We Kicked RAGNAR's Bootay!!!

Running With Altitude!

This weekend me and 11 friends piled into 2 vans to run 188 miles in the Ragnar Wasatch Back. All of us first time relay folks tried to get ready by asking others who have done this before for advice. We got some great advice, but nothing could have prepared us for the adventure we had!

Cheech!

Chong!

Our team (van 1) started at 6:45am on Friday. I was in van 2. One of the girls in our group had a cabin near the exchange where we took over from van 1, so we stayed there Thursday night and got to sleep in a little before we had to meet van 1. If I would have known how little sleep I would get during the race, I would have slept in a little more!By the time our van took over, it was mid-afternoon and HOT. My first leg was 3.4 miles and it felt like mile 24 of the marathon because of the heat!

Our van took over again about midnight. My leg was 7.0 miles. I was a little scared about running in the middle of nowhere at night, but this turned out to be my best leg. It was pitch black. I had a headlamp, reflective vest and my ipod and I was off. There were a million stars in the sky and the weather had cooled down. I could see a little flashing light from the runner way in front of me and a headlamp of the runner way behind me, but that was it. It was way cool! Our van had the longest mileage at this point so we did not hand off to van 1 again until around 6:00am.

At this point having NO sleep was getting to me and I was getting a little irritable. We went and got breakfast and headed to the last major exchange point, where I laid my sleeping bag on the grass and crawled inside. Then it started to rain. I tucked my head in and tried to not get wet. I laid there for 30 minutes then had to get out of the rain GRRRR!

Absolutely exhausted, I started my final 6.1 mile leg. My legs felt like lead and my right hamstring started cramping. I slowed down and did everything I could to finish. When I saw that exchange, with my team holding our disco ball and music blasting, I got a little misty. I was so glad to be done!! We had 4 more runners to go and we would be finished! As our last runner headed out we headed for the finish line where we would be there to greet her and out whole team could run across the line together. It started to rain pretty hard. We were not allowed to park at the finish so we had to leave our vans at the last exchange and be shuttled to the finish line.

By the time we got there, there was FREEZING rain and wind. The tents were getting blown up and Ragnar had to close a couple down. We stood waiting for our last runner freezing to death. When we saw her we ran across the line, got our medals and everyone just ran to find a shuttle back. My DH was at the finish and we ran under the gear tent so he could get me a sweatshirt as by this time, I was in serious danger of hypothermia. I was so cold, I passed out for a second right there. My DH hurried me over to the food tent and asked where the medical tent was, when a Ragnar worker saw my state, he put me and my DH in his truck and cranked the heat! He then offered us a ride back to our car. VERY COOL!! THANK YOU DAVID FROM RAGNAR!!!

It was a horrible ending to a great time.The running was not hard per se, the running after being awake for 30 hours with NO sleep was the hard part. I can't wait to do it again next year!!

Our awesome team captain, Stacie and here equally awesome dad, Fred, took some great photos. Check them out!!

http://portal.mxlogic.com/redir/?2DtMQsLELfc3zqtXTpv73zpjDjVmaNVv5ytpRFB9XimN-hK_nhhpouKO--rKrS6QDJ9rQvB3gkmQDmLbCQrIIL6QkS7T3hOqerFLCQSjo2XjpS9Cy0pSNkQgh-SHoJaR3s_3VUIvIE6QjqpJeXb3b1EVphodX_ru