Ragnar Relay - Is that the Race I want to Support?

My relay team had been planning on running that race.  I didn't know what the Ragnar relays were until last August.  I had the joy of being on a highly successful Hood to Coast team, successful in my eyes because we got along better than most families and made plans for future relays.  All except for one of my teamates I met for the first time when they flew in from Arizona and Utah.  With the exception of our van captain (thank you, calming presence Karl) all had personalities that put the B in big (and I absolutely include myself in this group).  

We had the best damn time.  

Feel free to take a moment and howl at the moon about the disorganization of HtC.  I know 2011 was a particularly off year for them - 200 more vans than usual, etc. etc. With the exception of the very end, we ignored or bypassed many of Hood to Coast's trials and tribulations that filled the boards and fb pages afterwards.  At different points during the race, several people in our vans did talk about the relays they had done in other states (Utah, the Pacific passage, Arizona) through a company named Ragnar.

Ragnar was founded by two men, Tanner Bell and Dan Hill, in 2004. It is based out of Utah and currently has relay races in 13 states.  Over and over, I heard the words, "the most beautiful routes," and almost as important, "so well organized."  

Looking at Ragnar, unlike many races, relays or otherwise, it is clear it is a business first and foremost.   Its partnerships are not local nor is their primary goal fundraising. On its webpage it states it is partnered with NordicTrac, Suunto, Nathan, and Petzl. Its website is sleek and well-organized.  It is obvious it has ad money.  When I entered the words "Ragnar" into a Google search, the fourth item to pop up was an ESPN video diary of a Wasatch Back Ragnar run. 

These are facts, not indictments.  It is difficult to find anything negative written by the runners who have taken part in Ragnar relays.  Look at the video - the people involved are not just having fun - they're having the time of their lives.  I can attest to how much fun relays are.  When I was in the middle of one, I was thinking about my teammates and chocolate and how wonderful it felt to run after not sleeping (yep, we had reverted to 12-year-old slumber party participants).  Once immersed in the relay, very little energy was devoted to those putting on the race. 

But I'm not in the middle of a race now, and the above article our team captain's brother sent us (he's in Colorado) bothers me.   He also sent me the link to the Wild West Relay mentioned in the article, that has a message from the race director Paul Vanderheiden directed towards Ragnar.

Vanderheiden has much to say about his experience with Ragnar and none of it is positive. He flatly believes they came to the Colorado Relay with the intention of cannibalizing his race.  "A race director cannot trademark a route, and we certainly cannot reserve exclusive use of a date. However, there is an unwritten code of ethics between race directors that you don’t steal someone’s course, and you don’t piggy back on an established race’s date with a nearby, similar event."

Tanner Bell does not deny he ran the Colorado relay.  But he claims that even though 170 miles of his 200 mile event is the same route as the 9th annual WWR relay, his event will offer a different experience.

The back-and-fourth banter between Ragnar and WWR and the set up as David and Goliath