Running the Wasatch Back

Well, I did it! I ran the Ragnar over the weekend. What a race - it was very different from other races I've run, mainly because it was a relay that you participate in 3 times.

Thursday night the majority of our team got together to meet and talk over last minute details. Our start time was for 7:20am in Logan, UT. I only got about 3 hours of sleep that night because I had to get up at 3am to shower/get ready to drive to Sandy by 4:45 in order to meet our van at 5 to then drive up to Logan and be to the start line by 7:00. For those of you not familiar with this race, there are 12 members on a team. We were the "Wii Not Fit Yet" team. Each team has 2 vans with 6 members in each van. You are really only together with the members in your van. Each runner runs 3 legs of the race with varying lengths from 2.5 to 9 miles each. I was runner #3 in my van and ran 5.7, 4.9 and 7.9 mile lengths. Luckily for us, we were able to run in the morning to midday, the evening until about midnight and then the next morning from about 6:30 to 11:00am. The other van ran legs in the heat of the day, the middle of the night and unfortunately in the rain that decided to pour down Saturday afternoon.

After your leg of the race there were exchange points where you took the race slap bracelet and slapped it on the next runner. The vans would follow and go ahead of the runners to provide them with drinks along the road and to cheer them on. As you probably figured out, it's a 24-36 hour race depending on how fast you run.

Cody's sister invited me to be on her team and their cousin Jaron ran and our sister-in-law Marisa. We had such a great time together along with the other members of our van, Shannon and Doug. Although during the race I wasn't so sure I wanted to run this race again, I'm sure I could be easily coerced into participating next year.
Now for the pictures! There are lots, but it documents my last two days.

Cody's sister Kristin and me before my first leg.
Our sister-in-law, Marisa, during her 1st leg. (She was runner #2 and would pass off to me.)
My first leg I ran from Hyrum to Paradise, Utah. It was so beautiful everywhere we ran!

Sprinting to the exchange point.

This is Jaron. He just made it up the mountain and I thought this shot was awesome!

Gotta love all the wildflowers!

Cody and the kids met up with me at the SnowBasin Lodge. We were resting/waiting there for our 2nd legs of the race. We had about 4 hours to wait while van #2 ran their part.

The handoff.

I ran with gummy bears in my hands. I didn't have pockets but wanted to eat the treats along the way. They were very sticky half way through my run. : ) My second leg I ran through the Morgan Valley. Again, beautiful and nice weather. I actually ran past my cousins road in Peterson. I saw the sign for their Rec Barn and wished I would have called to let them know I was running through town. Hi Cambria!
Me, Marisa, Kristin and Jaron before Kristin's second leg. Because the race doesn't stop when the sun goes down we had to wear reflector vests, headlamps and butt lamps.

After we finished our second legs (around midnight) we were exhausted! Remember I only got 3 hours of sleep the night before. We drove to our next van exchange point and crashed on the grass at the Oakley Rodeo Grounds. I slept soooo well! If I wasn't so tired I would've had someone take a picture of us all set up for the night.


We got our call around 5:40 Saturday morning that van#2 would be finishing soon. We gathered our stuff and began running again. My last leg was my longest and hardest but surprisingly I felt the best with it. I ran from Francis to the Jordanelle Dam Overlook. I got hungry along the way and had my team give me some banana bites and water every 2 miles.
This is Jaron, Shannon, Doug and Marisa. We are waiting for Kristin to finish her last leg and Jaron's ready to begin his last. It was kind of cool because Jaron finished his last leg of the race about 2 miles away from our house in Midway. We all tried to cross the exchange point with him, because our van was finally done, but Jaron is just too fast for us and sprinted ahead at the end.

After our van finished we headed over to Park City to checkout the finish line since we weren't actually running the last part of the race ourselves. It started raining as we arrived and was a pretty decent downpour by the time we left. We felt so lucky that we didn't have to run in it. Our poor van 2 was out doing that for us. Thanks guys! We all have nice Ragnar medals, are sore, tired, a bit sunburned, but had a great time!

Cody was so great to let me run this with his family and to stay home and watch all 3 kids. He is such a great dad and a wonderful supporter to me. I was a bit beat today for Father's Day and with 9:00 church, taking Marisa to the airport at 7:30 and his 2 early morning church meetings we didn't get to celebrate Father's Day the best way. Luckily he's still off tomorrow so we can make up for it then. Happy Father's Day! You're the best! Love you too Dad, Mickey, Gpa Grant and Gpa Foster! I have a lot of excellent men to look up to in my life.