Ragnar 2012

If you live in Utah County you have probably see the Ragnar stickers on cars.

Ragnar is a relay race from Logan to Park City Utah, 197 miles.  There are 12 runners on a team (unless you are crazy and then you only have 6).  Each runner runs 3 legs of the race.  The distances of each leg are different.  I have lots of friends who have run this race.  I guess you could say it has been on my "bucket list" for a while.  Last year I had a friend from my ward ask me if I wanted to run on a team with a bunch of girls from our ward.  Not really knowing what I was getting myself into, I said sure.  In January we met and assigned legs to each runner.  I was assigned to be runner #9.  My first leg would be 3.2 "easy" miles.  My second leg would be 10.0 "very hard" miles.  My last leg would be 4.4 "very hard" miles.  So I would be running 17.6 miles total.   After this meeting in January I started training like crazy.  I figured if I was going to live through this I was going to train better than I had ever trained for any race.  It was a great motivator.  I ran every day Monday-Saturday.  I had set a goal to run at least 12 miles a week in 2012, and I had no problem running at least 12 miles each week.  By the end of my training it was more like 24-30 miles a week.  

Well, the race came.  I was nervous, but I knew that I had prepared as well as I could have.  (Ok I had Devin give me a blessing the night before so I would not freak out completely.)  It was a great race.  The best part was the girls that I ran with.  For the race there are two vans for each team, six runners in each van...in our case it was six girls in truck.  This is what we looked like when we left for the race Friday morning.

We drove up to our first exchange picked up our packets, went through lots of training on the "rules" of the race, and got our awesome Ragnar tattoos (don't worry they are not permanent).

It  was nice having a truck because we kept all of our stuff in the back and we would get to everything really easily.  We had so much food...it was really good!!!  We joked that we were having a girls weekend with great food and we'd do a bit of running too.

Before our first exchange we took another picture of what we looked like before.

Here is the other half our our team, Van #1.

Funny thing was that we realized when it was all over, we never got a picture of all 12 runners.  Someone was always running.

Anyway, on to the running part.  It was a hot weekend.  I was glad that I had my hand-held water bottle.  I used it on every run.  My first leg was at around 5pm.  It was a quick 3.2.  The elevation for the course looked like this.

It was a pretty run through the country.  One of the fun parts of the race is that each team keeps track on the "kills" that they make as they are running.  If you pass someone when you are running it counts as a "kill."  If someone passes you, you get "killed."  I only saw three other runners on this first leg and I "killed" them all.  :)  I was very pleased with my time.  I averaged a 7:30 pace.  

After all six of our girls ran their first leg we went to Courtney's trailer that she had parked at a campsite close to the race and we were able to eat and "sleep" for a few hours.  Then it was time for our night runs.  Exchange #19 was a blast.  There was a guy making everyone laugh and cracking jokes and lots of great music.  He was either really funny, or it was just 2 am and we were all really tired.  We also saw some randome horses on the road who thought they should be part of the race.

My night run was the longest leg of the race, 10 miles.  I was worried about this, my mom was FREAKED OUT about this.  Too bad I didn't get a picture of me in my cute reflective vest and head lamp.  The course went around a reservoir.  The elevation for the course looked like this.

This was my favorite leg of the race.  It was so pretty.  I "killed" at least 24 runners, I lost track.  The weather was great, not too cold at all.  It was fun to run just before dawn.  It was dark the whole time, but at the very end it was starting to get lighter...it was really pretty.  I love my head lamp.  I felt bad for runners who didn't have head lamps as bright as mine, because I could always see plenty.  I ran slower for this leg...but it was 10 miles...and was able to average a 8:30 pace.

After all of our runners finished their second leg we were able to go to a girl in our ward's cabin to shower and rest.  We all just dropped dead, we really could sleep anywhere.  This is Jen, she sat down and was gone! (Her quilt is really cute!)

Then we were on to our third and final legs of the race.  It was hot...REALLY hot already.  Van #1 of our team had a great idea.  They got one of those spray things for lawn...they bought it new, and filled it with water so they could spray off the runners.  BRILLIANT!!!  We could stop along the course and spray our girls off.  It was a life saver!

By this time we were know as being the team with the cow bells.  We had lots of fun cheering our team on.  I loved it when my team would drive by ringing the cow bells or when you came to the exchange.  You could hear them for quite a while.  It always made me smile and want to run faster.

 My last leg was...challenging.  I started running in Midway and I had the privilege of running up the mountain.  This is what the course elevation looked like.

 The pictures don't do it justice, but I was running straight up the mountain.  Good times! 

4.4 miles up hill.  I learned quickly that if I walked it as fast as I could,  taking as big of strides as I could, I could go faster than those who were trying to run.  It was so hot!  I was so grateful for my team that would spray me off every mile.  Doing my killer speed walk I was able to "kill" 20 runners.  I had to fight for the las few, but I got them!!!  If you look in this picture you can see my buddy in the green shirt.  We raced each other up the mountain.  He completely blew past me at the end, but we were playing leapfrog the whole course.  When we got done we talked for a while, thanking each other for pushing each other the whole leg.  Thanks to my green friend I was able to average an 11:30 pace.  WAY better than I'd thought I'd do running straight up hill!

The highlight of this leg was this cute volunteer at the end of leg.  

Too bad the traffic was so backed up.  Devin was on one side of the cars trying to keep the cars moving and I snuck up on the other side of the road.  He didn't even see me run up.  It's ok.  Devin gets one of the amazing husband awards of the weekend.  He volunteered from 6:30am until 3:30pm.  He stayed an extra 3 1/2 hours so he could see me at the exchange.   To give you an idea of how far up I went, I started in the valley and this was my view when I got back in the truck after my leg.

The cute Bybee kids and Ryan get the second amazing supportive family award of the weekend.  The Bybee kids were so cute the made a big sign for Sarah and wer cheering her on as she ran up the second half of the mountain.  Too bad I didn't get any pictures of them on top of their van cheering for their mom.

That was one of my favorite parts of running this race, running with amazing girls and watching how each family supported their mom.  Good families, really good families.  I wish I would have gotten a picture of Jen's family.  They surprised her by being at the end of her leg.  She cried as her kids were screaming for their her, ringing the cow bells.  It was really cute. 

Long story short.  We did it!!  We all made it. It was fun!

It was the best "girls weekend" ever.  I would run with these girls again in a heartbeat.  I have a new respect for the Ragnar stickers.  Each leg of this race is challenging in it's own way.  Devin and I are not sticker people.  We like having a clean car.  When I got home, I asked him if he thought we should put the sticker on the van.  He said that I earned it, it was something to be proud of and that we absolutely should stick it on the van.  So I am now one of those Ragnar sticker people.  Ragnar was great, it pushed me harder than anything I have ever done. I love it!!!