Ragnar Relay Race 2011 (COLE)

On June 17th-18th 2011, I participated in the Ragnar Relay Race--Wasatch Back. It is a 192 mile relay race starting in Logan, Ut and ending in Park City, Ut. I ran with 11 of my friends from work and it was an incredible experience! Basically, you have two teams that leapfrog each other with one person running at a time. The twelve runners each take 3 legs, which vary from 3-10 miles in length with easy to difficult terrain. I was runner #11. The first six team members in van #1 run the first 6 legs and then the other 6 team members in van #2 run their six. Van #1 then takes over again and so on. The team that's not running has about 4-5 hours to eat, rest and get ready to run again. Ragnar's motto is "Run, Drive, Sleep? Repeat." So true. I didn't sleep at all and was up for about 40 hours!My first leg was 3.2 miles long and was classified as very hard. It consisted of running up Trapper's Loop at 4:00 in the afternoon. That was so incredibly hard! After I finished, I told my friends in the van that I think I'd rather run another half marathon instead of doing that climb again!! Supposedly there were some beautiful views of Pineview Reservoir, but I didn't see it. All I saw was more uphill road in front of me! Tough first leg, but I was glad to get it out of the way.

I ran my second leg at about 5:00 the next morning. 5.5 miles of rolling road next to Rockport Lake. I didn't know there was a Rockport Lake in Utah. I saw a lot of things on this trip that were only about a half hour from my house that I didn't know existed. How sad is that?! I was feeling pretty good despite not sleeping at all and ran this leg in 49 minutes. I

estimated about 55 minutes to finish so I was pretty proud of myself for that.

Leg #3 began at the top of Guardsman's Pass which is about 8900 feet above sea level. It was a 7.3 mile downhill run into Deer Valley Ski Resort in Park City. Total el

evation drop of 1750 feet! I was so tired at this point that at first, I just wanted to get the run done with and go home. About 1/3 of the way through, I looked around and realized how beautiful it was and started paying attention to the scenery. I was on top of a mountain with a magnificent view of Park City and just wanted to take it all in. I forgot about racing, how bad I hurt and how tired I was and just enjoyed the moment. Funny part is, when I did that the leg went that much faster and before I knew it, I was done! I estimated

about 1 hour and 15-20 minutes to finish leg 3. I actually finished in 1 hour and 3 minutes!! Whoo-whoo! Our team joined our last runner when he completed his leg and we all ran to the finish line. What an epic moment!

I had no idea how taxing but also how rewarding this experience could be. During the race, I swore I'd never do this again. But now, I am already excited for next year! What a great sense of accomplishment and the feeling that you really can do anything you put your mind to. I always hated running, until I started doing it that is! Now I have the Ragnar sticker on my car that I always wanted and the t-shirt to go with it!

I'm so excited that not only am I more happy and healthy, but also that my family and friends are joining me. I've recruited a few family members to run Ragnar next year and hope to get a few more. Dixie would have done it this year, but she had to go and get pregnant! Our plan for next year, however, not only entails one Ragnar race, but two! We want to do the Wasatch Back again in June and follow that up with the Las Vegas race in October. Wish us luck!