Wasatch Back

Wednesday night, as I am in the Sea-Tac airport, I get a text from Christy.  She can't run the Wasatch Back relay anymore (because of her job with Ragnar)... so I've lost the only person that I knew on the team, and my ride up to the start in Logan, UT.  I tried not to stress out about it, and Thursday morning I lucked out and found a ride with a girl that would be in my van, who also didn't know anyone.

We get up to Logan for the van decorating party and meet the rest of the people on our team.  Then a few of the girls were all staying together and I was invited to stay with them.  After about 5 hours of crappy sleep (I slept on the floor and it wasn't very comfortable), we are up and heading to the starting line.

6:30am, our first runner starts and we are on our way, 188.2 miles, to Park City, UT.

I was runner #2 and my first leg was 6.7 miles.  I felt really good and my van was really AWESOME support!  I ran a 10 minute mile and finished in 68 minutes (Garmin said I ran 6.8 miles).

After our van finished our first leg, we headed up to the next exchange for some rest and food.  They had massage therapists up there, and I got a 10 minute massage - it was so FREAKING awesome!  She found some drainage points on my feet to help the poor pregnant lady's swollen legs and feet.  LOVED IT!

The second round of running came around 5:30pm.  It was HOT!  I ran my leg (3 miles) at about 6:30pm and did 10 minute miles again.

After the van finished (it was almost 9pm when we were done), we headed up to the next major exchange and tried to get some sleep.  I'm pretty sure we got there after 11:30pm and then we had to be up and ready for our last runs at 4:30am.  Yeah, I'm pretty sure that I got 1.5 hours of sleep... in maybe 15-20 minute intervals. 

My last run started just before 6:30am.  I had only 3.3 miles to run... but it was seriously the HARDEST run that I have ever done in my LIFE!  I had no energy for my run after such a crappy night's sleep, plus just being drained from the day before and not having "real" food to refuel with.

Our van finished and then went up to the finish line to wait for Van 2 to come in, so that we could all run across the finish line together.  Our team officially finished in 33:59:29.  Thirty-four FREAKING hours!  It was insane... but so much fun.  I really didn't think that I would have as much fun as I did, especially with not knowing ANYONE on the team.

Will I do it again next year?  I don't think so.  The rumor is that they will have DOUBLE the amount of people running, and I thought it was out of control with as many people as they had this year (around 20,000).  So maybe I'll look into doing another Ragnar somewhere else, like Vegas or Arizona or Southern California.  Who knows?  It was awesome, and I'd like to do it again... but just with less people.

And instead of posting a billion pictures on here, I'll give you the link to my small album on Facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=224129&id=528698832&l=7c7496eab1

P.S. I couldn't believe how many pregnant women I saw running - farther along in their pregnancies than me, and running tougher legs!  Pregnant runners RULE!