Rank Stranger story

Rank Strangers is the only team to compete in all seven Madison-Chicago run relays.  Founded by Eric Engdahl and Mark Clear, they've put nearly 40 runners on the course and seen the race change from Great Midwest Relay (GMR) to MC200 in 2007 and Ragnar in 2011.

Mark Clear

"Rank Strangers" is word play in a number of ways. Mostly significantly, they are NOT strangers. Thirty-seven (37) different runners have made the journey and all were referred by other Rank Strangers.  Three rookies in 2012 will bring that number to 40. Nineteen (19) Rank Strangers have run multiple races.   Eric Engdahl and Jeff Shampo have run all seven years.  Mark Clear and Art Saffran have raced 6 of 7.  Renee Roux and Marc Golab have raced four times.

2005 runner Keith Dudding coined the team name, drawing inspiration from an old song, "I am a poor wayfaring stranger travelling through this world of woe."   He added, “actually, after we've all run a leg or two, we would more closely resemble a tune made popular by The Stanley Brothers ... ‘Rank Strangers’.”

Eric Engdahl

Rank Strangers typically finish in the middle of the pack, the priority being fun, not fast. That hasn’t stopped some of the runners from blazing to fast times on their legs, however.   The team has many experienced marathoners, including five (5) Boston qualifiers and two (2) iron man triathletes.

Rank Stranger team building includes tracking individual exploits on their blog ( www.rankstrangers.info ) circulating weekly training tips starting in the months before the race.  The training tips are accompanied with team trivia.  Example:  "The only runner to run the same leg 6 times Mark (1, 13, 25).  Others who have run the same leg more than 3 times:  Jeff 4 (leg 6, 18, 30) and Eric 4 (31) 3 (19, 24)."  After the race a photo book is distributed, commemorating the team's accomplishments.  A recent development is trading cards; a Jeff Shampo card was issued in 2011 (see http://tinyurl.com/89944ld for a blog entry about the 2011 photo book and the trading cards).   Rank Strangers are on twitter @rankstrangers.

Mark Clear is Madison 19th District Alder since 2007 and Council president 2010-11.  He is co-founder and CEO of technology firm IMS  (www.ims.net).   Eric Engdahl is a manager at Health Care Services Corporation (Blue Cross Blue Shield) in Chicago.