Our team was the "Housewives of the UC". And we have 61 kids collectively between the 14 of us. Our team was made up of working moms, stay at home moms, divorced moms, mom's with babies and mom's with teenagers.
We decided to all head up to Logan for the start. Normally only Van 1 goes up and Van 2 meets at the first exchange a few hours later. But since for all but 2 of us it was our first time we wanted the full experience so we all headed up. Here is the whole team before the start.
Laurie was our #1 runner. I love how happy she looks in this picture. She is a very strong runner and started our team out perfectly. I got to train a lot with Laurie for this event and love this girl so much. She rocks!
Our awesome captain (Jill) had these vinyl letters created for both vans. We all had "spice" names. Mine was zippy.
Traci's very talented husband created a logo for us. I love that is is a combination of a crown, wings and running shoes. That really says it all.
After van 1 took off on their legs. Our van drove to get some lunch and decorate our van. I underlined each of our names but wasn't quite exact enough so Gretchen took a baby wipe and fixed them for me. It was so funny.
Both vans also had a huge blown up team picture on the back. So dang funny! Every time I saw it I would laugh a little. It got so dusty by the end of the trip but everyone who we drove by knew who the spicy housewives were.
Lisa and I at the first exchange. She picked up some sweet pink shades at Wal-Mart during our van decorating. So hot.
Our van was awesome and our driver was even better. Here are a few of my favorite things about our van.1 - LISA. She was such a great driver. She was crazy and fun and didn't sleep a wink the whole time. She has a compulsive need to decorate and bling things out so every chance she got she added decorations to our van. We had a disco ball and several light up balls, a karaoke machine, a megaphone and so many other random treats. There is always a surprise with this girl and it was so much fun. She lost the keys before we left the cul de sac in the morning. Classic.
2 - The color. Almost everyone else had huge white 15 passenger vans...but not us it stood out in all it's burgundy glory.
3 - The cost. Lisa was able to borrow it from a neighbor and I couldn't be more grateful for her generosity in letting a bunch of crazy women borrow it to drive all over Utah.
4 - The hill. While Gretchen was going up the final hill the van overheated. Yes that shows just how bad that hill was. So Leigh Anne and I hitched a ride to the next exchange while the other girls figured out what to do with the van. Thank goodness it was just due to a lack of our driving knowledge - apparently you aren't supposed to sit on the side of a hill idle with the air conditioning running on high. Who knew?
Finally at 9:00 pm on Friday night I was ready for my first leg. Our team didn't start until 1:30 pm which was a very late start time - which I think made it a little harder for us in the end since really all 3 legs were done on little to no sleep.
My first leg was a nice flat 3.7 miles. I decided I was going to go for it and give it everything I had. My details for the leg were a 7:53 avg. pace and it took me 29.20 minutes. I passed 3 people (all guys...ah yeah) and got passed by 2 elite men who made me look like I was standing still.
Here is my first hand-off from Gretchen. I tried doing the "Olympic relay" style hand-off so I started running with her. She smacked my rear when handing it off and had a bruise on her hand the rest of the race and we managed to drop the wrist band in the process. It was so dang funny.
My second leg was just under 8 miles of rolling hills. I started it around 7:00 in the morning. This was the hardest leg to run. For some reason my legs felt like bricks. I couldn't seem to pick up my feet. Maybe from the lack of food, sleep or the fact that I forgot my electrolytes. I don't know but I hurt. At one point the van drove up next to me to see if I needed anything and I just said "I hurt so bad right now". They were awesome to stop and check on me and fill my water for me. Nothing helped so I just kept trying to go. I walked a few times and mentally just kept thinking about the fact that if I couldn't do this how would I ever be able to make up the Ragnar hill.
The details of this leg: 7.68 miles, 8:46 avg. pace, 1:07 total time and I passed 4 people.
"fake it till ya make it"
Here is most of the team at our next exchange. This started all of our last legs of the race. I was so tired at this point and so scared of my last leg. After Suzette came in and Laurie took off we headed off to try to eat some lunch. I ordered oatmeal and a scone and managed to eat some of it. Then took a 45 minute nap in the van while we waited for van 1 to finish their legs.
Then it was our turn again. I love this picture of Suzette. She is so excited and we were all so excited to be so close to finishing the race. At this point van 1 was done - I was so jealous of them.
Suzette's family came to cheer her on for her last leg. Her son ran the first part of the leg with her. I love it. I loved that her hubby was at the exchange cheering her on.
Now my last and final leg. You see that mountain we're looking at? Gretchen was going to go half way up and then I was going to finish it. Oh boy. I can't tell you how worried I was and I was just so anxious to get it over with.
I freaking love this girl. She is so amazing and so strong. I loved running right after Gretch.
The hill. This picture does not do it justice. This hill was BRUTAL. It was steep and dusty and so long. This was the longest and hardest 4 miles I have ever run. I thought that doing a training run on Squaw Peak would be good - but this was so much harder. Maybe it was the lack of sleep or the fact that I had already run twice before this. But it was so dang hard. The worst part was the first mile. I just kept looking down at my Garmin hoping more distance had passed. Then I finally stopped looking and just started running to the next tree or rock then walking. I did this the whole way up. If it was too steep I would just power walk.
I had my fuel belt on so it was ok at first that our van wasn't there to support me. At mile 2 I saw a friend from BYU and told him that our van had just broken down and he filled my water bottle and told me I could ride with them to the next exchange if needed. What a relief. Then our van started working again and caught up to me around mile 3. So we were able to get a few pictures of me and the hill. (P.S. I passed both of the people in front of me in this picture.)
Details of this leg: 3.97 miles, 13:08 avg pace, 52:10 total time, passed 7 people.
When I saw the exchange I knew I could do it so I powered up the rest of the hill the best I could.
I was sooooooo happy when I got to the exchange and Leigh was waiting for me. She gave me a huge hug and told me how proud of me she was. Oh how I love that girl. Then off she went to tackle her last leg of the race.
This picture really shows how I felt. Tired and hot. I had so much great support. And to top it off that blue washcloth was no ordinary wash cloth. Lisa and Suzette had individually wrapped washcloths, wet them down, kept ice on them and put essential oils on them so they felt and smelled heavenly.
Look at the hill Leigh Anne had to run down. OH MY GOSH!!! Not only was it ridiculously steep she found out they changed the course after her 2nd leg was finished and that she would be adding an additional 1.5 miles. It had uphills and downhills and was loose gravel. She fell at one point but still ran her heart out until she passed the baton. What a stud.
Our whole team ran in together (although Alyson was hauling and I couldn't keep up with her). Then we got our picture at the finish line with our medals by the sweet Ragnar van.
And we are already signed up for next year. WOO HOO!
