RAGNAR RELAY

Nate and I had the opportunity to participate in the Ragnar Relay Wasatch Back edition. When Nate first came home last summer and told me that he wanted to run in a relay race from Logan to Park City I instantly said that I would like to do it too. I think that Nate thought I was crazy! First of all, I don't think that Nate has ever seen me run and secondly, I have always told him that I hated running. Well, that part is true. I really do hate to run, but I really felt like doing something challenging and out of the norm. In all actuality I have never run for "fun"; only when I am forced to do it like at volleyball practice. So, our team consisted of 2 vans of 6 people each most of whom Nate works with. Island View let us use their vans and we had some very dedicated members of our team. Mickey donated a bunch of Rossignol gear. We each got 3 shirts and 1 jacket. They were so nice to have. He also has a sister who did all of this vinyl for our vans. Didn't they turn out awesome?! Our team name as you can see was Team ShamWow! I'm not sure who came up with that name but I loved it! I think that we became infamous throughout the run. Everyone loved our decorated vans. We also "tagged" other vans with little Team ShamWow vinyl logos. There were some very interesting team names and weird decorated vans. Some that I can remember off the top of my head were: The Polig Rig, Team Swingers, The Stripping Warriors, and 4-letter word Cancer. There were many others that were strange, but I can't seem to remember them now.

Our names were on the side of the van too. I loved everyone in our van. Besides Nate and I we had Jake (Nate's brother), Mike P., Angie, and Judy. Our driver was a co-worker of Nate's named Jon. He was amazing. I don't know how he stayed awake driving us around for 24 hours. I really enjoyed getting to know Mike, Angie, and Judy more. They were all very supportive the whole time we were running!

Here are a bunch of the guys on our team. The 2 Mikes are in the foreground and then we have Adam, Jason, Laura, Jen, Judy, and Angie in the background. Everyone was so positive and having such a great time. I need to have more fun next time around. I was really nervous and I get really mad while I'm running. Two things that will hopefully be improved for the next time around!

Nate made a ShamWow head band to fashionably sport for the race. After his second leg, which was 9.6 miles, he wrung out his head band and seriously got ounces of sweat out of it. I was pretty gross, but impressive as well.

Here is Nate after that long run. He was amazing. I think he had the hardest leg of the whole race. His first leg was pretty flat and 3.5 miles. His second leg went gradually uphill and was 9.6 miles. Although 9.6 miles was very impressive, his last leg was the killer. It was straight up Guardsmans pass between Midway and Park City and was 3.6 miles long. The van was even having a hard time getting up the muddy hill.

Here is me right before my last leg. I was pretty excited that I was almost done. I was really tired, only having slept a total of maybe an hour since the race started. I couldn't really sleep that well laying on the van bench. It was probably a lot nerves and a bit of anxiousness. Anyway, I started with my first leg that was flat and 4 miles long. It was pretty hot during that leg though. My second leg was a moderate climb for 3.8 miles, and my last leg was a flat 4.6 miles through Heber residential neighborhoods in the cloud cover! I had the easiest leg of the race, but it was really challenging for me!

Here is a view from the top of Guardsmans Pass. We had a lot of beautiful views throughout the run. My favorite leg, although it was probably my most challenging, was my 2nd leg in the middle of the night. There were crazy stars out and the air was nice and cool. One thing we discovered through this experience is that we need to utilize the nature that we have close to us more often.

Here we are at the finish line. It rained crazy for the last 2 legs of the race. Poor Angie and Judy had it bad. It was pouring with thunder and lightning. They were troopers, always having a smile on their faces! Overall we had a great experience. We signed up to do it again next year, and are thinking about doing the one in Vegas in October. I really want to get up to Washington and do the Whidbey Island run up there! I am excited that learned how to run 5 miles without stopping through this experience. I have learned how to keep going even when I am really tired. I have learned that after a few minutes you get through the pain. I run terribly slow, but stay consistent at least!

Here are some of Nate's highlights:

I had such a great time (mostly the times that I wasn't running) during the Ragnar event. It was all so memorable. That's why I got to get in next year. Here are some highlights:

* Tagging others' rides with the stickers (vinyl graffiti)

* Tiny shorts guy, old guy, no-shirt guy, lots of struggling guys...

* Green team, Pinky and the Stripping Warriors who were the enemy until, Where did they go?

* The Salt and Vinegar Almond scandal

* Wringing out the sweat from the ShamWow headband after the 9 mile leg. I didn't know it held liquid like that.

* Sara seeming so bothered that we were cheering her on. She says running makes her angry.

* A surreal experience = bumping to Chariot's of Fire after Sara's second leg in the middle of, where were we?

* Jake complaining of fatigue while passing about 20 dudes on his last leg. (He couldn't walk the next day.)

* Mike P. "mountain-goating" it up the pass with a smile.

* Angie cruising down the steep backside as the rain gushed -- I was a little worried about safety.

* Judi had way to much excitement and energy after all of her legs.

* Drafting off of old-guy on leg #2

* Angie missing the hand-off (twice) while Judi was freaking out.

* That Honey Bucket hand sanitizer smelled nice, huh?

* I'm glad we finished the thing.

* We need to invest in a new cowbell next year. We need more cowbell!

* We decided that our van drew the short straw.

Some of my highlights:

* Getting really angry while I was running. I can accomplish anything angry. Need to work on accomplishing things while I'm happy!

* Worrying that I was being passed by everyone while everyone in my van was focusing on how many people they were passing.

* Having to go to the bathroom every time I stopped running, even though nothing came out. Is that a consequence of having so many kids? At least I made it to the Honeybuckets!

* Having our IPOD stop working the night before the race so I had to go to Wally's and get a new one the day of. I can't run without that music!

* The almonds disappearing during one of my legs and reappearing during my last leg. I don't normally like almonds, but the salt and vinegar ones are amazing.

* Always being amazed at how fast everyone in my van was running. They were awesome.

* The nice man that sprayed everyone as they were running by during my scorching first leg.

* Being a part of the conversation about what a brief minute is. It is interesting how people had very different ideas on this. We were all exhausted and giddy by that point though.

* On the first leg being really mad when I saw the blue "one-mile to go" sign because I thought I was closer than that! Being really happy to see the sign on my last two legs.

* The cowbell breaking while Nate was ringing it out the window. The ringer fell off on top of the van and we recovered it. I thought that I fixed it and gave it back to Nate only to have the ringer fall off again out the window in the dirt as we were driving.

* Loving the cowbell so much that I found a pencil to hit on it after it was broken, only it didn't have the same effect.

* Running to the finish line with the whole team swinging our ShamWows over our heads.

Thanks to Jen for putting the whole thing together. You see while your involved in the race how much organization and work goes into putting the whole thing together. Thanks to mine and Nate's parents for watching the kids during our adventure and showing them a good time. Thanks to my vanmates who kept me running and being such a fun and inspiring group!