Severe weather was a major theme for the Madison-Chicago relay, with highs of 90 degrees on Friday in Madison and 93 in Chicago on Saturday (compared to averages of 76 and 79, respectively). More climactic spice was added by Friday night’s thunderstorm which put the brakes on the race for two hours, from 10pm to midnight.
In short, running conditions were extremely difficult, perhaps the worst ever for our relay runs. This slowed everyone down, even the team members who had obviously trained well.
While the 500+ teams idled all along the course (staggered race starts begin at 5:30AM; Rank Strangers started at 9AM), race management shuffled the deck. They shortened our race by cancelling two “legs”, with Van#1 skipping ahead on the night shift, running four legs rather than six. They also invited us to run the vans concurrently for our Saturday rather than consecutively so we could meet a newly imposed finish deadline of 8PM. The changes allowed us to reach the finish at LaBagh Woods Forest Preserve about 2.5 hours ahead of our expected time.
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| Friday night tweet predicted the turbulence for the relay, the storm sweeping in from the north and west where it felled trees and knocked out power |
Congratulations to the 2016 team at Ragnar Chicago – Mark Clear, Jeff Shampo, Bob Holzer, Peter Wagner, Pete Boll, Amanda Hall, Steve Hill, Eric Engdahl, Greg Masenthin, Daniela Gavric, Pat Hurley, and Cathy Jooste.
This year's rookies were Peter, Amanda, Daniela and Pat. That brings the total to 57 who have represented us in the 12 years of Rank Strangers in the Madison-Chicago relay (first named Great Midwest Relay, net MC200 and now Ragnar Chicago).
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| Amanda |
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| Daniela |
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| Peter |
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| Pat |
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| Before the heat treatment. Front row: Jeff, Cathy, Bob, Eric Boll, Pat, Peter. Back row: Daniela, Eric, Steve, Greg, Mark, Amanda, Pete. |
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| Eric Boll is a regular at the traditional Perkins breakfast. Burger with fries - he had the works. |
It was a great showing for family at the finish, some caught by the camera and pictured here. Family support for this wacky event is much appreciated (starting with sacrificing the runner to the cause).
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| Cathy Jooste and family. |
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| Steve Hill and family. |
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| Daniela (right) and sister-in-law Seja. |
See below for updates to the record book (last year's update here Link ). Photos will be assembled for the annual photo book but a few samples are here.
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| Peter, Jeff, Greg, Steve - waiting for action in Madison |
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| Daniela (left) handed off to Cathy. |
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| Steve Hill waiting to start his first leg. He ran into the lightening storm and suspension of the race. It was "nothing like" the nastiness he encountered closing out Hood To Coast last August, he reported. |
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| Amanda handing off to Peter. |
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| Bob entering the tunnel made famous by Jeff. |
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| Greg braves traffic on the south side of Milwaukee. |
Updated record book, July 9, 2016
Here's a summary of the team's adjustments to the Rank Stranger record book.
1. Steve Hill's 22.7 miles was his 2nd 20+ mile race and the 7th most miles for a single race. He joined Art (3), Eric (3), Jeff (2) and Marc Golab (2) as the Rank Strangers will multiple 20-mile races.
2. Eric (204.4) and Jeff (202.3) both passed 200 miles in relay miles.
3. Bob (9.9 miles) and Steve (9.7) both became two-timers on the list of Rank Strangers with runs of more than 8 miles. There are 16: Keith (2), Kim (2), Randy (2), Marc G. (2), Martin (2), Bob (2), Steve H. (2), Jeff (2), Holly, Ed S., Art, Monique, Jennifer, Beth, Therese, Paul. The 8+ mile runs: Monique 11.8, Keith 11.7, Jennifer 10.9, Keith 10.7, Kim 9.9, Art 9.9, Bob 9.9 (2), Steve H. 9.7, Jeff 9.6, Beth 9.3, Art 9.1, Randy 9, Martin 8.8, Holly 8.6, Steve H. 8.6, Randy 8.6, Marc G. 8.4, Kim 8.4, Marc G. 8.2, Martin 8.2, Ed S. 8.2, Therese 8.2, Jeff 8, Paul 8. (Keith’s runs, Monique’s 11.8 and Art’s 9.1 mile runs strung together multiple legs; the others were single legs).
The other long runs this year were 7.8 and 7.6 by Peter and 7.5 by Greg.
4. Rookie Peter Wagner joined the 20 mile club with 20.3 miles.
Following is our Hall of Fame: 57 different runner have made the trip.
Rank Stranger
|
Relays
|
Miles
per relay |
Total
Miles |
Eric
Engdahl
|
12
|
17.0
|
204.4
|
Jeff
Shampo
|
11
|
18.4
|
202.3
|
Art Saffran
|
10
|
17.6
|
176.1
|
Steve
Hill
|
7
|
18.4
|
129.1
|
Pete
Boll
|
7
|
16.1
|
112.4
|
Mark
Clear
|
8
|
13.9
|
111.6
|
Renee Roux
|
7
|
15.4
|
107.6
|
Marc Golab
|
4
|
17.5
|
69.8
|
Randy Meacham
|
4
|
15.7
|
62.8
|
Holly Dowling
|
3
|
19.8
|
59.3
|
Ed Stojakovic
|
3
|
19.4
|
58.2
|
Paul Miller
|
3
|
18.4
|
55.1
|
Jennifer Sell
|
3
|
16.9
|
50.6
|
Greg
Masenthin
|
3
|
16.5
|
49.4
|
Bo Lackey
|
3
|
15.0
|
45.1
|
Martin Tagge
|
2
|
21.3
|
42.5
|
Cathy
Jooste
|
3
|
13.9
|
41.8
|
Monique Faber
|
2
|
20.4
|
40.8
|
Bob
Holzer
|
2
|
18.8
|
37.6
|
Chris Montgomery
|
2
|
18.4
|
36.7
|
Kim Hill
|
2
|
17.9
|
35.8
|
Anne Martino
|
2
|
16.9
|
33.9
|
Debra Addison
|
2
|
15.3
|
30.5
|
Brad Clark
|
2
|
14.9
|
29.8
|
Keith Dudding
|
1
|
28.4
|
28.4
|
David Maze
|
1
|
24.7
|
24.7
|
Jamie Quanbeck
|
2
|
12.1
|
24.2
|
Denise Meacham
|
2
|
11.8
|
23.5
|
Therese Nolan
|
1
|
21.8
|
21.8
|
Beth Fegan
|
1
|
20.7
|
20.7
|
Peter Wagner
|
1
|
20.3
|
20.3
|
Fred Bounds
|
1
|
18.6
|
18.6
|
Marc Damerjian
|
1
|
18.4
|
18.4
|
Ed Heberlein
|
1
|
18.1
|
18.1
|
Daniela
Gavric
|
1
|
18.0
|
18.0
|
Maddy Melin
|
1
|
17.8
|
17.8
|
Pati Flannery
|
1
|
17.8
|
17.8
|
Steve Smith
|
1
|
17.3
|
17.3
|
Ryan Lipscomb
|
1
|
16.7
|
16.7
|
Suzanne Shoff
|
1
|
16.6
|
16.6
|
Sergey Petrov
|
1
|
16.6
|
16.6
|
Rachael Weiker
|
1
|
16.6
|
16.6
|
Suzanne Holmes
|
1
|
16.4
|
16.4
|
Rachel Rivard
|
1
|
15.9
|
15.9
|
Bill Shepard
|
1
|
15.7
|
15.7
|
Angie Patnode
|
1
|
15.3
|
15.3
|
Ann Wilson
|
1
|
14.5
|
14.5
|
Steve Schmidt
|
1
|
14.1
|
14.1
|
Pat
Hurley
|
1
|
13.9
|
13.9
|
Jill Buhrfiend
|
1
|
13.7
|
13.7
|
Ivanka Sans Sarocelsky
|
1
|
13.7
|
13.7
|
Tim Scott
|
1
|
13.2
|
13.2
|
Beverly Schuller
|
1
|
10.0
|
10.0
|
Amanda
Hall
|
1
|
10.0
|
10.0
|
Kelly Bard
|
1
|
9.3
|
9.3
|
Cathy Van Leuven
|
1
|
8.6
|
8.6
|
Reggie Hill
|
1
|
2.5
|
2.5
|
Rank Stranger
|
Relay
|
Miles
|
Keith Dudding
|
2005
|
28.4
|
Eric Engdahl
|
2009
|
26.6
|
Dave Maze
|
2007
|
24.7
|
Jennifer Sell
|
2012
|
23.6
|
Randy Meacham
|
2007
|
23.5
|
Monique Faber
|
2012
|
23.4
|
Steve
Hill
|
2016
|
22.7
|
Holly Dowling
|
2008
|
22.0
|
Therese Nolan
|
2013
|
21.8
|
Martin Tagge
|
2010
|
21.7
|
Eric Engdahl
|
2005
|
21.3
|
Eric Engdahl
|
2007
|
20.8
|
Marc Golab
|
2010
|
20.8
|
Marc Golab
|
2011
|
20.7
|
Beth Fegan
|
2013
|
20.7
|
Art Saffran
|
2006
|
20.6
|
Ed Stojakovic
|
2014
|
20.5
|
Pete Boll
|
2007
|
20.3
|
Jeff Shampo
|
2012
|
20.3
|
Peter
Wagner
|
2016
|
20.3
|
Steve Hill
|
2011
|
20.1
|
Jeff Shampo
|
2013
|
20.1
|
Art Saffran
|
2014
|
20.1
|
Art Saffran
|
2015
|
20.0
|
Rank Stranger
|
Relay
|
Miles
|
Steve Hill
|
2010
|
19.9
|
Art Saffran
|
2009
|
19.7
|
Jeff Shampo
|
2008
|
19.7
|
Ed Stojakovic
|
2012
|
19.7
|
Mark Golab
|
2008
|
19.6
|
Bob
Holzer
|
2016
|
19.5
|
Greg
Masenthin
|
2016
|
19.5
|
Art Saffran
|
2008
|
19.4
|
Renee Roux
|
2010
|
19.3
|
Jeff Shampo
|
2010
|
19.3
|
Paul
Miller
|
2014
|
19.3
|
Kim Hill
|
2011
|
19.1
|
Eric Engdahl
|
2006
|
19.1
|
Holly Dowling
|
2005
|
19.0
|
