Ragnar Relays are races that span over 2 days and are held across the country. The Wasatch Back Relay is the one held here in Utah and goes from Logan to Park City through the Wasatch Back Mountains. The distance is split between 12 runners each leg ranging from 3 miles up to 9-10 miles with varying difficulties. Kelly and I got on a team through a few friends of mine from high school and had a great time.
Our team start time:
The 12 runners are split into 2 vehicles. We were in van 2, but some of us still got up extra early to see our first van off. Kelly was smart and stayed in bed.
Teams are encouraged to decorate their vehicles. Wish I would have gotten some pics of others, there were some fun ones. We used our car; trying to get the sticky tape leftovers off has not been fun.
Runners of van 2 at the first big exchange.
Super Hero team. Teams were also encouraged to dress up. . . .we'll have to be more creative next year.
At the runner exchange walking runners back and forth. Flags were a safety precaution and were supposed to be used anytime on the road and crossing the road. There have been 2 runners hit by cars in other Ragnar relays and after running it I now see how that can easily happen.
Crowd at first vehicle exchange
Chez, runner 7, leg 7
Waiting to give runner 8 water during leg 8. we ran our first legs during the heat of the day
Kelly finishing up his first leg
Looking down on Exchange 11, beginning of my first leg
Snowbasin: exchange 12 after running my first leg which was all up hill. This was the second vehicle exchange so after this we had about 5 hours to rest up. One of our teammates lives right along the course and close to where we would pick up running again so we headed to her house for showers and a yummy meal of spaghetti. we also attempted to sleep, but who can do that in the late afternoon.
after her 2nd leg which started at 10:30 p.m. appears to have dozed off
Scott was our trusty driver. We only got off course two times, ending up at Powder Mountain before our first exchange and then totally missing an exchange and ending up at the wrong one another time. . . . .wait, Kelly was driving at Powder. : )
Kelly getting ready for 1 a.m. -ish leg of the race. Afterwards, we all decided that our best runs turned out to be our nighttime legs.
attempting to get sleep after my 4 a.m. leg. this was the only time I felt like I was able to doze off a little. Kelly appears to be sleeping but always insists he didn't.
Over 30 hours of running or riding in the car together and there are still smiles
one of the last (after many) stops to hydrate our runner. Funny incident; heading up "Ragnar" the steepest part of the route all of a sudden Scott in a panic says (something to this affect) "Crap, did we get gas?" The gage was reading TOTALLY empty. Needless to say there was some swearing, panicky brainstorming of what to do, I was insisting we do not tell Kelly (who was running) because that would freak him out . . . . .then as we were about to text for help (because this is a way to get help if needed) I remembered that our gas gage is screwy and probably wasn't reading right. Then we all went through a session of recalling when we did get gas and figured out we were okay. Luckily, we hadn't texted 911. After MANY hours it was an exciting time of drama.
Kelly finishing his last leg, which was (many will say) the hardest leg. It's named "Ragnar" and they actually have this as a race to see who can run it the fastest. The elevation map of this is literally almost a 90 degree angle. Nice job Kelly!
summit before heading into park city
Starting the very last leg (36th to be exact)into Park City. This is about 24 hours after I ran my first leg and 36 hours since I had woken up from real sleep. I was so nervous I would not be able to run it, but adrenaline must have kicked in.
finish line with all 12 - 1 runners (Kelly was helping park the car).
Our team was team B.E.E.R. Run (Badass, Extreme, Enthusiastic, Runners). Considering no one on our team of 12 had ever run this before we were happy to have come out only getting lost twice and having 3 blown out knees (meaning they couldn't run most of their last legs). Overall it was an awesome experience and we had a great time.
