Graduate school can feel like a race to the finish line, but it becomes much easier with a team to cheer you on - especially if that team is literally next to you, shouting encouragement from a decorated van.
From the morning of Sept. 12 into the early afternoon on Sept. 13, two teams made up of MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AeroAstro) graduate students, alumni, and friends ran the 2025 Ragnar Road Reach the Beach relay in two friendly yet competitive teams of 12, aptly named Team Aero and Team Astro. Ragnar races are long-distance, team-based relay events that run overnight through some of the country's most scenic routes. The Reach the Beach course began in Lancaster, New Hampshire, and sent teams on a 204-mile trek through the White Mountains, finishing at Hampton Beach State Park.
"This all began on the Graduate Association of Aeronautics and Astronautics North End Pastry Tour in 2024. While discussing our mutual love for running, and stuffing our faces with cannoli, Maya Harris jokingly mentioned the concept of doing a Ragnar," says Nathanael Jenkins, the eventual Team Aero captain. The idea took hold, inspiring enough interest to form a team for the first AeroAstro Ragnar relay in April 2025. From there enthusiasm continued to grow, resulting in the two current teams.
"I was surprised at the number of people, even people who don't run very frequently, who wanted to do another race after finishing the first Ragnar," says Patrick Riley, captain of Team Astro. "All of the new faces are awesome because they bring new energy and excitement to the team. I love the community, I love the sport, and I think the best way to get to know someone is to be crammed into a van with them for six hours at a time."
Resource management and real-time support
The two teams organized four vans, adorned with words of encouragement and team magnets - a Ragnar tradition - to shepherd the teams through the race, serving as rolling rest stops for runners at each exchange point. Each runner completed three to four sections out of 36 total legs, running between 1.7 to 11.6 miles at a time. Runners could swap out there for a power nap or a protein bar. To keep morale high, teams played games and handed out awards of their own to teammates. "Noah (McAllister) got the prize for 'Most bees removed from the car;' Madison (Bronniman) won for 'Eating the most tinned fish;' I got the prize for 'Most violent slamming of doors' - which I hadn't realized was in my skill set," says Jenkins.
"This race is really unique because it bonds the team together in ways that many other races simply don't," says Riley, an avid runner prior to the event. "Marathons are strenuous on your body, but a Ragnar is about long-term resource management - eating, hydrating, sleep management, staying positive. Then communicating those logistics effectively and proceeding with the plan."
Pulling off a logistics-heavy race across both teams required "magical spreadsheeting" that used distance, start time, elevation changes, and average pace to estimate finish time for each leg of the race. "Noah made it for the first race. Then a bunch of engineers saw a spreadsheet and zeroed in," says Riley.
Engineering success
The careful planning paid off with a win for Team Astro, with a finishing time of 31:01:13. Team Aero was close behind, finishing at 31:19:43. Yet in the end, the competition mattered less than the camaraderie, when all runners celebrated together at the finish line.
"I think the big connection that we talk about is putting the teamwork skills we use in engineering into practice," says Jenkins. "Engineers all like achieving. Runners like achieving. Many of our runners don't run for enjoyment in the moment, but the feeling of crossing the finish line makes up for the, well, pain. In engineering, the feeling of finishing a difficult problem makes up for the pain of doing it."
Call them gluttons for punishment or high achievers, the group is already making plans for the next race. "Everybody is immediately throwing links in the group chat for more Ragnars in the future," says Riley. "MIT has so many people who want to explore and engage with the world around them, and they're willing to take a chance and do crazy stuff. And we have the follow-through to make it happen."
Runners
Team Aero: Claire Buffington, Alex Chipps, Nathanael Jenkins, Noah McAllister, Garrett Siemen, Nick Torres (Course 16, AeroAstro), Madison Bronniman, Ceci Perez Gago, Juju Wang (Course 16 alum), Katie Benoit, and Jason Wang.
Team Astro: Tim Cavesmith, Evrard Constant, Mary Foxen, Maya Harris, Jules Penot, Patrick Riley, Alex Rose, Samir Wadhwania (Course 16), Henry Price (Course 3, materials science and engineering), Katherine Hoekstra, and Ian Robertson (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute).
Honorary teammates: Abigail Lee, Celvi Lissy, and Taylor Hampson.
