For those of you that may not know what the Ragnar Relay Series is about let me try and give you a really quick lesson. Basically you are a team of 12 runners total split into two vehicles. So two teams of six runners. Each runner runs 1 leg for each rotation. Then the next vehicle takes over and their runners do the same. You basically leap frog your way over 197 miles. This relay was from Logan to Park City. Runners range from beginners to really good ones. And the difficulties in the different leg assignments vary from Very Hard to Easy. At the end of the day each runner runs 3 separate times. Some of which are run in the middle of the night and you get very little sleep. So that's it in a nutshell. Check out the website though .. it probably describes it way better.
So Friday morning we were supposed to be in Logan at 8:30am so that we could take the safety class. We arrived a little late and quickly missed out start time of 9:30am. So instead we started at 10am. The other people we were running with were 3 people that work at Harman whom none of us had ever met in our whole lives. They were all really nice though.
Starting Line
Rachel and I were pumped to get the show on the road.
So finally we were off. The guy ran 2 marathons last month alone. He was great to have on our team because he had done this several times and was such a great support for everyone.
Our Harman teammates.
It's kind of strange to think that for two days straight I pee'd in nothing but a Honey Bucket.
Here we were at Rachel's first leg getting ready.
Rachel started off her leg and did amazing.
It was a long one and she just chugged along in the heat.
By the time she went we were hitting midday.
Her parents and grandparents came out to support her and the timing was perfect.
Evan out there feeding her Shot Bloks and Gatorade.
Next up was my turn. My hardest leg was my very first leg.
8 miles, 2000 ft elevation climb, straight up a dirt road.
I have to admit my outfits were planned out very carefully and I got lots of compliments which put a smile on my face while I was climbing that hill. My one and only goal was not to have to walk. While sometimes I think I may have walked faster than I ran, I just kept going. Within the first mile I got some dust in my eye and my contact slipped. So for another mile I was running with some severely messed up depth perception. I was so relieved when I saw the truck so that I could pull it out and fix it. Then I was on my way again. It was hard. There is no question. I had to dig deep to get up that hill. But I did it and it felt like such a huge accomplishment, I as well have given birth to another baby or something. That's how proud of myself I was. Every time I passed my van I had the biggest grin plastered on my face because I was just so freaking proud of how I was doing.
This is what this hill looked like. Basically there were lots of runners (many that passed me).
Then there were people driving by in their vans and trucks just kicking up all this dust.
I felt like I'd spent a day out in the worst smog possible when I was done.
My lungs just kind of ached.
After I trekked up Avon Pass it was Evan's turn to come down the other side. He of course did amazing. I don't know if there is anything this kid doesn't do well. Pretty much not. And he of course had a huge smile on his face the entire time. And he was running down the gravel road. It was STEEP.
Here he is with a mouthful of Shot Bloks.
Once Evan completed his leg we were at the end of our first round. We arrived at Snow Basin Resort and had a little break while Van 2 headed out to run 6 legs of the relay. Evan and Rachel had been kind enough to bring spaghetti for us to eat for dinner and it was perfect. Totally the carbs we needed to load up on prior to our next runs. As soon as we got there we all laid on the grass and I literally went straight to sleep for half an hour. It didn't help that I'd been up late the night before trying to finish the book I was reading so that I could trade Kindle's with my mum before she left on her trip to England that day.
It barely felt like we had only a couple hours of down time before it was time to start running again. We met up with our Van 2 and they handed off to us and so the night legs would begin. By this time it was around 9pm. Our first runner began his leg in the light and ended in the dark. After awhile it was Rachel's turn. Off she went for a quick 4 or 5 miler. She killed it! She was running so strong. The cooler temps agreed with her for sure. As we were waiting for her to come into the exchange (us all standing shivering, because by that time it was much colder), next thing we knew she was limping towards us. Turns out that because of the dark and only light being her headlamp she missed the transition from road to gravel as she came down into the actual exchange chute. She rolled her foot and was in a great deal of pain. We were all optimistic that it would be feeling better by morning.
Next up I had my night leg. Only 4.2 miles. I was so afraid I would take a wrong turn so instead I pushed myself to keep up with the people in front of me so that I wouldn't get lost. They sign posted it pretty well so I'm sure I wouldn't have actually gotten lost. I managed to pass about 6 people, 2 of which were men. THAT felt pretty good. I felt really strong coming off my long leg earlier that day and besides being sleepy (because at this point it was about 12:30am) I was feeling good.
Next up was Evan. It was his hardest leg. Lots of BIG hills in the middle of the night. He began his leg a little after 1am. By this time Rachel and I were beginning to get a little giggly and loopy. At one point I said to her, I think I'm hungry, I might need a snack. She says, BAGELS!! So out we climbed (she hobbled) and in the middle of the night in the freezing cold we fixed ourselves a bagel to share. Well turns out that we were ooing and ahhing so much over how it had to be the BEST bagel we had every tasted that we completely missed Evan when he ran by. CRAP! Not good support. We had a lot of laughs during that leg. We were definitely getting delirious.
Once Evan finished and handed off to the next team we then had to drive to the next major exchange. At this point there were no more giggles. We were EXHAUSTED. Poor Evan was driving. It took us over an hour to get there because of all the crazy traffic coming out and going into the exchange points. It was so bad. Once we got there we headed straight to a field of grass. It was dewy and I was worried that Baylee's Target sleeping bag wouldn't hold up to the elements. On top I was wearing a short sleeve, a long sleeve, a sweatshirt, and my puffy vest. I don't think I was awake longer than 5 minutes. We got a solid 4 hours of sleep! The only things that woke me up were two of Evan's massive farts! Disgusting. And then someones car alarm first thing in the morning.
Once we were up Evan and Rachel headed over to the First Aid tent to have her foot looked at. They told her it was bruised and wrapped it up for her. She was still limping so badly that Evan insisted on running her next leg. Oh my gosh we all felt so bad for him. He had barely given his all to his hardest leg and now here he was running Rachel's hardest too. But there was no way could have ran that leg.
Evan suffered in silence.
He just kept saying, I'm fine.
Even though others offered to finish the leg.
He just did so good. So proud of him .. that was not easy at all.
This picture really doesn't do the hills justice.
After one of our other runners it was my turn again. This was my easiest leg. Only 2.8 miles. Less that a 5K .. that's what I kept telling myself. I planned to give it my absolute everything. And that's exactly what I did. I ran the first mile in 8:30, I think that was a record for me. Other people are much faster, but for me that was really good. I had committed to a 10:30 pace overall and I was really proud that I did better than that on two of my three runs. This leg felt so amazing.
Rachel insisted on running Evan's last leg. 2.5 miles. Her foot was no better and she still did amazing. She ran a decent clip. We found out the following day that her foot was more than bruised. It was broken. So she ran this last leg on a broken foot and ran the entire thing. No walking here. So proud of her.
You can see in this picture how her left shoe is untied.
That's the broken foot.
Love this picture Evan snapped.
This was me at the end of my final leg. That is a smile of accomplishment.
I literally walked until I could find this tiny spot of shade from the telephone pole.
Once we finished out leg we handed off to Van 2 and we then had several hours to kill while they ran their last legs. We dropped half our team off at the finish line, then Evan, Rachel and I went and met up with her family for lunch at Red Rock. Oh my goodness that beer and burger tasted so delicious right then. It was nice to relax at that point. Once we finished we headed back to the finish line Basically you wait for the rest of your team to get there with your final runner and then the entire team of 12 runs across the track to cross the finish line together as a team. We waited for what felt like hours. There's nothing like being done, sleep deprived, ready for a shower and then waiting in the hot sun. It made for some good people watching though. Needless to say our last runner took a wrong turn and ran 3 miles in the wrong direction, then had to run 3 miles back to get back on course. His 7 mile leg turned into a 13 mile leg (yep he ran half marathon). We felt SO bad for him.
Team Uncomfortably Numb in all our glory.
Once we crossed the finish line we got our medals and took our team picture.
This experience wouldn't have been the same without two of my favorite people.
Don't I look short next to them?
That's it. If you made it this far, thanks for that! Here it is now only Tuesday and already they're taking a poll of who's in for next year. I was a 100% YES! I had so much darn fun. I'm really excited for November when we go down and run the Las Vegas Ragnar. Jeramie and Rebecca will be running it with me this time. Evan and Rachel will be in Van 2 with a bunch of their friends. I think we've learned a ton from this experience and plan to take that knowledge with us to Vegas. I can't wait for Jeramie to experience this too. He's gonna love it.
If you ever get a chance to participate DO!
