunning scenic course newly sanctioned as a Class A road race by Athletics Ontario, the Killarney Mountain Lodge Fall Classic boasts both road and trail runs. Three races will get underway on the morning of Sunday, September 24 with a 5km, 10km, and 21.1 Half Marathon attracting a cross section of runners. Each race features plenty of road running with some gravel trails, and a course that’s relatively flat with plenty of wild life and magnificent fall colours on view.

Last year’s winner of the Half Marathon James Morgan says he’ll be back to defend his title, “It’s such a treat to come to this part of the country for the beautiful scenery and wilderness, not to mention that running in the fall is a lot of fun. He adds, “I’m returning not only to keep the tradition alive and try and set another personal best time, but also because I love running and I love this event.” Morgan ran the Half Marathon in 1 hour and 48 minutes and his goal is to beat that, “I hope I’ve trained enough to set another personal best. I plan to give it my best shot.”

Organizers are also setting the table to ensure runners have the ideal diet both before and after the race. Athletes can look forward to carb loading the night before, when Killarney Mountain Lodge hosts a pasta buffet feast. General Manager, Kelly McAree says it’s also becoming a bit of a tradition, “We’re excited to get the runners ready for race day by providing them with a pasta dinner ahead of the run, and once again our chef has planned a fish fry post-race to help them build back much needed protein after crossing the finish line. We’re also hearing the Fall Classic is an event runners are flagging for their race calendars.”

Click on Maps for larger PDF

Register at the Running Room here

For more information please contact Kelly McAree

Email: gm@killarney.com

About Killarney Mountain Lodge
Killarney, a jewel that is less than four hours north of Toronto, is a nature lover's paradise offering nearby access to hiking, kayaking and canoeing on Georgian Bay and in the interior lakes set within 187 square miles of undisturbed mountain wilderness at Killarney Provincial Park.

The surrounding pristine, sapphire blue lakes provide the perfect setting for recreational adventure. Other activities organized by the lodge include biking, fishing, sailing and powerboat excursions, swimming, tennis and yoga. After a day on the mountain, or on the water, guests can savour gourmet cottage cuisine, including a weekly fish fry, along with lakeside views from the channel at one of the Georgian Bay's best adventure resorts.

For more information, visit www.killarney.com. Killarney Mountain Lodge, #3 Commissioner Street, Killarney, ON, Canada - or call 1-800-461-1117.