Introducing 2014 Badass Mother Runners Ragnar Relay Team

Some of the swag from our partners our 11 Ragnarians will receive.

When Dimity and I announced this year’s Badass Mother Runners Ragnar Relay contest, we had no idea what creative, clever, beautiful, heartwarming, and tasty entries awaited us. More than 100 of you ladies totally outdid yourself, and we are impressed, humbled, and touched. We are also sincerely sorry we can’t fill about 15 vans full of you! Alas, only two vans this year as we drive–and RUN–from San Francisco to Napa Valley on September 19 and 20.

We tried to pick a range of entries–some videos, some crafts, some baked goods, some songs, some social media undertakings–as well as get some geographic distribution. In addition, we aimed to gather a range of speeds and ages. Summed up a different way: It was very difficult to pick just 10 teammates, plus one alternate. Without further ado, here are the 2014 Badass Mother Runners and a look at their entries:

1. Jodi Snowdon, whose Twitter-based entry spanned the entire month of April. This collage is a representation of the daily tweets she sent out, complete with a photo. (For more, search #NapaNeedsJodi on Twitter, or Google “Napa Needs Jodi YouTube” to see a video summary of her entries.)

Jodi’s entry showcased wit–and amazing planning. We bow down to her organizational skills!

This one, with Kathrine Switzer, was a last-minute addition. (We’d already picked the winners, but we love that she recruited such a force!)

 2. Jennifer Martin (aka “JMart”) also used social media–a convincing blog post–along with an in-person component, wearing custom-designed tees, at our Raleigh Mother Runner party and a water bottle that encapsulated her blog post.

JMart rallied her (lively) supporters in customized tees at our Raleigh party, as well as having them post 50+ comments on her blog post.

JMart 4 Ragnar 2014 on a custom water bottle. (The purchase of which resulted in a donation to a local chapter of Girls on the Run.)

3. Kelly Preddy, who stitched a “mini-quilt” showcasing the reasons she wants to be on our Ragnar team, including laughter (top right corner), wine, her alcoholic beverage of choice (top left), and the AMR community (center panel). Love her credo, too: “Wake up with determination. Go to bed with satisfaction.”

Kelly Preddy’s stitch-witchery worked its magic on us.

4. Lisa Petersen turned to the movie, “Pitch Perfect,” for inspiration; she rewrote the lyrics to the “Cups” song. A snippet of lyrics that oddly made me teary-eyed: “I wanna drink up all my nuun/I wanna run under the moon/If you pick me I will swoon.”

5.Erin Ranes wrote and illustrated a book she titled, The Mother Runner Goes to Ragnar: Based on a True Story. This charming–and self-fulfilling–tale chronicles the journey of a badass mother runner named Erin who starts running and eventually gets chosen for our Ragnar team.

Not sure which element of this drawing we love best: the Tough Girl Tutus; the rows of grapes in background; or the fact that Dimity and I tower over rest of the Ragnarians!

 6. Smitha Barki was one of several mother runners who crafted new lyrics to this year’s mother runner anthem of “Let It Go.” We chose Smitha because, a) she also rewrote to other songs from “Frozen,” and b) her daughter belts out the songs like nobody’s biz!

7. Jen Lewis is one of the sweet mother runners who baked their entry, and one of two who created an entire cake. Ultimately, it was the tutu layer that swayed the vote for me.

Check out the night-to-day fade on the layer with mother runners.

8. Kim Dixson (with the help of her 14-year-old son) made a video of her cleverly acting out the title to our first book, Run Like a Mother.

9. Melissa Gilley baked 11 different varieties of cookies, then mailed a dozen (!!) of each cookie to my house (my kids now officially LOVE her!). Each bag had a tag saying what type of BAMR each cookie represented–e.g. Lemon Meltaway, BAMR = classy/quiet/serious runner; Butterscotch Drops (my fave), BAMR = nurturing/patient/thoughtful–along with a wine pairing for each one. (Lest you think my kids and I ate them all: I froze some and brought them to Dimity last Friday when we convened in Seattle for an event at REI. And I shared some with my kids’ soccer teammates.)

Some of the cookie labels + handmade book called A Little Book about a BAMR by Melissa Gilley

 10 . LauraRoeseler tapped into another theme of entries: riffs on Jimmy Fallon hashtag videos. Laura–and her game-pal playing along–made us laugh. #slapbracelet

ALTERNATE: 11. Kathleen Ojo ordered a local (Southern Californian) vintner to make a custom winebottle for us.

Front of the BAMR bottle

And the back. Cheers!

Congratulations, Jodi, JMart, Kelly, Lisa, Erin, Smitha, Jen, Kim, Melissa, Laura, and Kathleen! We will be in touch via email this week. And thanks again to everyone who entered the contest. Great work all!

Want to put together your own team for Napa Valley Ragnar Relay? In hopes of seeing you–and your 11 running buddies–there, we’re offering a special discount code for $100 off team entry. Register by May 22 (when code expires), using code: NV14MAMR.