Another Ragnar Wasatch Back has come and gone. This one however was one for the books! It was very much a family affair this year. I loved the opportunity to run around with them. The race went from Logan to Park City. Just under 200 miles.
We were Van 2, which in my opinion has the more difficult legs of the relay race. Here we are in Eden, Utah waiting for our van to take over. Technically each van has 6 runners but we brought along Jen as our alternate since we had some slightly injured runners, in case she needed to pinch hit for them.
Ryan and Jen Skidmore, Joe Mattson, Travis and Sarah Burke, Heidi Muirbrook and Myself
Sarah was our van's first runner, Runner 7. She was a Ragnar newbie and she did great. Her first leg she ended up running the first mile or so with the Ragnar CEO!
She handed off to Heidi, Runner 8, another Ragnar newbie who also did great!
Sarah and Heidi took us through Eden and Liberty where they handed it off to me, Runner 9, in Huntsville, Utah. It was super toasty that afternoon!
Knowing the legs that I had ahead of me I went into my first run planning on taking it a bit easy so my legs could endure to the end. However, once I got out there I couldn't quite go as slow as I had planned. I mean I wasn't setting any records by any means, but it was a bit faster than I had intended. It was only mid 70's that afternoon but boy it sure didn't feel that cool.
I then handed it off to Joe, Runner 10, Travis's friend from work. He took it the rest of the way through Huntsville.
He then handed it off to Ryan, Runner 11, who had the misfortune of having to do about a 7 mile steady climb up Old Snowbasin Road. Yikes!
Here we were right when Jen was using the Loud Mouth to tell Ryan to run til his nipples bleed! It was hilarious!
Right after his long haul up to Snowbasin Lodge. Where he handed off to Travis, Runner 12, who ran a two mile trail loop up above the Lodge.
Right after Travis finished his leg above Snowbasin. We had just handed it back off to van 1 and now had a couple of hours to relax and eat.
We ended up running again around 10:30 P.M. Our van took our team from East Canyon over in Morgan to Oakley, Utah. Which meant for me an almost 12 mile run, with no van support, from 1:30 A.M. to about 3:30 A.M.. I ran along Echo Reservoir quite a bit, on a dirt road that they had the nerve to call a trail. I actually really enjoyed it. The full moon was amazing reflecting on the Reservoir, so pretty! The first 8 miles or so I was clicking along pretty good. But then my legs started complaining pretty good. That slowed me up a bit. All in all it was my favorite leg to run. I ended up finishing this leg at North Summit High in Coalville.
Our van finally finished running around 6 A.M. Yes, you read that right. We pretty much ran from 11 P.M. to 6 A.M. All. Night. Long. We were able to catch a little over an hour of sleep on the lawn of a school in Heber before we were called into duty again.
Off we went again. Running our way to Park City. With van 1 all done and heading off to get cleaned up to meet us at the finish line. Lucky!
Sarah taking off on her 3rd and final leg through Heber. She did great! We were super proud of her for sticking it out and showing her MS that it wasn't gonna stop her. Ragnar is a tough race and is quite the challenge alone without that added burden. She is one tough Lady. Quite the accomplishment.
Heidi was able to run all of her first leg and the first mile or two of her 2nd and 3rd legs. Having just been handed a diagnosis of Tendonosis her doctor would have been less than pleased to know that she was out getting it done. In order to not end up on crutches see had Jen finish her 2nd and 3rd legs. So fun having both of them in the van though. Totally worked out perfect.
Jen brought us into Midway. Getting closer! Just have to climb over the mountain now.
We actually did have "kills", that is where you pass another runner during your run, but we were too tired to keep track of them on the van.
It was now time for me to take on the dreaded 3rd leg. No matter what runner you are, the 3rd leg is always rough! You are exhausted and you no longer have fresh legs. Well, I was about to run a Granddaddy of a third leg. Ugh!
I took off from the Homestead Resort in Midway and about two miles in started the ascent that is known as Ragnar Hill! Just like the description above: Run Up The Mountain! Yikes! It got ugly quick.
I ended up doing power lunges to the exchange. It was so stinking hot and my legs were so very angry. It was a rough, rough leg. All I could do was keep moving. It took me a hair over an hour but I still finished 3-4 minutes under my projected finish time. So that was great.
I even tried going backwards, to see if that would help my tired, angry legs.
At my exchange we ran into this cute guy. He was one of our awesome team volunteers again this year. What a Stud!
He was awesome and ended up climbing the last quarter mile of my portion of Ragnar Hill with me. I loved it and was so excited to see him after the last 24 hours of physical endurance.
Poor Joe ended up as Runner 10 again this year. Two years in a row to finish up the dreaded Ragnar Hill. He powered through again, just like last year. It was awesome!
At the top Joe turned it over to Ryan who had the great pleasure of running all the way down the other side. You know the old expression, "What goes UP must come DOWN" definitely applies to Ryan. He ran UP Old Snowbasin Rd and ran DOWN Guardsman Pass. We had a great team!
While he was doing that, we were doing this. Having your third leg done is such a relief!
This is the face of a man who is super happy to be done and super oblivious to the fact that he now has to walk quite a ways to get to the finish line. It actually was one of the best things for him, to just keep moving those muscles.
Travis had a doozey of a third leg as well bringing us into the finish line at Park City High School. Here we all are finishing together.
Team 514: 2.62 Crew after 32 hours and 33 minutes and 32 seconds of non stop running.
Van 2 at the Finish Line
