Local Running Team Wins 193 Mile Marathon

Aug 25

Kerry Rodd-NSO

Last Saturday, a group of Duluth area runners finished first in Winona in the Ragnar 193-Mile Great River Relay. The event pits 12-person teams against each other in a race from Winona to Minneapolis.

Each of the teams is required to have 6 men and 6 women runners and each of those runners must run three legs with each leg ranging between 3-8 miles and each segment varying in difficulty. The Duluth Running Company won the event with a time of 19 hours, 57 minutes and 13 seconds.

Competing as a mixed team of 6 men and 6 women, the Duluth Running Company beat the #2 team, comprised of all males, by over 16 minutes.

Among the runners from the Northland Sports Online area on the winning team were Mike and Matt Kramer of Cloquet, Liz Palkie of Carlton, Samantha Smith and Jen Houck of Cromwell.

Billed as a 12 person, 2 van, 200 mile (ish), 24 hour relay, the
race started in Utah in 2004 with just 22 teams competing. Now known as the Ragnar Relay Series, it has grown into a series of relay races in 12 differant cities across the United States. There are nine differant classifications and within in each division there are 3 gender classifications: men’s, women’s, and mixed.

In all, there were 215 other teams in the race with the Duluth group taking first place by averaging a mile-time of 6:13 over the 193 mile course.

Click Here To View Complete Race Results

Kerry Rodd can be reached at Kerry@northlandsportsonline.com