Ragnar 2011

Finally!  I finally got to run the Wasatch Back.  It's been the one race that has always eluded me. I've known many who have run it but was never able to snag a spot on any team until this year.  While training for my marathon with the Huntsman Hometown Heroes, a few of the girls who I would run with regularly told me they had a team and they also told me that they weren't sure if all the people that originally signed up would really pan out.  I immediately volunteered myself as a replacement if they ended up needing one.  Well about a month before the race they called.  I jumped at the opportunity and marked my calendar for June 17-18th. 


The entire team was made up of first timers, no one had run this race before.  I think I was the only one with any previous knowledge of how things would go thanks to all those people that I knew that had run it before. In a nutshell, Ragnar Wasatch Back is a relay race from Logan to Park City - 191 miles.  There are 12 people on a team split into 2 vans 6 runners each.  Each runner runs 3 legs of the race of differing lengths and difficulty.  On average it takes most teams about 30 hours to complete. I never once thought this race was going to be easy. . .while I think there were a few on our team who had heard that Ragnar is just a big party with some running involved.  That mindset got us into a little trouble but we persevered.

I was in Van #2, runner 7.   Our team was an all girl team and the ladies in our van were so awesome.  I only knew 2 of the six before race day but quickly discovered that of the 2 vans I was super grateful to be in van #2.  We started our legs in Liberty...it was all fun and excitement.  We couldn't wait to get started but wait we did.  Our van #1 came in an hour and half behind projection :(  but that didn't dampen our spirits just yet.

Here's Alicia showing off her stuff and our van.

Our team name was "Will Run For Cupcakes!"

Our legs were awesome...we all ran within minutes of our projected times and that was with scorching temps, some pretty extreme hills and sleep deprivation. 

Here is Katy at the her 1st exchange passing the slap bracelet to Alicia.

Alicia conquering Trapper's Loop

And Traci coming in after running Snowbasin Road.

She was amazing...all of her legs were really hard and she rocked them all!

We started our second legs around 3:30AM 

(another hour and half behind...yeah the total deficit now 3 hours)

Here I am running in my reflective gear.  I'm on the left, the person on the right was Julie,

my teammate, waiting with water.

After my run...I had decked myself out in glow sticks but my headlamp was so bright they didn't show up very well on the road. Soooo... flash on.

Flash off... nice!

Here's our van just before starting our last legs.

After hours of waiting...seriously, thanks to van #1 our van started our last legs, that would bring us into the finish, 4 hours behind projection.  When we came to the realization that we might not even make it into the finish by 11:00PM which was Ragnar's cut-off time, we got a little bitter. It was the middle of the night and we were all sleep deprived and we weren't being very nice. I'm not proud of it but that's how it was.  By the time we actually started running we had accepted our fate and didn't let the lateness of the hour dampen our spirits anymore.

Running my last leg.

Coming into the exchange for my last hand-off.

Here we are on "Ragnar Hill" the infamous mountain just above Park City.

Sheila (left) had just run a massive uphill leg and then we hit snow. 

How can you be so hot and then so cold in one day? 

We dropped off our last runner at about 9PM then headed to the finish line to wait for her.

By this time we knew for sure that we were running for last place.  We watched many a team give up and just pick up their runners and head to the finish.  I have no idea how they can feel good about that. I don't know how after running for 2 days, so many hours, so much effort, you could not finish what you started? That's just crazy!

  We embraced our last placeness and never gave up and pushed all the way to the end.

 There are a few perks to coming in last. 

Perk #1- All the race crews and volunteers are super nice to you.

They would cheer and scream your name and go crazy with support as we ran through exchanges. Which makes you feel special.

Perk #2 - You get the race course to yourself.

Perk #3 - You don't have to follow all the rules that all the other vans had to. 

For example, all other van #2s that came in a timely fashion had to leave their runners and couldn't follow them down the mountain and then they had to park their vans at Deer Valley Resort and shuttle into the finish.  Teams in last place don't have to do that.  They let us follow our runner all the way down and then we got to drive straight to the finish to meet our last runner and come in together.

Here's the finish line at Park City High School

Here we come, last place at about 10:20PM

Perk #4 - Last place teams get a high five arch to run through.

Sweet! 

 

Although it was dark when we came in and all the vendors were gone and the party at the finish was over, we still finished.  We got our medals, we got our car stickers and I got a ragnar symbol spray painted on the back of my left leg that obviously didn't come off by the next morning which I got to not-so-proudly wear to church. :)