Crazy Train...of Runners.

It's been a while since I've blogged! I've been a little busy lately and every now and then I have the thought cross my mind that I need to update my blog, but then it goes away and I forget about it :) So now that I have an extra minute, I thought that I'd get on here and do a little blogging.

A couple of weeks ago, Mandy and I finished the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay. We'd been training for weeks and weeks and we were finally able to put that to use. For those of you who aren't familiar with the race, it's the largest relay in the world (this year 1,050 teams of 12 with a few exceptions for ultra teams which consist of 6 runners). The course takes a back route from Logan to Park City, Utah and covers 188 miles. You load up into 2 vans, with 6 runners in each and run day and night until you reach the finish line. Our team, "Project Runaways" ran it in just over 29 hours, which is actually a pretty good time. The only thing that I didn't like was that my running buddy, Mandy, was in van 1 while I was in van 2. Here's part of our team at the start line at ICON in Logan.


Here's my van and our driver at the first major exchange where the last runner in van 1 hands off to the first runner in van 2, which happened to be me. This is at the Eden City Park. We had such a fun van and there weren't even any fights :)


Here are a few pictures of some of my teammates. I didn't get pictures of all of them because I didn't have my camera, but below is Leslie on her first leg-in the sweltering heat of the day.


And here's Alex trucking it up one of the many hills that the course had to offer.


Here's Isaac and I attempting to get some rest at the 2nd major exchange at East Canyon State Park. I was hoping to get some rest in because I was up next and this leg was sure to be a killer. I began the run at around 10:00 pm and the hills in this run were quite the adventure...

All of the team, minus runner 6, at the 3rd major exchange. I was ready to get my last leg started!


Katie giving Isaac water on his 3rd and final leg, which looks nice and flat right now. He had a nice little hill to climb before he got to his exchange.


This is a view from the top of the mountain that runners 9 and 10 had to climb in a matter of just under 8 miles. It's called the "Ragnar Hill" because of it's crazy steep incline (8.5%!) Katie and Leslie did an amazing job hauling up this hill. So many runners had to stop and walk quite often up this hill because of how steep and dusty and hot it was.


Here's Leslie, runner 10, heading up the Ragnar Hill. I wish that we had a picture of how steep this run really was, because you just can't tell in this one.


When Alex heard that our team was called "Project Runaway", the first thing he thought of was Runaway Bride. This was his 3rd year running Ragnar and he has a tradition of dressing up. So, in honor of Runaway Bride, he purchased a $70 wedding dress from the D.I, complete with an 8 foot veil, and ran his entire last leg in it, which was 5.5 miles in the heat.


It's also tradition to match while running across the finish line, so we all wore veils



And finally, here's Mandy and I after the race was finished. When we decided to run this race, we thought it would be neat to dedicate it to Uncle Jeff who passed away while doing what he loved, running. Family reunions won't be the same without him and his great sense of humor and kind heart. So this one's for you, Jeff!


This was such a fun accomplishment and it will be something that we do every year! So if you're ever in the mood to put yourself through the hardest but most fun time you've ever had, give us a call and we'll help you out :)