Ragnar-Wasatch Back

This is by far one of the craziest things I have done. I don't think words will really do it justice, but I'll try. This is a 200 mile relay race. 12 people on the team-2 vans/6 people per. I was with 5 other totally awesome ladies-who again, words can't do justice for. Drama free and they were amazing! How it works it that one person is always running. You have 36 "legs" and they vary in length and difficulty-factoring in hills/elevation gain and loss, time of day. We all had challenges, that's for sure! The "baton" is actually a slap bracelet that you hand off. The exchange points have parking (usually) for the van to come and drop off one runner and pick up the other. You also were able to "support" your runner by leapfrogging them-driving ahead a mile or two and cheering for them, asking if they need anything, that sort of thing. There were a few legs that were "no support" like if it was a busy highway or if the running route went off-road. And did I mention it's 200 miles? That took our team an impressive 32 hours and 54 minutes. Seriously. (And that really is a great combined time).

 This is my van (Van #1) before any of the action started. Up at Utah State Campus in Logan.

 

 Here's me before my first run (almost 7 miles). I was runner #3

 I'm just getting started and feeling fine

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This is after we had all completed one run and had handed off to the second van (they were also fabulous, but we of course didn't see them as much since they were running when we had downtime and vice versa).

 

 This is at Snow Basin which was where we started back up again with run #13 (back around to runner #1-who was Tammy-in the safety vest). This is all the ladies on the team: Lindsey, Tamarynn, me, Allison, Tammy, Jen, Amber, and Kirsten.

 After our van had all done two runs (I think most people liked their 2nd run in the cool evening/night the best-I know I did-plus it was my shortest-only 5 miles), we headed to South Summit HS and sleep in the hallway. That's me on the right in the back of the picture. I actually slept (yeah, 3 hours was totally awesome) and that is more than I can say for some of these gals.

 This is me heading out on my final and third run. I guess I was concentrating, I don't really know what that look is.

 This was considered a "non-support" leg because you can't cross the highway. But my awesome team was there to cheer me on (from the other side). And throw me a bag of ice (which I did not catch) that was totally the best because it was so hot! I shared with anyone I passed. This picture doesn't really do this hill justice-it was kindof never-ending. 

 This is the hand off to Tamarynn at the end of my almost 8 (hot and uphill) miles. You can see where I chose to store the ice. At one of the aid stations, I had a volunteer throw water in my face and I threw a cup on my head. Felt divine! 

 

The finish line! The last runner was the guy on the left with the green shirt. We (our van) stuck around in Park City (showered at Allison's parents house there) so that we could run in with him and get our medals and stickers. This is our whole team! 

 Hard but awesome. I was super super sore for a couple days but now I'm feeling fine and looking forward to the next challenge.