Let’s back up almost a month and start with my latest Ragnar race. June 17-18. I was very excited to do the Wasatch Back since it is the original Ragnar. I was in charge of half of the team and that was not fun. It was a full time job for several weeks getting everything arranged and replacing runners who had to drop out. Needless to say I was so excited once it was race time. As I loaded up the race “van”, Bryan and the boys were loading up our van to head to Arizona. It was a little confusing making sure I got everything in the correct place.
I was in van 2 which was a first for me. This meant that we didn’t start at 5:45 with our other van, but started around 12:00. We met early, got the car decorated and loaded and headed to the start line. I knew 3 of the people in the car before we started so there were just 2 I didn’t know. The exchange where we checked in was nuts, so many people around. I wasn’t paying attention to the time or when I would run and I just walked around eating the free food offered and the food we had brought. I saw my friends I have done the other ragnars with and another good friend.
Just a taste of some of the pre race festivities. My friend Jill there on the left ran a tough leg 6 months pregnant!
My first run was a nice and easy 3. something or other. I ran pretty good even though I was so bloated the whole time. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me. I finished with a 10 min. mile average, pretty much my racing speed. I realized after the run that I had eaten too much too close to race time, I was much better at not eating 2 hours before any of my other runs.
Running pictures are not super flattering! Our team name was “This run is b-a-n-a-n-a-s”. I said I wouldn’t run with a prop and there I was running with a pom pom, that got hot really fast.
The rest of the day and evening were very fun, how could it not be with a van full of college aged girls and one boy! My night run started at 12:30 A.M.!!!!! It was supposed to be a 9.3 mile run and when we checked in I found out it had been changed to a 10 miler. Oh well, no big deal, right???? I ran the whole thing, I kept telling myself I would stop and walk for a minute, but never did. 4 of the miles was on a dirt and rock trail which was hard to see in the dark. The run was along echo reservoir which was so pretty with the moon shining on it. The last hundred yards of the run was uphill, I thought that was a very cruel joke. I actually could have kept running, but since it was 2:30 A.M. I stopped. 15 minutes or so after the run I started to get terribly sick. I thought I was going to throw up. It took some time and I felt a little better. During our last runners night run I slept for about 40 minutes. We then drove for an hour to a campsite where our other van had left a trailer for us to sleep in. I crawled into bed still in my running clothes, reflective vest and number on at 7:00 a.m. and got to sleep a whopping 1 hour and 40 minutes. I was then awoken by a team mate who felt like we needed to get going. I wasn’t super happy about that! Anyways fun people made for a fun morning.
My LAST run. 3. something else straight up a hill. There was no way to prepare myself for how steep and never ending the hill was. I think I ran a total 1.3 miles of it. I was trudging as fast as I could the rest of the way. All the cars passing me where so nice and encouraging. It was fun to joke with them about how slow I was going. At some points the cars had trouble making it up the hill.
In this next picture you can kind of imagine how steep it was. The dirt area kind of in the middle and kind of at the base of the mountain was where I started and I took the picture just after I ended. 3 miles straight up…..took me like an hour and 10 minutes!
Anyways, even though that part was SO hard, I still loved it. I didn’t really feel great on any of my runs and couldn’t eat much. Still it was so much fun. I loved being with one of my BF’s Whitney and my new friends Kate and Tracy were so much fun. I wish we had seen our other van more often. My cousin Mimi was the one who got me started with the team and we had a lot of fun talking and planning the whole thing.
Wasatch back was definitely not my favorite Ragnar. Way too many people. Some of our runners had to wait for long periods of time for the car to get to them with the next runner. Too trendy of a run for me.
The finish line was great and we enjoyed celebrating our success briefly before I had to hurry and get to the airport.
Mimi and I.
Us again.
OK there is our whole team. I am looking so full of life!
I “raced” from the finish line to the airport. I looked just like that….number still on, medal on, smelling pretty bad but happy to have made my flight to Phoenix. Next up Mexico!!!!
