The Ragnar Report!!!

So my sweet friend Laura who I went to college with called me up about a month after I had Leah and asked if I wanted to run the Ragnar Relay. She was doing it with her high school friends and they need another runner. I figured this would be some great motivation to get going again. I actually felt pretty good about my training, that is of course until I started the race.

The race started in Logan and ended in Park City. We had 12 girls running the 185 miles. We ran through the night and had what felt like mere seconds of sleep to recharge.

My first run was 5 miles over the Avon Pass. Beautiful scenery unless you count the llama roadkill whose legs were strewn over the next mile, and the sweet stench of cow manure. Now I'm from Loomis and am no stranger to farm smells. The tough part is when you feel heat stroke coming on and you need big breaths of air and all you get is poopy tasting air.

This is me about 1/2 way through the 5 miles and I SWEAR I'm actually running. Those who lived along the race course came out with their hoses offering to spray us down. They would sit in their lawn chairs and cheer us on. As funny as it sounds it was so encouraging. The 5 other girls on my team would go every mile or two then stop and cheer me on. Boy did I need those friendly faces to keep me going.

I was pretty disappointed after my first run because it was much more difficult than I had anticipated and I didn't think I would struggle that much.

This picture was taken at Snowbasin and the only time that I saw the entire team. Well almost the entire team, we still had 1 person running at the time of this pic.

My second run in Morgan Valley was awesome, and not just cause it was a quick 3 miles, but because it was at about 10pm and a perfect temperature. I could only see a couple feet ahead of me with my trusty headlamp. We camped in East Canyon and since the other van was so dang fast, our rest was extremely short. Now I'm the kind of girl who loves a full night sleep especially when I haven't eaten, so the couple hours that I got was painful.

My third run was amazing. I climbed Highway 32 for about 4 miles along the Jordanelle Reservoir and then had about a mile of downhill. Thank goodness, because at this point I felt like I was carrying sandbags. So the downhill I just basically fell down to the finish.

When I finally finished, as silly as it sounds, I was overcome with tears. This was a really tough race both mentally and physically. I kept thinking over and over how much of a wuss I am. But really when it comes down to it, I completed it and pushed through every pain and frustration. I was also so impressed with my friend Laura. She's a great runner and killed it. She remained so positive and supportive and even though she may not believe me, I'm so glad that I did this with her.