Devin and I ran the Wasatch Back relay this year. This is Devin's third time running and my second time. We had so so much fun. It is an experience that sounds crazy, and is very hard to explain but is so rewarding and exhilarating.
The race starts in Logan (Friday morning) at Merlin Olsen Park and ends up in Park City (188 miles total). The beautiful mountain terrain and small towns you run through is picturesque. Some of the places you run through like Avon and Gardsman Pass is not something I had ever seen until the race. Both are grueling legs but running with your team makes it really fun. Each 12 person team runs 3 legs each. Each leg vary in miles (between 2.5-8) and are ranked either easy, moderate, hard or very hard. Every team decorates their vans to coordinate with their team name. Many teams wear costumes or team T-shirts to identify with their team. We saw a guy dressed in a gorilla suit. One year Devin saw a team running with various back packing gear like kayacks or backpacks. Yes some get really into it and that's what makes this race so unique and fun.
Our team name was Endorfun Junkies and most of our team were friends from College Ward. I had a friend from high school, Kelly who came from California to run this race with me. We had a party the night before and decorated the van and ate lots of pasta. We started running at 7:40 am Friday morning and finished the race at about 1:30 pm Saturday afternoon. We had beautiful weather, not too hot and not cold. Van 2 of our team did have to run in the rain for the last leg.
Some extra exciting moments were: helping a team get their truck back on the road at Snow Basin, and getting stuck in traffic and not having our runner ready for the 3rd leg. (We should have gotten up 1/2 hour earlier)
When you cross the finish line each member of your team gets an really nice medal for finishing the race, and a funny looking walk due to the sore muscles from running for two days.
After the race, Devin and I stayed in Park City overnight which was so nice to soak our sore muscles in the hot tub.
This is a race we just love to run together and I want to thank my mom and dad for watching our kids while we ran it. They even came to watch us run in Morgan. It was fun to see them all and hear them cheer for us. Thanks for all of the support mom, even though your car had some problems.
7 comments:
Wow 188 miles??? So about how many of that did you run? I think it's great that you and Devin do that together. It was great to see you at the park today!
That's soo impressive! I want to have an experience like that...but maybe a little shorter? Way to go guys!
Each team member runs about 15-20 miles each. But the nice thing it's not all at one time. 4 miles one time, 3.5 another time, 7 miles another and your done. =)
Janelle says: Hi guys. Thanks for the pics. My brother in law has run this twice and my sister Mindy joined in the fun this year. I'm confused because I thought she said they only had a team of four women? I'll have to question her again.
Mindy is the one who has severe (chronic?) asthma, and overall immune deficiencies (has IUG treatments every month), and she ran leg 11, which I understand had some difficult climbs and decends. She ran the whole time and averaged 9 min. miles. Her pulmonary specialist actually discovered she increased her lung capacity through all of her hard training. So she is just as enthused as you are about the race. Apparently they might do the one in LasVegas in Oct. - have you heard of this one? I'm happy for you all, but can't I'm ready to join you. I'll stick with the tri venues for now!
Hip hip hooray for you crazy runners!
That's cool about Mindy increasing her lung capacity. She sounds way tough. I really think you would do awesome on this race. So don't say you can't. We are hoping to start a family team together in two years (2011). By then Morgan and maybe Alex could be on the team as well! Dallas would love love this race, I'm sure. There are some ultra teams which only have six team members. Mindy might have been one of those teams. In that case each team member runs the length of a marathon. That is really crazy!!
Devin thought about the Las Vegas run but the terrain just doesn't thrill me. Desert, and more desert with glimps of sin city? I think we'll stick to the mountain runs =)
Check out the webpage and you can see just how hard leg 11 is. This is the one Devin did leg 11 last year. It is really tough. There are places he said the climb is so high you can reach out in front of you and touch the road.
Relay website:
http://www.ragnarrelay.com/wasatchback/index.php/
My sister did this race! She was a last minute replacement and hadn't trained for it, but still did an amazing job. One day I would love to do something like that!
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