10 Tips on Conquering a Relay Race or Ragnar

Ragnars and relay races offer a unique challenge: How to essential take on four races, hours apart, through the night with little or no sleep. Whether you’re running 20-plus miles all at once, or splitting the distance over the course of 24 hours in a relay, you’re gonna need a good balance of energy, strength and stamina to make it to the finish line. “You want to prepare enough so the experience is not a complete shock to the system, but you should go into the race knowing that it’s going to be a lot harder than anything you did in training,” says coach Matt Fitzgerald, author of 80/20 Running, who designs training programs for the Ragnar Relay Series.