Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay!

Run. Drive. Sleep? Repeat.

The Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay is the epitome of contradictions. The highest of the adrenaline highs and the lowest of brutally miserable lows. Physically and mentally. One minute you are swearing (literally) that you will NEVER put yourself through this insanity again. The next you are laughing uproariously at something that would probably not be anywhere near as funny if you weren't ridiculously sleep deprived...and realize it is the hardest you've laughed in a long time. Ticking off mile after exhausting mile through the night is more than made up for by the exhilarating final finish with all 12 of your teammates under that big Ragnar arch. The deprivations you put your body through end up being looked at as fancy war stories later on. When else would you ever find yourself paying a couple of bucks to get a few hours of sleep on a hard gym floor at the local middle school? When else would you ever feel comfortable enough with random friends (some of which maybe you hadn't even really ever met until you became van-mates) to share the experiences of puking on the side of the road at the end of your run, or that darnit...you need them to wait a minute while you make a "honey bucket" run because you really need to pee. Conversations about sweat and stinkiness and upset bowels and weird eating habits and blisters and chaffing and snoring and every other weird kind of thing that would normally be very TMI is considered completely normal when you spend over 30 hours with 5 other people in such close quarters as a mini van. But these are the people who cheer for you when you are running. Who give you water every mile. The people who serenade you with really bizarre songs every time you run by (thanks Katie, Greg and David)! Who share their food with you, who encourage you and/or commiserate with you when you are down. Who will take miles for you if you are injured. It's some serious team unity. And I'm not sure I've seen it happen anywhere else than in Ragnar.

Part of the Stone Creek Stoners team for the second time, this year my van was made up of myself, my sister Katie, my teammate from last year...Greg, his brother David, Byron and Mandy. Five of the six of us were from Snow College and the memories and stories were flying fast and furious. Once again I was runner 7 so I knew exactly what to expect this time and overall I feel like I ran better than last year. Helped, I'm sure, by not only having trained a little more throughout the year but also by the fact that the temperatures were a good 20 degrees cooler.


Coming into the exchange after my first run. 4.0 miles from Liberty City Park into Eden around noon on Friday. Jamming out to my musical theatre playlist (selections from Aida, Les Mis, Scarlet Pimpernel, Wicked and Chess...I am such a theatre geek...) it was my best run. Interesting, seeing as last year it was my worst.


After we arrived at Snow Basin having all completed our first legs, we handed the "baton"...or orange slap bracelet as the case may be... back over to van 1 and decided to have a picnic style lunch in some trees.


Then we headed off to East Canyon State Park...the next place we would be meeting up with van 1 again...to get some rest. The day was cooling down quickly so we changed into warmer clothes and climbed inside our sleeping bags on the lawn...along with hundreds of other Ragnar runners. And although it was nice to relax, none of us really got any actual sleep.

Around 10:00 we packed up our gear and by 10:30 I was running again. This time, a 3.8 mile route up East Canyon. It was much more brutal than I remembered. And though it's not on the same par as the "Ragnar Hill" (Guardsman Pass) that Katie and Greg tackled the next day....it was still a wicked hill. It's a pretty dark stretch of road...and a route that two years ago Greg "lost" Geri (our team captain) on. It's become kind of an inside Stone Creek Stoners team joke and Greg always promises me, every time the story comes up, that he won't lose me like he did Geri. This promise came once again as they sent me off running and then went ahead a mile to wait for me. I must have been running faster than they expected because as I passed the van, slowing down a bit and waving wildly...I realized they weren't even looking out the windows. It made me giggle a little bit and I continued on. But not long after, I realized that they were probably still waiting, waiting, waiting. Perhaps a little irritable about the fact that I was running so slowly...and then irritability turning into worry that maybe something had happened to me. I knew that Greg was probably just dying about the fact that he had "pulled a Geri" on me. They finally caught up to me around mile 3, gave me water and apologized profusely for "losing" me. Realistically I wasn't lost. I knew exactly where I was and exactly where they were. And I laughed good and long at Greg's face when they finally found me. :)

Thank heavens for Katie's foresight in bringing this blanket and for her generosity in sharing with me. It was a mighty cold night!! This is the two of us in the back seat of the van at 4:30 AM. Both of us having finished our second routes and both of us trying valiantly to stay awake. (Oh, how I loved doing this race with Katie!)

Luckily, about 45 minutes after this picture was taken, we handed off the well traveled orange bracelet back to van 1 and made our way to that middle school I mentioned before. The guys made the decision to sleep outside but Mandy, Katie and I forked over the $2 with happy expectations of warmth and flushing toilets inside the school. For one more dollar we could've taken showers but I was not about to waste my limited sleeping time showering! Especially when I still had one more leg to run!

People were sprawled out through the hallways, in classroom door alcoves and then lined up wall to wall in the gym. After taking my turn in the bathroom (Ahh...you don't know how decadent a flushing toilet is until after you have spent all day using the "honey bucket" facilities) I found a place to lay down my weary body and fell immediately into a solid sleep. After only an hour and a half I woke up, surprisingly refreshed.


My last leg was a 4.2 mile run through Heber. This was the run where I got serenaded by my van-mates every time they stopped to give me water. I have to admit...as silly as they sounded, I loved it. It just seemed like the perfect example of the giddy, sleep deprived, slap happy-ness that tends to come out early the second morning. It's beyond the stupor of the exhausting night. It's beyond the grumpy whining that "I will NEVER do this again!" This extreme giddiness is adrenaline and caffeine fueled and is what carries you through the final hours and into the finish line.

(These pics: at the exchange passing the bracelet on to David for his final run. He was suffering from an injured achilles tendon but was stubborn enough to insist on finishing his final leg even though he was in a lot of pain. Rumor has it that his ankle is swollen to the size of a grapefruit today, poor guy.)





Because of our unusually cold and wet spring, there were worries that traditional Wasatch Back routes would be impassable. And yes, some legs did have some changes due to road conditions. Particularly of concern was Guardsman Pass leading up and over the mountain into Park City. This specific pass is fondly known as "Ragnar Hill" and is the most brutal leg of the whole 191.7 miles. This leg was Katie's third and final route. We had been informed that yes, there was snow at the top, but that the road had been cleared and was passable. We were confused, at first, because when Katie got out of the van to start her run up that brutal hill there was no snow in sight and the temperatures were in the 70's. She ran. And then walked. And then ran some more. I couldn't believe how fast she was making it up that hill. We stopped every 1/2 mile to give her water and encouragement. And then, suddenly... ah-ha! The snow! In patches at first. And then finally enough snow that it looked like Katie was running through a tunnel with 6 foot walls of snow on either side of her. The temps dropped dramatically but for Katie, I think she welcomed the cold. Let me tell you...my sister? She is a rockstar runner!!This is when we first started seeing snow. By the time we were into that "tunnel" of snow, we weren't able to pull over anymore, which meant I wasn't able to get a good picture to truly show what Katie was running through. But dang...would you look at that hill she's running up??



I loved this sign. I looked forward to this sign. This sign was my friend.

Van 2 of the Stone Creek Stoners:
David, Byron, Katie, Sarah, Mandy, Greg

The finish line was awesome! We sent off Mandy, our last runner, and then made our way to Park City High School where we met up with van 1. (They had been eating Cafe Rio and getting massages. I am so doing van 1 next year!!) We watched and waited and when our team number was called and we saw Mandy round the bend, we joined up with her, all 12 of us, to run the rest of the way together under that big arch... "Welcome back Stone Creek Stoners!!" I can't tell you how chill inducing-ly awesome that was! :) We got medals, we took pictures, we ate pizza, we talked to other friends who were also Ragnarians. And then, more than a little bit exhausted, we made our way down the mountain and back home.

We're already planning to do it all again next year.....