The Team Comes Together

Now let's continue the Ragnar Saga.

I left you last with five members down and seven to go. How do I pick a team from so much talent available. The easiest way was to put out an e-mail invite to the yahoo BRA groups page. Three times as a matter of fact. That netted me about.....no one. So I would have to rely on word of mouth. A new comer to BRA was this young guy named Jason "The Millionaire". (The story of his name in future episodes.) He was mainly a 5k runner with impressive times compared to the rest of my team. He had talked about wanting to do the Ragnar race. I said, "welcome aboard there young man." We now have six.

Now I needed to go where the runners are. You local Tampa folks may know about a little run on Tuesday nights at 6pm held at Four Green Fields. It is a free 5k and once you have done your 10th run you get a free tech shirt on your 11th appearance. I was with Veronica and Beth. V told me that she new a guy that might be interested in joining the team. She introduced me to Mike. I met him before at a Hasher event. He said he would join the team.

Also while I was there, I happened to bump in to this lovely blond I know. She is very spunky and always seems to be smiling. I first met her at last years Ragnar Florida race. We seemed to have hit it off well. I talked to her this time about being on my Ragnar team. I REALLY wanted her on my team. She seemed really excited and all game. I told her I would call her and fill her in on the details. I then saw Kalani, another BRA member, and asked her as well if she wanted to join my team. She agreed. She also said she would be able to get a friend of hers from out of state to join. That would mean only one woman left.

Out of nowhere I am told that another newcomer to BRA named Jennifer wanted to join and had check in hand. I knew nothing about her other than "check in hand." And quite frankly, I still don't know much about her. All my ladies are set. Now to complete the men's side.

Veronica told me about this guy named Scot that ran on her team last year. He was wanting to do it again this year. I told her to have him get his money to me. Check was in the mail. Eleven down and one to go.

There was one guy left that I had wanted to ask early on but was not sure of his interest. I think he is very much a closet runner. I asked a few teammates if they thought he would be interested and they were even unsure. That was why the e-vites were sent out early. I put the bait out there but did not get a bite. I think once my bait was packaged and presented as Beth, Patricia, Jennifer, Kalani, Stacey and V, who would not bite at the chance to spend a weekend with that bunch. Hell I was trying to figure out a way I could be in both vans. John took the bait. All 12 and now time for Supper.

But there was this one person that kept lingering around. She would show up at some of our runs. She would be at parties. She would be at water stops. She would be outside my window. She would be just about anywhere. I knew her at the time as Jen but others may know her as Redheadrunning. She so much wanted to do Ragnar but missed the boat. She was like our very own stowaway. "Put me in coach. Just put me in." I would have loved her to be one of our runners but could not kick any of the others off. You see I still had that international mandate I had to meet so C-Steve had to stay. I suggested she be our bike pacer for the night runners. That way she could still be on the team and provide much needed entertainment.

But as fate goes, one of our runners, Scot, had to pull out with only a month before the race. Now who would I get to fill his spot. Since we were on a mixed team, we had to have at least six women. I decided we will have seven women and five guys. Welcome aboard Red.

Next: Naming a Team or Smooth as Eggs