Ragnar Wasatch Back

June 18, was the beginning of what ranks amongst the best months of my life. The six weeks leading up to my 30th Birthday were a wonderful series of events that made me feel totally confident, powerful, and loved.

To kick it all off was the Wasatch Back Ragnar race, an 190-mile relay race from Logan to Park City. Our day started with Rachel blasting Black-Eyed Peas, "I Got a Feeling." I was the first runner from our van, and even though my first leg was only 4 miles, I was SO HOT. I don't know whether it was the heat (my last leg was longer, in the same heat, and with a sore knee), but this was by far my least favorite leg. It was on a fairly busy highway. To distract myself, I tried to wave at all the passing cars (we were running against traffic), but less than half waved back. During the run, the team leap frogged me so that just when I was ready to drop, a van full of screaming girls drove past to cheer me on and bring me water.

Even though I had been training much slower than my goal pace due to some pre-race injuries, I still managed to run at my goal pace. :) Our team, Billing Time for Firm Asses ("BTFFA"), was made up of two suburbans full of really cool girls. The other girls in my van were Joanna, the team captain; Rachel M., Joanna's sister; Rachel O.; Cristina, our ringer; and Jan. Megan, Van 1 captain; Allison, Lauren, Sarah, Noella, and Cristina were in the other van.
Joanna, our fearless leader, was the first to rock our butt custume.

We got a lot of attention. While she was running, the rest of us decorated our suburban with "Run Your Asses Off."

After our van's first round, we met up with van 1 briefly in the parking lot of Snow Basin. We grabbed a quick bite to eat before heading out to East Canyon, where we had planned on sleeping. The drive to East Canyon was so backed up, though--it was seriously absurd the number of cars parked on a highway in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night--that we made it there with only enough time to sleep for about 1 1/2 hours. We were directed by one of the volunteers to sleep behind our suburban, which didn't sound like a smart idea, but we were all so tired we listened. About forty minutes later, just as we were about to fall asleep--it was SO loud in the parking lot--another volunteer started yelling at us. He threatened to disqualify us if we didn't move our sleeping bags immediately. Apparently the first volunteer was misinformed, and there was some requirement that all sleeping take place only on the grass. Well, there was no grass to be found. Joanna and I eventually found a median next to the bathrooms. I closed my eyes for another forty minutes, but didn't sleep a wink.

I was the first runner for our night shift. As strange as it may sound, I was really looking forward to this leg and it mostly met my expectations. It was my favorite leg. It was marked on the description as easy. So when my leg started as a straight up hill climb, I fully expected to be at the top of the hill soon and spend the rest of my leg running downhill. Well, that didn't happen. Other than a very short downhill, the whole four miles were uphill. The stars were beautiful and it was a nice, cool night, though. I was pumping my new playlist. If running at night wasn't so dangerous, I would do it all of the time. The race rules required us to be lit up like Christmas trees. All the bugs zipping at my headlamp looked like a warp speed scene from Star Wars.

After all of the adrenaline, it was hard to sleep in the car. We all just drove around cheering on our runners and pondering the meaning of life. At one point, we forgot to turn the car off while we were chatting. The car died. We had to get jump-started. :) It didn't take too long to find someone to help us, but we still missed Joanna at the hand off.

The next morning, when we finished our overnight leg, we slept in the park. It was loud, but we were exhausted. At the hand off, I was sore. My knee killed from the straight uphill leg of the race. It was hot too, perhaps even hotter than the previous day. But it was my last leg and I knew the end was in sight.

Here are our Ragnar princesses. They had the toughest legs of the race, and totally rocked it.

We all met near the finish line to run over it together.

It felt awesome to finish. Before I actually ran the race, I was excited to be done so that I never had to run again. I am not a runner. Afterwards, though, I was so siked, I was ready to sign up for the next Ragnar. I may be crazy, but I loved it! I loved spending that much time with so many inspiring women. I loved pushing my physical and mental boundaries and proving to myself that I am capable of so much more than I think I am.





After the race, we went to Parr Brown's VIP suite for a few drinks and to bask in our accomplishment.



Despite the fact that I was dead tired, Rod and I went to our friend Dave's 30th Birthday party in his super posh pad in Park City. His girlfriend sure knows how to put on a great party!

The next day, I slept, hobbled around (though less than I thought he would), and went to Megan and Dashe's place for a very yummy, relaxing BBQ. It was an inspiring weekend!