Five Mathews women put their best feet forward this month to participate in a 200-mile Ragnar relay race on the West Coast of the U.S.Group leader Hope Hubbard-Lowe and her team of 12 women, which also included six teachers from Wisconsin and one Washington State volunteer, began the Ragnar Road Northwest Passage at the U.S./Canada border in Blaine, Washington, on July 14 and ended the next day in the city of Langley on Washington’s Whidbey Island.

Team members relayed all night long, with each team member running three legs and averaging 16 to 17 miles apiece during the 35 hours it took to complete the race.

“It was beautiful out there,” said Hubbard-Lowe. “It was one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences you don’t always have the opportunity to do.”

Ragnar races began in 2004, when the founder, Steve Hill, organized a 188-mile relay race in Utah. It became known as Ragnar after a 9th century Scandinavian king who was known to be fearless and free-spirited. According to th...