On an otherwise calm summer evening July 15 we saw a long trailer load of portable toilets heading for the La Conner schools campus. Our curiosity became aroused when moments later a seemingly endless parade of white passenger vans streamed down sixth street to the school grounds. That many toilets and all those vans meant that something special was about to take place in our little town.

Fearing that we might miss something, we headed for the campus and discovered that La Conner was the rest stop for teams from the 200 mile Ragnar relay race that had started that day in Blaine and would finish a night and a day later in Langley on Whidbey Island.

At the campus we found teams of up to twelve runners which are divided into squads of three or four. The folks that we talked to had just come off their running leg and were here to eat and get some sleep. Runners were spread around everywhere rolling out sleeping bags to try to sleep until it was time to load the vans to be transported to wherever their teammates were on the road. The procedure repeats throughout the night, run-eat-rest-repeat until sometime on Saturday the final group of each of the teams staggers joyfully across the finish line in Langley.

Who was Ragnar? Well, he shows up in many legends of Scandinavian history and, in a nutshell, he was a legendary Viking warrior that led raids on Englands’s coast. Ragnar was a free spirited, fearless leader and a bit of a wild man.

The first Ragnar relay was run in 2004 in Utah and it has grown to be the largest overnight relay in the nation. Ragnar runners are people that love fitness, seek adventure in the outdoors, encourage others and celebrate victories small and large. Sounds like a good way to spend a weekend.