Run, Drive, Sleep?, Repeat...

Last weekend I ran the Ragnar Relay- Wasatch Back. It is a 188-mile relay race from Logan to Park City. The adventure started on Thursday. My sister Marnie and her family came from Oregon so she could run the relay, and it was her son Isaac's birthday that day, so we had a big party for him at my mom and dad's house. Marnie and I left the party and headed over to Randy Ostler's house to help get our team vehicle packed and decorated for the race. My brother Patrick was also on our team, but he had to teach an institute class, so we met him later.

After we got everything loaded up, and got the cars all decorated, we headed up to Westminster College where we left our cars and all loaded into our team vehicle. We headed up to Logan. Our start time was 7:00 a.m., so we got hotel rooms up there.

Marnie was our first runner. Here she is with Bill Catmull, who was runner number 1 for Real Loco, another team from my running club.

I wasn't feeling all that great. I had come down with a cold the day before, so I didn't sleep very well at the hotel. I was a little nervous about how I would do when it came time to run.

We sure got familiar with these lovely potties!

Just before my run, we came across this youth group on a pioneer trek. They were having a great time.

Here I am with Marnie and Steve Morgan, our team captain. This was right before my first leg of the race.

I was runner 6. My first leg started at 11:45 a.m. on Friday. It was getting pretty hot, but it wasn't too bad. The first mile and half was uphill to the top of Avon Pass, and then it was screaming downhill for about 3 miles or so. I felt great and did about a 7:30 pace on the downhill part, but it was very tricky, because the ground was so rocky. I had to watch my feet the whole time, or I would have tripped and rolled down the mountain. The last couple of miles were harder because it leveled out on pavement. After that steep downhill, flat felt hard. It also felt hotter because it was open and on blacktop. Overall, I was pretty happy with my run. It was about 7 miles, and I ended up with about an 8:45 average pace.

We were already getting tired, and we still had 2 legs to go! After I finished my first leg, that put our van on "inactive" status, and our van 2 (the second half of our team) took over. We were in Liberty, Utah, which is right by Eden, where Todd's dad has a condo. We had some time to kill, so we went to the condo and showered up. It felt so great. We headed up to Snow Basin where we would be exchanging for our next leg and got some lunch.

Our van's second leg began around 3:00 or so. It was pretty hot. We had a nifty little water bottle with a misting nozzle. It felt so good!
I love this picture of Marnie and I. It almost looks like a mirror image- we look so much alike!

My Leg 2 started around 8:00 p.m. It was starting to get dark, so I had to wear a safety vest and have a head lamp with me. The temperature was still hot when I started, but it quickly cooled off and felt really nice. I couldn't get over how beautiful and green everything looked. It kind of helped keep my mind off how tired I was. This leg was an 8-mile, gradual up-hill. It was hard, but I felt pretty good, and managed to maintain a 9:30 pace until the last 2 miles. They were pretty steep uphill to the top of the East Canyon Dam. My average pace for that run ended up being around 10:15. I felt like I had done my best, so I was happy with it. I finished around 9:15, and that put us once again on "inactive" status, so we headed towards our next exchange point and found a spot to camp out for the night. We had about 6 hours before the next exchange, so we were able to get some sleep. It was fun sleeping out under the stars.

My last leg was in Heber. It was an easy 3.2 miler that had a gradual downhill for the last 2 miles. I was pretty tired, but I managed to finish with an 8:45 average. It felt so good to be done!

Here we are- Plum Loco van 1 from left to right: Susie Durr, Steve Morgan, me, Randy Ostler, Marnie Evans, Patrick Svedin, and Preston Catmull. We were all happy to be done running at this point, but not so happy to find out that there were no showers at this exchange. Marnie remembered that she had a friend in Heber, and so she called her and asked if she minded if 6 smelly runners came and took over her shower. Amazingly, she was thrilled to help us out.

But, priority number one (even before a shower), was FOOD!! So, we went to this cute little diner in Heber (I think it was called Chick's Cafe?), and had a yummy breakfast before heading over to Marnie's friend's house to shower.

Here we all are at the finish. Another Wasatch Back Relay over, and we're already planning next year's race. It was so much fun, even with the rain that decided to grace us at the end. We ended up finishing in 30:03:53- about 1/2 hour faster than last year! What an awesome weekend!