The Snow-Flakes: Ragnar Relay - Wasatch Back (The Third Time's a Charm)

I ran the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay for the third year in a row. It was incredibly hard but exhilerating!

Wasatch Back is a relay race with 12 people on a team in 2 vans. The vans then leapfrog each other as the runners each run their legs from Logan to Park City. It is quite the race. Lots of uphills, downhills, dusty dirt roads, major highways, small communities, lakes and beautiful scenery. Each runner runs 3 legs. This year I was runner 1 in van 1. I ran on a team with several of the people that I ran with last year. Once again, I was thrilled to be able to run with my sister, Sarah.

Since I was the first runner, I actually began my first leg in Logan at the starting line. Our starting time was 5:45am. That meant that we had to be there at 4:45am to get signed up and go through the safety meeting. It was early! We had to get up at 2:30am to be there on time.

Van 1 - Kim, Sarah, Me, Sam, Chance and Greg

Because it was so early I had to run with all my night gear; reflective vest, headlamp and butt light.

It was a good run because it wasn't too hot. But it was long - 7.7 miles. I ran on a dirt trail up the mountain and then we had an amazing view of the Logan Valley. It was beautiful! Coming down the mountain made me a little nervous because I always tend to run too fast on the downhills and the trail was just dirt and rocks and had a lot of switchbacks. I had to concentrate fully on the turns so I didn't slip and fall. I ran for an hour and 10 minutes and averaged a 9.17 min/mile. I was pleased.

Sarah and I

After everyone in our van ran their first legs, we headed up to Snowbasin where we would start our second legs. We hung out there, ate our lunches and just relaxed for a few hours while van 2 was busy with their runs.
My second leg came at about 5:00pm. It was another long run - 8.4 miles. This run was pretty much all downhill. We were running on a fairly busy road so our van was not allowed to stop and cross the street to give us water so I was on my own.

We started at Snowbasin and had to run up the hill under the ski lift. There wasn't much of a trail and I started out feeling pretty discouraged about this leg. Gratefully, that didn't last too long and we were on the main road for the rest of the run. I must have been cruising on the downhill parts because I tried to walk on all the uphill sections and I still finished this leg in an hour and 11 minutes and averaged an 8.26 min/mile. This leg was about a mile longer than my first and yet it only took me 1 minute longer to finish. Crazy! This run killed my legs though. My quads started screaming at me when I was done and haven't stopped yet.

Coming into the exchange

Instead of sleeping outside on the ground or in a high school gym on the hard floors like we did last year, we all chipped in and got two motel rooms in Coalville for our team to crash in. We got to the motels around 12:30am and took quick showers and then zonked for about 3 hours. We were so tired that 3 hours of solid sleep was heavenly! Then we were up again ready to run.

My 3rd and final run was my easiest - 5 miles, relatively flat.

Running across the finish line - all 12 of us!

Once again I was running early in the morning; about 5:30am. So, with my night gear on, I started out. Luckily, once I started running I didn't notice my sore legs. I had determined to take it easy and for the first 3 1/2 miles it felt great. But by the time I got to the last mile I was worn out! I was so excited to see the exchange. It was my personal finish line. I had run 21.1 miles in about 25 hours and I was quite pleased with myself. Our van finished our runs at about 10:00am and then we had to wait for van 2 to finish. We waited for about 6 hours. That gave us time to wander around and see all the booths and shopping areas at the finish. When it was finally time to cross the finish line we were all tired and exhausted but thrilled to have accomplished something so hard. I think many, if not all, of us were hobbling across the finish line, but we made it!