Wasatch Back - Ragnar 2011

A week ago, I was scrambling to finish packing and get to bed.  I was needing to get up early and on the road to Logan, UT for our 10am start time for the Wasatch Back relay race.  A group of women from my ward/neighborhood formed a 12-runner team split up into two vans of six.  Each of us ran three legs varying in distance from 3 to 10 miles and in difficulty from "easy" to "very hard."  I was runner 5; my legs included a "very hard" 7.4-mile run on a gravel road up Avon Pass, a "moderate" 4.2 miles over rolling hills from Morgan, Utah toward East Canyon, and an "easy" 3 mile run into the town of Heber.

What made each of our legs interesting in this race, is that we ran as a team continuously over a stretch of about 34 hours.  Where my first run was in the heat of the afternoon, my middle run was at midnight--I had to wear a reflective vest and a headlamp--with only the smell of cow manure and glow of other running vests to focus on.

What made things a bit more interesting was that, for much of the race, we had little MEC along with us.  I needed to be able to feed him every few hours and luckily he was at an age where he wouldn't need to get out of carseat to move around too much.  Thanks to much prayer and probably too much worry, things went remarkably well having my little guy along.  TEC was able to hook up with us along the course and take MEC for a good stretch during the night hours.  He also took him at the end so that I could run in with the rest of my team at the finish.

During my first run, as I was headed up Avon Pass, my IT band started to give me some trouble.  Usually I have trouble with it on long downhill stretches, but maneuvering over the uneven road must have aggravated it.  In the first couple of miles, the pain on the outside of my right knee would force me into a hop every few steps.  I was able to push through it some, but had to walk for a good portion of the run.  I was pretty discouraged because, on top of the stress I was already feeling over having my baby along, I kept thinking about the legs I had still to run and how lame I would feel if I ended up needing to walk most of it.  Add that to then realizing that somewhere during one of our early exchanges I had lost my cell phone, I was beginning to wonder if I had made a mistake thinking I could do this whole relay race thing.

My middle leg came up at around midnight.  I was pretty tired and my body was shivering like crazy.  It was hard at night to keep track of our runners; we had to guess how long everyone would take and then try to be ready with our next runner.  I was actually a few minutes late for this exchange--when I got to the exchange and saw my runner waiting for me, I got a nice shot of adrenaline that took care of the shivering.  I still had a bit of pain in my knee and I was trying to be okay with the reality that I may not be running much.  I took it pretty slow and had to hop a few times early on, but by the end, I felt really good.  It was a strange feeling to run in the dark, but I really enjoyed the peace of it.  When each of us had finished our second leg, we were able to finally get a couple of hours of needed sleep after being up for almost 24 hours.

I ran my last leg around 1:00 in the afternoon.  We hadn't planned on it, but it worked out for TEC to come up to Heber with the kids and his parents to watch me run.  The kids even got to play at a park that was along the course.  It was a fun surprise for me, and so sweet to hear my kids cheering me on: "Go Mommy!  Go Mommy!"   My knee buckled a bit again, but I was able to run the whole time.  It was such a wonderful feeling to be done.  We went and got some food (milkshakes!), showered, and then started our wait for van 2 to finish their legs.  We crossed the finish line as a team at about 8:45pm in Park City.

I'm so glad that I had the chance to do this race.  Things were a bit complicated trying to train with a newborn--maybe sooner than I should have been worrying about things like that--but it was good for me to have something to work for.  It was great to spend time with some really great women.  As I considered all the complicated shuffling around of kids that went on among the 12 of us, I gained an added appreciation for what it means to be a mom--and maybe why we as moms don't do adventures like this all that often.

Team 687, van 1

at the start in Logan, UT

MEC cheers us on from his carseat

Starting my first leg up Avon Pass

The van took quite a beating up that dirt road

the view from the top of Avon Pass

Finishing in Heber

Glad to be done! 

waiting at the finish in Park City

My "Sole Sista" nickname

A tribute to the port-a-potties

Team Sole Sistas

I'm grateful for my dear husband and all he did to encourage me through this and the efforts he made to see me through the details.  At the moment, he's enjoying a bit of a payback, leaving me home with the kids as he makes the 3-day bike ride with the Scouts down to Manti, Utah.  Between his and my training and a couple of crazy weekends, we're due for some quality down time together.  Looking forward to that.