A Baby Named Henry : We're up all night for good fun

For some reason I thought it would be fun to do the Ragnar Wasatch Back relay. I am not a runner by any means so running 3 different legs in a 36 hour period sounded like a "good" plan. I was actually signed up to do it in June of 2012 but I kinda got pregnant and had a baby in April and although some women would be ready to run after 2 months, I would not. So I opted out and decided to try for June 2013. No pregnancies or babies to keep me away this time. For those who don't know about Ragnar relays, you basically have a team of 12 people with 2 vans each with 6 runners. I was in Van 1 and I was runner 1 {ran a total of 21 miles}. I'm going to recap my runs as best I can, just so I can remember the good, the bad and the ugly. We had a start time of 5am on Friday morning....

My first run was 7.7 miles and Ragnar classified it as "very hard". I started at USU and ran east up to the Bonneville Shoreline trail, along the trail until the start of Logan Canyon/First Dam then along Canyon Road from Logan to Providence. I wouldn't say it was "very hard", but "hard" indeed. The run up to the trail wasn't bad, but running down on a rocky/dusty trail was a little sketchy. I'm really surprised I didn't fall on my face. The last mile felt like 5! Plus the last 2 blocks you run up hill to a church.... seriously. Don't make me run up anything (I don't care if its not that steep). The incline felt so steep, and I'm sure it wasn't at all! I felt great after the first run, but I realized I was probably the slowest runner. I think all the marathon runners were runner 1. Whatever. At least I did it right?!

My second run had me nervous from the very beginning. 8.2 miles downhill from Snowbasin also a "very hard run". I know. This run was bad. First they make you start running from the base of the mountain up to a trail and out where the old parking lot used to be. I couldn't even run up the dumb grassy, dusty hill. I was dying. Then you run up and down for about a mile and then the rest is downhill from there (literally). I was keeping an okay pace, even with having to stop and "use the bathroom" (TMI...sorry). There was no van support (meaning the other team members in our van couldn't give me water since we were running down a 4 lane highway). They had water stations which were like heaven. I got 3 blisters on my left foot and they were killing me for the last few miles. I had never been so happy to see a finish line in my life. After that run, my legs were sore! It was hard to walk, so I of course was dreading my last run. How was I supposed to run when I could barely walk. Friday night was a disaster. We were all tired, hungry, and sore. Saturday morning was even worse.

I felt like crying when I thought about running 5 more miles. We were all a little grumpy Saturday morning. But we were so ornery, we were laughing at everything. Seems like an oxymoron. So it was finally my turn to run again (I think it was around 8am). I just decided I would walk/run as best I could. Runner 12 came running in and handed off to me and I took off running as best I could. Once I started moving, it wasn't too bad. My legs were really stiff and sore, but I somehow managed to run. At one point I was singing and running to the beat of my music just to keep me going. I really didn't care at that point who heard me and really I was slow, so no one was around! I ran/walked and kept a pace of about 11 min. mile, which was fast considering I thought I would be a 15 min. mile! I ran with a lady who helped me keep going, so that was nice. 5 miles felt like they lasted forever! Even longer than my 8.2. But I was just so happy to be finished. I was cursing Ragnar saying I never wanted to do it again. But it's kind of like having a baby... eventually you forget the hard stuff and only remember the good. Maybe I will do it again someday. But I will not be runner 1! Maybe something with a few less miles.

I feel like we all had a challenging run be it a steep hill, a lot of miles, dust, heat, dark, blisters.... But we all did so much better than we gave ourselves credit for. We kept teasing that we would be the last team to finish. We were an ALL girls team and a lot of us were just casual/beginner runners. Our team name was Run Slow Ski Fast, and we definitely ran slow! But we were not the last team to finish. woo hoo! I liked being in van 1 because you mostly run during the early morning and the day, so you don't have to run at night. But we did have to wake up at the crack of dawn on Friday morning and Van 2 could sleep in a little bit. I guess I will have to do it again to be in Van 2.

Now for pictures:

^^ Van 1 starting at 5am ^^

Van 1 finished their first legs and passing off to Van 2 to start... Not pictured was my cousin Amanda cause she was runner 7 and was currently running!