Lost Soles of Noke Ragnar Team

This is me. I'm Sunshine. My team calls me the Brilliant One. Or sometimes they call me Hot Stuff (but that's mostly Ercilia). Once I think I heard Zahner call me Genius. My kids call me Beautiful Princess Mother of All Knowledge. (Sometimes Queen Mother, but then I start feeling old and they go back to just Princess Mother.) But you get the gist. Everyone agrees that I'm pretty awesome. Zahner may be the evil mastermind behind all of this, but I'm the brains of the operation. I'm the one keeping us on track at our meetings with well-constructed agendas (because someone is going to be just pretending to pay attention and training the others how to look focused while thinking about what outfit she's wearing tomorrow or what she had for lunch last Tuesday...it's Kim that does that in case you don't know). I'm the one that makes sure we have enough pens (because Zahner is going to end up throwing them at people...probably Ercilia). And I...

This is Ercilia Sometimes we call her the Adorable one, but only AFTER we've had coffee. Definitely NOT at 4am before we've even figured out where our coffee is. Her friends call her Celia. However, we have officially nominated her as Ms. Congeniality. (Although, I'm not really sure why. There was this one time that I thought she was calling me hot stuff, but it turns out she was just talking to herself. Whatever.) Celia has two sisters, a niece that she adores, and parents that have been married for 50 years (I know, right?). Chad forced Ercilia to join the Ragner. Wait. No. That's not right. She's Ercilia. She jumped at the chance because she's Ercilia. (Have you met her? She's Ercilia.) She loves the idea of doing something different and that the Ragnar is a chance to work as a team and rely on other people. Her enthusiasm and perspective highlight the focus of our chosen charity, Girls on the Run. Here are the weird things you should...

This is Melvin Melvin likes pain and misery. Melvin likes to peer pressure friends into taking on ridiculous challenges and then gets all in his feelings when those friends call him bad names for it. Melvin, apparently Melvo to some people and Freak to others, started running six years ago. He crossed running a 5k off of his Bucket List (seriously, people, are you working on those Bucket Lists???) and then he was hooked. He hired a personal trainer to get him through a Rugged Maniac and then moved on to marathons. He has completed five marathons, including the Blue Ridge Marathon three times (I've mentioned the awesome involved in crossing a BRM finish line, right?) He's run one 50k and has his sites set on a 50 Miler...one day. Now, if you ask Melvin, he will tell you that he was tricked into joining the Ragnar team. That would be a lie. The honest truth is, Melvin likes to do stupid things. It just is what it is and the sooner he owns that, the easier life will be ...

This is Kim We call her the Widow Maker, mostly because she wanted a cool mobster nickname and that is what the online generator came up with for her. (It's really fun, if you want to try:  http://themobmuseum.org/nickname-generator/ ) Kim comes from a special stock of people. I don't know her people, but I like to picture them as the kind of people that will keep you firmly in line while making you feel like you're really happy to be in line even if you kind of wanted to be out of line to begin with, but then you're too afraid to get out of line even if you see something outside of the line that you really want, but you're also still kind of ok with staying in line...because Kim. Kim runs...like sometimes she runs and then sometimes she doesn't...like this month I think she's running. Last month she definitely wasn't. We'll see what August brings. I mean, she runs like full marathons and half marathons, she just doesn't necessarily...

This is Samuel. Sam, for short. Or apparently Pickles if you're on a trail with him. (No, no. I'm curious, too.) Sam (since we're not on the trail right now) is the proud father of two daughters, both UVA graduates. Lauren co-owns a purbarre gym, which is something I've always wanted to try, so I'm going to see if I can name drop to get a free class or something. His younger daughter is an ICU nurse. (I feel like maybe at least one of use will end up meeting her before the end of this Ragnar...) Besides wanting to support Girls on the Run , Sam wanted to take on this race as a personal challenge. As far as he sees it, anyone can run the same races over and over (I think he was talking about me here), but you rarely get to run a relay that covers 3 states in 2 days. (Now see, I didn't know we were going to cover 3 states. I may need to go study. Don't tell Chad.) Sam is on Van Two with the other crazy happy early risers. (I'm seriously givi...

This is Sarah Sarah is the provider of the Death Wish coffee. (No, really. This is a thing and it frightens me a little bit because, well, have you met some of these people? They really don't need regular coffee, let alone the mega ultra-caffeinated makes you wish for death coffee. Still, she's in my van, so I'm clearly going to feel peer pressured to drink it. I mean, it's coffee.) Sarah loves to cook and bake. Sarah is my new favorite.  Sarah also loves to rock climb and power lift. So, clearly Sarah and I are going to have to stay friends, cause I'm pretty sure she could take me. She is also mom to a 12 year old Westie named Charlie and a 7 year old Pibble (that's cute talk for Pit Bull) named Buster. If you attend the Thursday night pub runs at Parkway Brewery, you've probably met Buster. I don't attend the Thursday night pub runs at Parkway, so I haven't met Buster. And I'm feeling a little resentful about it. Sarah ...

This is Jay. We call him the Enforcer. Those two beauties to his left (your right? his left? Right? Right.) are his beautiful little ball of fire wife Whitney and his equally beautiful, sweet daughter Sydney. Word has it Sydney attends Roanoke College when she's not squatting in his home. His son, Eric, stayed in Richmond after graduating from VCU. So, he and Whitney have done well with the parenting gig. Jay tinkered with triathlons for a while, but he's a pansy when it comes to cold water. So, he's now a normal runner like the rest of us. He's run every race distance up to and including marathons, so of course he had to find a new challenge. Enter Ragnar. Because what says challenge better than being locked in a van with five other gross sweaty, over cheery runners for two days? He claims Brian as a best friend, but we'll see how well that friendship holds up to Zahner the Dictator and 4am crazy happy Ercilia. Fun fact about Jay: Less than four years ago,...

This is Courtney. Most people call her Court. I just call her Coach. Court is married to a Floridian hunk (no she said this, so it's totally cool that I repeat it) who she met when he sent a baseball into the stands to her because he's just that bold. And she's mama to two completely adorable cat kids, Vin and Leo. (I've told y'all about her teacher mom voice, right? She used that on me once. Got me all in my feelings. I'm not sure if she perfected it in her role as a school psychologist or cat mom. Probably both.) While she did some running in high school (apparently softball requires conditioning...I guess you have to run or something if you actually hit the ball...I wouldn't know), she really found her love for running in grad school. When she joined C & C Runners this past year (do y'all know our C & C team? If not, you should), she found her people and kicked her running into high gear (see what I did there?). Court ran Four on ...

This is Brian. And seriously, look at how adorable his daughter is. Brian is married with three children. His oldest son is serving our country in the Navy. His other son shares my love of basketball, so obviously he's awesome. And this beautiful little girl is ruler of the house. She sounds like someone who would make a great Girls on the Run coach when she's a bit older. Brian was planning to run a 50k this year. Then Jay (you'll meet him later) peer-pressured, I mean asked him to join our Ragnar team. So here he is. Stuck on Van Two with the crazy happy morning people. Which it turns out works well, because he is apparently one of those morning people. (We'll see just how much of a morning person he is when he's locked in a van with Ercilia at 4:00am (you'll meet her later, too). He is looking forward to the challenge of dealing with Van Two (I may have ad-libbed that last piece, but I'm just not sure he really knows what he's getting in...

This is Julia. Think she's being a little dramatic in this photo? Have you ever run the Blue Ridge? Yeah. Only the truly awesome, folks. Only the truly awesome. Julia is my favorite. Julia is my van driver. She's the one that's going to make sure that at least six of us make it through this challenge. (The other six are Ange and Zahner's responsibility. Not our problem.) Julia is also the one that has my back. She's my co-conspirator. My source of a reasonable amount of happy and joy (not the freakish crazy amount of 4:00 am happy joy that is going to be running rampant in Van Two). And she's totally down with helping me take some creative revenge on Van Two for all of the bullying they've directed at me. It's important to have people like that in your life. Just like it's important to support programs like Girls on the Run . (Do y'all see how I'm working this into every single bio? Seriously, click on the link and make a donatio...

The mastermind behind this entire endeavor is one Chad Zahner. What can I tell you about Zahner? Let's see. First, he likes to think he's in control. Something about being Navy and wanting to boss people around. He's always sending out orders and moving people between vans. He likes to threaten a lot, but it's mostly harmless. He never follows through on the threats. He also has pretend friends. Like, he's always "calling people" on his phone, but no one ever answers. One time, he made a ringing noise and pretended someone was calling him. He had an entire conversation...with no one. He has an unnatural obsession with cats. Seriously. Just ask the others. He's constantly sharing cat facts. It's weird. Some people call him Ziggy. We call him Dictator. We're not quite sure how he managed to trick his amazing wife, Ashlee, into marrying him. Some say bribery. Others say he slipped something into her drink. I'm thinking he thr...

This is Richard. We call him Cali.  ...because he lives in California. (We're both brilliant and original...) Cali has run, like, 1 billion marathons. (Or maybe he's going for numbers 20 and 21 this fall, but still...if you've run a marathon you know that there is little difference between 1 and 1 billion...)  He ran his first full marathon at the age of 15 in Anchorage, Alaska. Which I find odd. Because cold. Plus, at 15 I was just trying to make it through Algebra class. But to each his own. He literally just ran his 100th half marathon. And who doesn't love a good half marathon. If I could math, I'd offer you some fun mileage facts about running 100 half marathons. But...no. Cali has been running since he was a child, but has never had the opportunity to run a Ragnar Relay. So, of course, when random Chad Zahner suggested he travel to the other side of the country to spend two days locked in a van sweating away miles with a bunch of str...

This is Vickie.  Also known as Keets. (I also like to call her the Reasonable One. No, really. Out of 14 people, only ONE of us qualifies for that title.) A little about Vickie. She is married with three grown children and two granddaughters. She is also the mom of a 13 year old black lab/border collie mix. If you're looking for a gift for Vickie, she collects hedgehog items. She has a grand-hedgehog and two grand-ferrets. (I had a ferret as a child. I guarantee that some people are missing shoes or other personal items. And they can probably find those behind the fridge.) Vickie enjoys running, quilting, crafting, rock painting, and gardening. She also happens to be a retired Respiratory Therapist, something that may come in handy for any of us that are not adequately trained to run our relay legs. Vickie has been running for four years now, competitively for three, so obviously it's time to take on a Ragnar. This crazy woman (no really, she called herself that...

This is Angela. Ange for short. Ange has my favorite bio picture. (How cute is she?) Do you recognize that place? If you don't, let me just tell you, only the truly awesome ever cross that finish line. Ange is just a small town girl...ok, stop singing. For real, Ange grew up on a small horse farm in MN, which I believe is the abbreviation for Minnesota. Could be Maine. I know it's a state that has an M and an N in it. I'm feeling pretty confident that it's Minnesota. Ange stepped up to be one of our van drivers because, and I quote, "Sunshine is so Awesome, I wanted to spend more time with her." I mean, that may not be an EXACT quote, but I have control of the form she filled out, so you'll never know. If Zahner is reading this, she absolutely did NOT claim YOU as awesome. In addition to being one of my new favorites for her willingness to drive the obnoxiously pre-coffee hour happy Van Two folks around for two days, Ange also fully gets wha...

Who here thinks that 4:39 in the morning is too early to exist, let alone send out crazy happy good morning video notifications? Yeah, me, too. Van Two, however. Each day I become more and more thankful that Zahner chose to put me on Van One. Because Van Two... I mean, at first it's just Zahner and Ercilia. (FYI: Ercilia is always always ALWAYS the first to greet people in the morning. And she's not subtle or gentle about it. You know how adorably loveable she is in real life? Yeah, she is equally obnoxiously annoying at 4:30 in the morning.) But then more of Van Two joins in. And let me tell you, Courtney doesn't even drink coffee! Like, HOW do you even function at this point in the day without coffee??? This is the point at which Courtney began using her teacher mom voice on me. It's possible I sent a less than charming response video that prompted the teacher mom voice. All I know is that I am endlessly thankful to not be on Van Two fo...

There is a conversation going on in the Lost Souls Ragnar group chat about death coffee. We're trying desperately to plan for how to manage some of the caffeine addictions. Some of the team members, not me, but some can apparently get borderline homicidal without regular coffee infusions. Again, not me. I'm always pleasant. But I want everyone to be comfortable. So someone...maybe Sam?...threw this out there as an option. Death Wish Coffee And, of course, several team members jumped on board and ordered their own. They have yet to actually drink it, though. As the brains of the team, I am waiting to see how the others react to it before I try it... It's possible we may have a few openings on the team soon if anyone is interested in joining us. I'm taking bets in the form of donations to our fundraiser on who has the worst reaction to said coffee. (hint: it will be the chick with the central tremor)

So, this is part of my Ragnar family. There are about eight other Ragnar family members not in this picture. (I say "about eight" because math...there could be more. Much like my birth family, I don't really know exactly how many there are. Again, math.) A few months ago, I didn't even know any of these people. I still haven't met several of them. And I won't meet at least one of them until the actual Ragnar. And still, they are already so much my family. (There may even be a little family bickering from time to time.) As part of our journey to take on a Ragnar Relay in October (or is it September? Meh. Details.), we're raising money to help us cover costs and to donate to Roanoke Valley Girls on the Run. Click here to donate https://www.gofundme.com/lost-souls-of-noke-mtn-ragnar In return, we will make Zahner (the dictator-looking dude in the photo) do random, sometimes painful things for your entertainment. If you know him, ...