Where's the Road?

That was the name of our team for the Ragnar Trail Relay in Snowbasin. We ran that thing last weekend and I haven't put on my running shoes since. Partly because I haven't wanted to run and partly because they were so dirty and disgusting. I didn't want to ruin another pair of nice, white socks.

These shoes have seen better days!

It all began a few months ago when Doug East sent out an email to family, inquiring if anyone would like to participate. We had discussed running a Ragnar relay at family reunions in the past. Keenan and I were in! What appealed to me on this one was that we ran trails and got to camp together, instead of running on roads and having to shuttle around in 2 vans. I'd never run trails, but it sounded like a good challenge. So, after weeks of planning and more money than one should pay to be in a race, we gathered last Friday for our adventure. Our team was Doug, Scott and Andrew Sykes, Karen Crockett, me and Keenan, Shauna Crockett (Karen's sister-in-law) and Cristina Carreno, a friend of Shauna. Jenny Sykes and Kristen East came as our "support staff." They took pictures and kept us company. Kris was our team volunteer. Each team needs one. She worked the information booth from 2:30-6:00 am.

Back Row: Shauna, Keenan, Scott, Andrew, Doug (team captain, aka: boss),
Front Row: Karen and me. Cristina hadn't arrived yet.
We never were all together again until the end. Someone was always on the trail.

Doug and Scott got to Snowbasin first, with our accommodations. Scott brought his trailer that sleeps 13. Keenan and Karen and I got there around 10:30 am. We set up camp, complete with shade canopy, chairs and inflatable twin mattresses. We had a sweet set-up...probably the biggest footprint of any camp. Most teams camped in another location - a dry, shade-free hill on Snowbasin's property. We were in the parking lot, along with about 12 other campers. There were about 105 teams that participated, so we were part of the lucky few who had a camper. The only down side to where we were was the camper nearby that chose to power itself with the loudest generator we'd ever heard. It hummed all afternoon and into the evening until officials told them to turn it off for "quiet hours."

Relaxing and enjoying camp

Allison in Hawaii requested a pic of her dad, so we took this selfie - Karen, me and Doug

Team "Where's the Road" sponsored by Myomed. Thanks for the canopy, Sandy Hewlett.

All, except Cristina, arrived by 1:00 or so. (Cristina had to come later because of teacher meetings. School started the following week). We sat around, talked, swapped strategies, etc. until our start time at 2:30. We also attended the mandatory "safety briefing." This told us what to do if hurt or in case of a run-in with wildlife. The race itself was simple in concept. 8 runners. Each run the same 3 legs, but in different order. There was a red loop (hard), a yellow loop (medium) and a green loop (easy). When it's your turn to run, you go the the transition tent, where the previous runner will be coming in. You trade a belt, with the team number on it and begin your leg. 24 legs total. About 14.5 miles/runner. Doug had a spreadsheet to help us determine approximately when runners would be coming in. The Ragnar staff also had an electronic board that let us know when our runner was .5 miles out.

The location was great! We were really grateful to have access to Earl's Lodge with clean bathrooms, couches, drinking fountains, etc. Outside of the lodge was "the Village," where everything went on. The transition tent was there. The Ragnar Arch that you run under after each leg was there. There was a DJ, playing music, then a live band at times. There was water, porta-potties, vendor tents, information booth, sports massage therapists, etc. It was really neat. I'm glad we decided to do it and I'm sure it couldn't get any better than that one because we were with family and we had a camper and even a 100-gallon tank of water for rinsing off after each leg.

Me and my sisters. Kris, me, Jen and Karen. Two Ragnarians and two support staff.

Ready to go. We had a lot of fun with our tattoos

Karen and me under the Ragnar Arch: Pre-race. Still smiling.

At 2:30, we all gathered to see Andrew start us off. We were pumped and ready to go. Andrew started with the green (easy) loop. It was just over 3 miles. He came back in about 30 minutes and was not happy about it. He had a side cramp the whole 3 miles and told us how hard it was. Uh oh. He was our young runner. The rest of us were old. Shauna went next. Shauna is up for anything...any physical challenge. She is awesome. She's not the fastest runner, but up for anything. She had the yellow loop. It's over 6 miles. She plugged away and did it. I always ran after Shauna. I was up next. I was first in our team to run RED - the hard one. I was not looking forward to it. All runs began with the same challenging hill. I began jogging up it, but quickly transitioned to a walk. Red was 2.2 miles uphill and 2.2 miles downhill. Literally up, then down. I felt like I had never run before. Nothing could have prepared me for that. I am not a mountain goat. I am a 46-year old lady. I had to walk a lot of it. When I finally reached the downhill, it was awesome, because it was all downhill. I was glad red was ending. I did trip over something along the straight path and fell on the dry, dusty trail. It made me look tough. I was the first on our team to fall!

Runner #1 Andrew Sykes!

2:30 teams lining up

Andrew (without shirt) starting us off. Ready...set...Ragnar!

It took me about 75 minutes to run the 4.4 miles. Crazy, huh? I usually run about an 11 minute mile pace. I had finished the hardest run. Yeah! All of us, but Karen, were quite surprised at the difficulty of our first runs. This was not going to be easy! I had yellow next...at about 2:00 am. I wasn't looking forward to running for over an hour in the dark. In fact, I was dreading it. We had dinner, provided by Ragnar, rested, visited, saw more runners off, and tried to sleep. Andrew woke me when Shauna took off so I could prepare to run when she got back. He had just finished a great run and was excited about that. He loaned me Scott's waist light and I had my headlamp. I was off. My strategy was to walk the uphill until red and yellow break off from each other, then run when the down hill for yellow started. It was lovely. I loved it. It was rolling hills, I think. I can't be sure, because I could only see in front of me. I ran through a couple of meadows. I wasn't scared and really enjoyed the cool, quiet night. I did get lost at one point, but quickly backtracked and found my mistake. The trails were well-marked and they had told us how to recognize if we had gotten off the trail. I just missed an arrow in the dark. That one was over 6 miles and took me an hour and 40 minutes. I visited with Kris a bit. She was in the middle of her volunteer shift, then I went back to bed.

Took this selfie near the top of RED. Texted to Kris..."Slow and hard"

Found my Weight Watchers friends, sisters Maggie and Annie. All of my running adventures started at WW. When I heard members talk of marathons, etc., I decided I could do hard things, too.

Yep, I fell!

Cristina, Karen and Shauna outside of the Lodge. Karen enjoys her pasta meal.

Me on my night run. 

I probably got about 5 hours of sleep total. When I awoke, I had a light breakfast and prepared to run green later in the morning. I only had the "easy" one left. In the night, they had to make plans to adjust the rest of the race. They had also decided that in the future, they would NOT do the red loop again - JUST TOO HARD. This is the first year for Trail Ragnars and only the 2nd one all together. The first was at Lake Tahoe. They also underestimated how long it would take everyone to run the trails. Many teams, including ours, needed to double up runners. That meant that since Keenan and I had our green leg left, we ran it together. Doug and Scott did yellow and Karen and Cristina did red. Green was hard. The only easy thing about it was that it was 3-ish miles. It had just one too many steep hills. I didn't like it at all! It was the general consensus that yellow was the crowd favorite. I learned a valuable lesson on this adventure. When I saw my friend Maggie, we were discussing our experiences. I admitted that I swore under my breath and out loud a couple of times. She said she swore a bit and prayed. I need to be more like Maggie. I need to pray when it gets hard; not swear. I'm a work in progress.

The "charging station" at our camp. In the trailer. Notice Doug's laptop where all data was entered after each leg.

Good morning to our awesome volunteer, Kris.

Jen, Kris and Scott

And...DONE!

Ragnar socks

Ragnar feet

In our awesome shirts, waiting for Cristina to come so we could all finish together.

Ragnar medal, I love you!

We all joined and ran together through the Ragnar Arch and to the transition tent. It was great. We had team shirts that Scott had ordered. They were green and I love it.

So, I have my Ragnar t-shirt, my team shirt, my Ragnar medal and my Ragnar sticker and I have great memories of doing something REALLY DIFFICULT with family and friends that I love. It was worth it. I don't think I'll do it again, but we did it. It took us 27 hours and 20 minutes. Wow! After we were done, we packed up and headed home. Karen really wanted a JDawg hot dog, so we drove to Orem to get a JDawg. We got to bed at a decent hour and slept well. I was stiff in the morning for church and stiff for a couple of days, but I am a Ragnarian.

P.S. All decided that if there were a "next time," the team name should be "They told me this was a 5 Crowns Tournament."I will be a member of the support staff for that one.