Ragnar Relay!

If you don't know anything about the Ragnar Relay Race or aren't a runner then this might not even sound fun to you....but it was a BLAST!! I got excited all over again just going through the pictures to post and remembering how much FUN it was! So just to fill you in, you have a team of 12 runners and 2 vans (6 runners in each van). Your team run 188 miles in less than 2 days...you start in Logan and end at the Canyons in Park City. Each person runs 3 different legs, at all different times. My first run was at 2:30 pm then 11:00 pm and then 8:00 am. Most people decorate their vans with their team name. Here is a picture of our van.
We were The Dirty Underwear Gang :)

My sister Margo has done this race since it started 7 years ago. This is pretty much the origional team....I totally lucked out to get on the team this year because one of their guys got injured. So they have the van decorating down to a science. We had sponsors and they even had shirts made that we all wore on the last run.


This was one of the vans that was decorated. It was a pretty sweet set up. They had a mattress in the back of the truck and the elephant thing provided shade.

Some people were pretty creative with their names and van decorations and some people didn't put a lot of effort in, but it was fun to see what everyone came up with.

Here I am running my first leg. I had my team/van meet me 2 miles into my run to give me some water and spray me down...we had a weed sprayer thing that we got to put water in. It was a wonderful idea, especially since I was running at 2:30 in the afternoon in 90 degree heat!

The scenery was AMAZING! It was sooooo beautiful and we even saw 3 moose, look close in the picture and you will see them. The funny thing about picture is, we took a wrong turn (one of the Ragnar direction signs was covered up by another car) so we actually drove to the exchange place where runner #9 passes off to runner #10. We took this picture and said "oh Margo is going to freak out when she sees she is running past moose". We get to the exchange place and are waiting for Margo...Tara is all streached and ready to grab the bracelet and run....we wait and wait and wait. Finally we find out we are waiting at the wrong exchange place and Margo is waiting at the other place wondering where the heck we are! We all run back to the van and look at the map, make our way over the right place and see Margo still running. So we pull over Margo hops in Tara hops out and starts running. We explained what happened and Margo says she waited there for us but then decided to keep running and hoped we would all find each other....that definitely could have worked out BAD but we were lucky and it all turned out fine :)

This is a view of one of the exchange places....where one runner hands off to the other runner on the team. That's why there are a bunch of cars pulled over on the side....letting runners out, picking runners up and then once the runner gets going all the cars disperse and meet their runners at differentspots to provide support and then meet at the next exchange place to switch runners and start over :)

Did I mention how beatiful the views were? This is what I got to see while running!

I ran 2 of my legs during the day so I got some great views. One of my runs was at night so I really couldn't see anything, it was quite interesting. I just focused on shining my head lamp down on the road so I could look for pot holes.

The not so fun part!! The lines to the port a pots were rediculious. Plus they had this rule that if you were caught going to the bathroom anywhere else besides the designated areas you would be automatically disqualified. I just happened to miss that part of orientation (because, ironically, I was waiting in the port a potty line). I found out that information only AFTER I fertalized a farmers field during one of my runs. Hey, when you gotta go you gotta go...especially when you are running.

Yes there was lots of adventure on this 2 day excursion. While we were waiting at the exchange place for our runner (around 3 am) 3 of us were sitting in the car talking and trying to stay warm!! The radio was on the whole time, we weren't even listening to it, it didn't even occur to us that it might run the battery down. So Tara runs in and hands off to Chris...he takes off, gives us a wave and we all get back in the van to meet him. But it wouldn't start....the battery was dead! After asking 10 people we found someone with cables to help us, but once we hooked them up it was obvious the jumper cables were dead. We tracked down some more and eventually got it started about 40 minutes after Chris had started running! We went straight to the next exchange place and hoped he wasn't there waiting for us (he is fast) but luckily he ran in shortly after we got there.

The night run was the most fun even though we had to wear reflective vests and run with head lamps! I would rather run in cooler weather than blazing heat! Most of this run was up-hill though which I wasn't really prepared for. To be honest I wasn't really prepared for any of it, I hadn't trained...I really hadn't ran since the half marathon in Moab and I hurt my knee. I just couldn't pass up the opportunity!

After all our runners finished their 2nd legs it was around 5 am and we headed to this 5 star hotel to shower while van #1 (our other 6 team members started their 3rd legs). Keep in mind we have all been in the van (suburban) for 24 hours straight....running 2 different times, eating, trying to rest, stretching, freezing, talking, laughing, becoming delirious. So we were relieved to have 2 hours to "relax", but when we walked into our rooms we were a little disturbed and wondered why this hotel wasn't shut down by the disease control center or something!! I was also trying to figure out how they could get away with charging $120 for such a DUMP! If I wasn't so exhaused, delirious and sore you couldn't have paid me to touch that bed, but after inspecting it for bed bugs and taking off the disgusting blankets I laid down (thank goodness I had my own pillow) and got a 20 minute nap. I got up showered and we were on the road again...I was the first runner that morning.

Chris and I making us some breakfast.

Bubba, Tara, Me, Margo, Ann, and Chris

We pulled over to wait for our runner and give him water, but couldn't resist taking a picture with the great view. We looked up and he was running past us...Bubba ran after him and gave him his water. Towards the end I don't think we were as "awake" as we should have been :)

So here I am taking the bracelet from our last runner in van #1, and I'm off for my last run of Ragnar :(

Jeremy and Cameron were there at the finish line to see us cross and get our medals.

The Dirty Underwear Gang