So I have always been slightly interested in running the Ragnar Wasatch Back but never really entered into it. Partly because I know it sells out really quickly and I never wanted to put a team together. Well, after we visited Boston and got to see me Aunt Jan finish the Ragnar New England, I was sold on the idea of the relay race. And then the blessing of all blessing showed up on my voice mail two weeks after we got back to Utah. Our neighbor and his wife were part of Team H.E.B. (an accounting firm in Vernal and Salt Lake) and they had two people who were thinking about dropping out of the race. I jumped all over that opportunity. I had to wait all weekend to officially hear back from him about the race. I was in and so was Trisha. This was tuesday and the race started on Friday at 6:40am. Trisha was nervous cause she has been doing more swimming than running in the last few weeks. I was filled with pure excitement and couldn't wait. We dropped off Sam at Tyler and Shannons and made the trip up to Logan to start the race. We spent the night with Shayne and Chalise, which was really fun and then we left way before dawn to get to the start line. It was cold at the start line, too, so I was really glad that I wasn't the first runner. We were part of van #1 but Trisha was runner 5 and I was runner 6.
We dropped off our first runner and cheered her on and off we were. The race had started. At first it was hard to fathom the fact that we would be running from Logan to Park City and that it would take us 36 hours. But as time passed it became easier to imagine it all.
1st Run: 6.9 miles "Very Hard" from the summit of Avon pass to the city of Liberty, Utah
Trisha passed off to me for my first run at 12:45pm and I ran up about a mile to the top of Avon pass before descending down in a "knee-jarring" manner. The next three miles were crazy downhill. They felt really good while I was running them and I knew I was making good time but once I reached the bottom of the mountain I realized how hard it had been on my knees. The view from the switchbacks, looking down into the valley, was absolutely incredible! The rest of this leg was hard for me and I slowed down quite a bit trying to get to Liberty. I finished it in a sombrero (which gave me a free meal at Cafe Rio) at 1:45pm.
For the next few hours our van got to rest a little bit. We spent some time at the park in Libery, eating lunch and sitting down. Then we made our way to the next big exchange at Snow Basin. You would be amazed at the traffic when you have nearly 2300 cars trying to drive along these back roads. It took us quite a while to get to our next destination. We did however have some time to lay on the grass and relax once we got there. And all of a sudden it was time for our van to start running again.
2nd Run: 8.1 miles "Very Hard" from just outside of Morgan up through East Canyon to East Canyon Reservoir.
Trisha passed this off to me in pitch blackness at 10:30pm. Every team member is required to have a reflective vest but only 4 people per van have to have a headlamp and tail light. I borrowed a headlight because Trisha had been running with ours. I soon learned that my borrowed headlamp gave about as much light as my cell phone would have. I was worried about it at first because it really was dark out but I just decided that I would have to rely on the many car headlights passing me and pray that I wouldn't fall into a crater in the road. It turned out okay, I didn't get hurt. The first 6 miles was rolling hills with a general climb. I felt really good about it. Then it started really climbing. A big hill, followed by some flat running, followed by another big hill. It must have done this 6 or 7 times. I kept thinking I was gonna be done at the top of the next hill, but then I would get there and there was another one. The only thing that kept me going was my "kills". A kill in the Ragnar is when you pass someone. I had 12 kills in the first 5 miles of the run and as it started to get steep, I just kept seeing people in the distance and making it my goal to get another kill. Whatever works, right? Finally I knew I was close when I turned a corner at the top of a hill and saw East Canyon Reservoir with a full moon gleaming down on it. Incredible! I had one last hill to climb and finally saw all of the lights at the finish line. This was my favorite run out of all of them. I got 23 kills, by the way and I finished at 11:45pm
Now our primary goal, after I got hot chocolate, was to find a place to sleep. We drove to the high school in Coalville but decided we wanted to get closer to where we would start in the morning. So, we kept driving and ended up at South Summit High School in Kamas. We hauled our stuff into the gym, which was dark, completely silent and full of sleeping runners. We laid our sleeping bags out on the hard wood floor and tried to sleep. I think I slept well for about 3 hours and then the hard wood floor got to me and I couldn't fall asleep again. After several more hours of tossing and turning, we got the call to move to our next exchange.
Jordanelle
3rd Run: 3.1 miles "Easy" right through the center of Heber
Trisha passed off to me at 11:42am. This run was completely flat, maybe slightly downhill. It should have been an easy run but I was so tired and after a day of running and 3 hours of sleep, my mind was tired and my legs were tense. I still made really good time and was so glad to be done with my legs. I finished at 12:10pm.
Trisha and the rest of our team did so well. We all had a really good time and ran our butts off.
Total I ran 18.1 miles. I averaged 9.0 minute miles. Our team ran for 36 hours and 15 minutes.
