跑着挣钱正是时候

    专注于合作精神的探险式赛跑受欢迎程度大幅提高，并在全国掀起一阵旋风。Ragnar接力系列赛属于众多通宵团体接力赛之一，赛事联合创始人谭纳•贝尔称：“我们把这项比赛想象为一份兼职，而不是我们的正职。我们并不清楚这个比赛未来的发展方向。”它的发展方向就是向前、向前、向前： Ragnar现在是这个快速发展领域中规模最大的接力系列赛。2012年，大约有20万人参加了接力赛。

    尽管没有组织机构专门追踪团队接力赛的年度参与情况（Running USA表示，虽然拥有数据，但尚未能够进行收集并提供调查结果），Ragnar去年拥有7.2万参与者，Hood to Coast拥有2万，Reach the Beach拥有7,600；此外还有数十个规模较小的接力赛，每项通常都能有2,000参与者。网站Relay Guide列出了美国59个不同的接力型比赛，这些比赛的距离从25英里到200多英里不等。美国体育与健身行业（Sports & Fitness Industry of America,SFIA）表示，在2011年120万人参加了“探险赛跑”。它的定义是任何“极端温度或者非传统环境”下的赛跑，包括泥浆赛跑和障碍赛跑。

    贝尔及其大学室友丹•希尔（Dan Hill）2004年提出了Ragnar比赛的设想，当时两人正在杨百翰大学（Brigham Young University）读大三。希尔的父亲曾参加Hood to Coast。这是一项每年8月在俄勒冈州举办的团体接力赛，要求从胡德山跑到海边小城海滨镇。这项赛事始于1982年，是2011年一部深受好评的纪实电影的主题。“这是一项非常优秀的比赛，”贝尔说。“我们开始考虑在犹他州也举办一个属于我们自己的比赛。”

    虽然希尔和贝尔举办的比赛直接模仿了Hood to Coast——两项赛事的距离都超过200英里，通宵进行，并且专为12人团队设计——但仍然取得了蓬勃的发展。有鉴于此，现在仍然存在容纳更多类似比赛的空间，不论是完全原创，还是推陈出新。

    2013年6月是Ragnar的第一场比赛Wasatch Back诞生10周年的日子。这站比赛全程在犹他州内举行，起点在洛根，终点在帕克城。自此之后，这个系列赛从2010年的12站赛事发展之2011年和2012年的15站。今年，该项比赛将提供21至25站赛事【其中6至8站采用一种新形式“追逐系列赛”（Trail series），是与户外品牌萨洛蒙（Salomon）共同推出的】，举办地点包括麻萨诸塞州科德角、亚利桑那州坦佩、威斯康辛州麦迪逊以及加拿大安大略省尼亚加拉瀑布城。Wasatch Back举办的第一年共有264名参赛者，2012年已经达到1.2万（至于2013年，Ragnar为这项赛事额外增加了一天，因此最终有17.5万参赛者）。其他比赛的规模也有所扩大：Ragnar的佛罗里达礁岛群站比赛的参赛者在两年内翻了一番，在同一时间拉斯维加斯站比赛的参赛者人数增长了两倍。

    一切似乎欣欣向荣。Brooks跑鞋公司首席执行官吉姆•韦伯说：“现在，赛跑方面令人兴奋的消息是，每一种类型的赛事都在发展——障碍赛、追逐赛、团体接力赛，各种不同的形式。”据Running USA数据显示，Tough Mudder、Spartan Beast和Warrior Dash 等“泥浆赛跑”已经达到最快的增长速度，现在每年可吸引约100万名参与者。“极限”赛跑也保持着增长。它并不是团体比赛，而且采用非常消耗体力的路线，有时候完全处于黑暗中，且没有地图。

    Camaraderie-focused, adventure-style races have exploded in popularity and are taking the country by storm (or, in many cases, by mud). "We imagined this as a side gig, not our main job," says Tanner Bell, co-founder of Ragnar Relay Series, one of many overnight team relays. "We didn't have any idea where it was going to go." Where it has gone is up, up, up: Ragnar is now the largest relay series among a field that has grown quickly. Some 200,000 people likely ran in a relay in 2012.

    Though no organization specifically tracks annual participation in team relays (Running USA says it has data but hasn't yet been able to collect it and present findings), Ragnar had 72,000 participants last year, Hood to Coast had 20,000, and Reach the Beach had 7,600; then there are scores of smaller relays that tend to get 2,000 people each. The web site Relay Guide lists 59 different relay-type events in the U.S., ranging in distance from 25 miles to over 200, and SFIA (Sports & Fitness Industry of America) says 1.2 million people in 2011 participated in "adventure racing," which it defines as any kind of racing "in extreme temperatures or unconventional settings," including mud runs and obstacle races.

    Bell and his college roommate Dan Hill came up with the idea for Ragnar when they were juniors at Brigham Young University in 2004. Hill's father had participated in Hood to Coast, a team relay held every August in Oregon that runs from Mt. Hood to the coastal town of Seaside. The race began in 1982 and was the subject of a well-reviewed 2011 documentary film. "It was such a great event," says Bell, "we started to have visions of doing a race of our own in Utah."

    Considering that Hill and Bell directly modeled their event after Hood to Coast—both are 200+ miles long, continue overnight, and are tailored for teams of 12—the fact that it is thriving suggests that, for now, there is room for more of these events, no matter whether wholly original or derivative.

    June 2013 marks the 10th anniversary of Ragnar's first race, the Wasatch Back, which is run in Utah from from Logan to Park City. Since then the series has grown from 12 races in 2010 to 15 in 2011 and in 2012. This year, it will offer 21-25 races (6-8 of them under a new format, the "Trail series," which it launched in partnership with Salomon) in locations including Cape Cod, Mass., Tempe, Ariz., Madison, Wis., and Niagara Falls in Ontario. The Wasatch Back had 264 runners registered in its first year. It had 12,000 in 2012 (for 2013, Ragnar has added an extra day to the race and will thus end up with 17,500 participants). Other events have also grown: Ragnar's Florida Keys race nearly doubled in participation in two years, and its Las Vegas event tripled participation in the same time frame.

    It appears to be a rising tide. "The exciting thing about running right now is that every single type of event is growing—obstacles, trail, team relays, every single variety," says Jim Weber, CEO of running shoe company Brooks. According to Running USA, "mud runs" like Tough Mudder, Spartan Beast, and Warrior Dash have grown the fastest and now attract some 1 million participants each year. Also continuing to grow are "ultra" races that are not for teams, and are run on physically ruinous courses, sometimes in full darkness and without a map.