Wasatch Back - Ragnar Relay Race

Somehow I got talked into running the Wasatch Back with my family during our visit.  It's a 188 mile run from Logan to Park City that's normally run in a team of 12 - although there are people who run in a team of 6 and a handful of crazies who try to run the whole thing themselves!  Each runner runs three of the 36 legs of the race.  My family has done it for the past four years and thought it would be a fun thing for me to do when I came.  I wasn't so sure and seriously considered bailing many times.  In the end though, I absolutely loved it!  My legs totaled 18.5 miles which was really, REALLY pushing it for me, but although I wasn't real fast, I was proud of myself for finishing!
If you look close, you can see me in the middle.  I was the first runner.  After each leg you pass an armband off to your team's next runner.
This was the awesome van we got to travel in.  There was a great deal of envy among the other runners.  Your team is allowed only two vehicles, so 6 of you have to ride in each one.  We had lots of room!  A lot of teams decorate their vans with their team name as well.  We were team "Jack Bauer for President."
And here is the team on the move. This is my brother Christian. He stepped in for my mom, who was sick, at the last minute. He actually went out and bought his running shoes at 8:30 the night before! He was awesome though! He had some hard runs and still ran around 7 minute miles!
And here's me, still smiling because I'm one run down and have a while before my 8.5 mile run.
Dad was the tireless driver. We couldn't have pried his hands off the steering wheel if we'd tried. Even after his 7 mile run and with about 3 hours of sleep on the gravel parking lot, he was still powering through!
My brother Casey was the camera man and must have been the runner when I took the pictures in the van. Unfortunately, we got too busy with the pictures and whatnot and forgot to stop and give him water when we were supposed to. Oops! Good thing he brushed it off and didn't say anything about it!
My brother Dustin is a pretty happy, laid back guy, but a brutal runner. He made our team look good by making up a lot of time on his runs. He was really fast!
And this is my new brother -in-law Pig. Yes, Pig. His name is Brigham, but somehow a nickname stuck and there you have it. It took me a while to be brave enough to call him Pig, but after two days together in the van it came more naturally and it was fun to get to know him a little better since I'd never met him before the wedding! He was a pretty hard-core runner too. Even after a bowl of fettucini alfredo!

And here we are running! It took us around 29 hours to finish. If we look really tired, or like we're in pain...we are.


 

Here I am running really, really early in the morning. This is after five of us tried to sleep for about three hours in the van. Four of us were laying like sardines in the back. We lost about an hour of sleep because people kept laughing and Pig kept making noise with the wrappers on whatever he was eating in the front. It was like a sleep-over party.

I may be smiling, but I was hitting the wall here. This was my last run and I was TIRED!

This is the other half of our team who were in the other van. This is my mom's twin sister, Jolene and my cousin Scott.
My cousin Kristin and her husband Brad.
And my cousin Kimmy and her husband Darrin.
And here's the whole team at the end! I'm really tired and should be thinking about going somewhere to relax, but I'm really just thinking about the Park City Outlet Mall that I'm about to hit! Yippee!