Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay

Brent and I ran Ragnar with my cousin's team in 2007 and passed on opportunities to run in 2008 and 2009. When my friend and her hubby asked us this year, I couldn't say no. They were desperate (as you probably guessed) and I not only agreed, but volunteered my speedy husband, his co-worker, and another running friend for the project as well.

Three years ago I was runner 7 and despite the ease of assigned legs, I suffered from 90+degree heat, caffeine withdrawal headaches and backseat-of-the-poorly-driven-van nausea. Not this year! Being teamed with friends and handsome spouse and a cooler full of Diet Dr. Pepper made this time's experience much more fun.

We left for Logan at 2:30 a.m. on the fumes of 3 hours of sleep to make the not-so-vital safety training session and our 1^st runner started at 5:15. I was runner 2 with legs 2, 14, and 26. I ran my hardest and longest leg first with the following splits:

1-10:02

2-10:24

3-10:01

4-10:22

5-11:18 You see that benign looking little bump at 4.3 miles, yeah…it was a little bigger in-person.

6-10:26

7 (.8 miles)-7:07

Total: 1:09 = 10:15 pace

My second leg was only 3 miles and it was HOT outside by then. I enjoyed getting sprayed by the fun kids along the route who were a little too happy to help cool me off. My splits:

1-9:40

2-9:35

3-10:20

Total: 29:49 = 9:52 pace

I ran my last leg was in pitch darkness cursing someone’s great idea to strew glow sticks along the route. From the beginning of this 3.3 miles I felt the effects of sleep-deprivation and over-use of my IT Band and whatever tendon it attaches to that wraps to the foot arch. (Kind of felt like I’d run two times in the last 12 hours and a marathon the week before…Hmmm. Strange.) Splits:

1-9:53

2-10:54

3-10:03

4 (.3 miles)-2:28

Total: 33:18 = 10:09 pace

In summary, I loved a lot of things about my Ragnar experience this time around:

* Being runner 2 rocked. My legs were pretty easy but the best part was being finished so early. I was able to enjoy the rest of the race. I am more suited to being a cheerleader than an athlete…although my physical proportions don’t hint at either of those capacities.

* As we were in the same van, I was able to enjoy Brenty's sparkling personality and since I’m already immune to his body odor, he was one less person I could smell in such cramped quarters.

* We saw a friend and his team a couple of times on the course. I embarrassed myself by accusing, yes, accusing his look-alike brother of being him. The poor guy may never recover. Funny.

* I had an unspoken (and lame to speedy runners) goal to go under a 10 minute pace on each of my legs and while I accomplished that on only one of my three legs, I felt okay about my performance.

* I was able to sleep when I had opportunity. This helped my body and mind a lot.

* My $2 shower in Heber City was priceless. And, I ran into a teacher that I knew when I taught there a million years ago. So fun.

Things I didn’t love about Ragnar this year:

* Even though our kids are older and pretty low maintenance, I couldn’t relax completely wondering and worrying about child care issues.

* The finish line was a crowded, chaotic joke. Van 2 had a miserable time finding parking in time to meet at the finish since leg 36 was short-ironic especially since they, without notice, increased leg 35 by 1.5 miles.

* In general, I really think there were just too, too many teams and people. I don’t know what the solution is…increase the fee from ridiculous to astronomical? disallow charity teams? refuse entry to old, slow, red-haired women? I don’t know but it seems like Ragnar is an example of less would be more.

This relay is tough but so much fun. I am crossing my fingers that my father-in-law will get the itch to head a Zimmerman Family Team soon!