The Ragnar Relay- Wasatch Back (188 miles of fun?)

So, I ran the Ragnar for the second time. What a blast! For those of you that are not familiar with this run, I will do my best to explain it. The race goes from Logan to Park City (188 miles). It is a relay race. There are 12 people on a team (We had 6 men and 6 women). Each person on the team runs 3 different legs of the race- for a total of 36 legs. The legs are anywhere from 2.5 miles to 9.6 miles in length. Each team has 2 vans, with 6 runners and a driver per van. The race is continuous, so there are people running all through the night until the finish line is reached. This year there were about 500 teams in the race. The starting times are staggered depending on how fast your teams' average 10K pace is. We must have had some pretty fast runners on our team because we had a late starting time... this start time was obviously NOT based on MY 10K pace time. If it had been, we would have had to start on THURSDAY!

Our team began around 3:00 pm on Friday, June 19th. Van 1 began the running in Logan. I really only knew 2 people in van 1- Linda- the driver and Diane- one of the 6 runners. I work with both of these ladies at the hospital. All of the other runners were from the hopital in Provo. I only met them briefly during the race, and can only remember a couple of their names. Anyway, our van began around 6:00 pm. We barely made it in time due to road unexpected road construction. We had a great group in our van! Sierra was runner 7. She ran the Lake to Lake relay with me earlier this year (See post "Kinda Swifty 50"- She's the shorty shorts winner with the butt cheeks hanging out). She is Jeremy's cousin. Who's Jeremy?-you ask. Jeremy was our AWESOME driver, water and shot blocks deliverer, and cheering section. He was our most valuable team member and we couldn't have done it without him. Jeremy is also Dayna's husband. Dayna being runner 8. Dayna also ran the Lake to Lake relay with me in the Spring. She was my co-worker for 3 years. Following Dayna was Jessica (or Jessie or "Barbie"). Jessie worked with Dayna at Curves a few years ago and ran the Ragnar with us 2 years ago. Curt was runner 10. He too ran the Ragnar with us 2 years ago. Curt also works at the hospital in the heart unit, so I see him tons at work. Duaine, runner 11, was a friend of Curt's. I think he was a little scared of the rest of us in the beginning. He seemed to relax a little toward the end of the race. I was runner 12. I had one of the easier legs in my van. My first leg was a little over 3 miles up a mountain to the Snow Basin ski resort. I think I gained almost 850 feet in elevation in 3 miles. It was tough... especially since I had spent the entire week at sea level in California. I walked only to drink some water. It was a slow pace- nothing to brag about. Our team ended sometime after 9 pm and then tried to find a place to sleep for 2-3 hours. We found a camping area that Ragnar had reserved for the teams. Nobody really slept that well. Our van took over running again around 1:00 in the morning. Everybody had long legs and we had to cover over 40 miles in the middle of the night. My 2nd leg didn't begin until 6:30 in the morning. Thank heavens I didn't have to run with the reflective vest, blinking butt light and head lamp AGAIN. The first 3 miles of my 2nd leg was all up hill again. However, the last 2.5 miles was either flat or downhill so I was able to make up some time. I passed off to van 1 again and they began their final legs. Our van went and finally found some good food. Then we went to Dayna's grandparents house in Heber and waited for Van 1 to finish up. We were on again around 12:30 pm. The last legs for our van were hard. Sierra began her last leg in the rain. It stopped raining for Dayna's run, but she had a gradual 6.5 mile climb after a brutal 7 mile downhill run in the middle of the night. Jessie had the first half of the Ragnar hill. She gained 1500 feet in elevation in 3.5 miles. Curt got the second half of the Ragnar which climbed 1800 feet in elevation in 4 miles- plus it began raining again just as Jessie handed the wristband off to him. Duaine took over one mile from the top of the hill. Then at the top of the hill, he then went into a CRAZY downhill adventure. Dropping almost all of the elevation gained by Jessie and Curt in his remaining 5 miles. I then took over the final leg of the race in Deer Valley. My last leg was about 7 miles mostly downhill and flat into the base of Park City. I ran well during my final leg, feeling like it was OK to push myself because I didn't have any more to run after that. I think it helped that Russ and the kids met me along the course of my final leg to cheer me on. Grant even ran 1/2 of a mile with me. That really spurred me on. I felt really pleased with my last leg... which was good because my first two were far from good. Just after I finished and we took a few pictures. It began to down pour like nothing I have ever seen before. We were so lucky because there were many teams that had not yet finished the race. I felt bad for those that were still running.

In the end... we finished in 27 hours, 56th place overall and 10th in our division, averaging 8:something minute miles. (I can't remember). Good Job team!