The Ragnar Relay Series Great River race from Winona, Wisconsin to Minneapolis, Minnesota was held on August 21-22( that is not a typo; it takes two days) with 160 teams of twelve runners each participating. The course was originally planned to start in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, but had to be moved, which made the race only 195 miles instead of the 200. When I first head that the race was shortened, I thought we should drop out as protest of reducing the number of miles run; however, my teammates over ruled me. The course had some serious hills. I was glad that one of them was while I was running in the dark and could not see it, or I would have probably died from fear. The Mississippi Hair was made up of Delbert Hosemann, Terrell Knight, Larry Lefoldt, David Mockbee, Kirk Nelson, Charles O'Mara, Carlos Prevost, Lamar Rutledge, Larry Singleton, Bobby Thompson, Phillip Wedgeworth, and Jeff Wilson. We won second in the "old person" category; however, we did very well overall too. This race made me realize how old I am since I was teaching when one of our "senior citizens" was a student at Jones. The teams had staggered starts with the slower teams starting about 7:00 a.m. We started at 11:00. Running for about twenty-six hours straight was a serious challenge to our team and all of the others; many of whom took much much longer than that.  The Ragnar motto is "Run, Drive, Sleep?". I think that I slept about three hours in thirty-six, which counts the time before the race and the after-race party.  Many of the teams were very creative in their names and their costumes( see photos). After the race, we had a great party with plenty of good music, food, and drink.  Participating in something like this requires a great deal of work and organization. Delbert with the help of Mona ( or maybe it was the other way around) did a great job planning everything from the rooms to the van rentals and much more than I can possibly mention. If anyone ever gets the chance, traveling the 1150 miles from the Pine Belt is worth it for this experience. © Phillip Wedgeworth  See Ragnar