Sunday, June 21, 2009

No Bed, No Bath and Beyond

On Friday morning we woke up at 5:00 am to get in the car and drive up to Logan for the start of the Ragnar race. If you recall from a past blog, this was a two day relay race from Logan to Park City which covered 175 miles. We had a 12 person team, and Reuben and I averaged about 16 miles each.  At this point Reuben had already run 5.6 miles and I was getting ready to run 7.4 miles that would climb 1210 feet. 

It looks all nice and green here. What I was about to run was 7.4 miles of dusty hills. It was switch backs all the way up!  Little did Kira know that she was about to run up the hill of death!  I am still amazed that she ran the 7 miles all up hill.

This is Sara giving me the slap bracelet allowing me to start my journey of doom. I have done hills before but those hills were killer. After I was done with my leg of the race I began what they call the runner's runs. TMI ... well sorry about it.  ... and might I add that the "runner's runs" must 'run' in the family, because I ran across the same thing myself.

Even though the Ragnar was really hard- there was some good comic relief:)  That looks real in the picture. Wow.

This is Reuben after running 8.6 miles. He ran it so fast- he came in under his time. If you see Laura Lee and her cute night gear, that would be what I ran in in the pitch black later that night. Running with a head lamp and glow stick- I did think I had lost my mind at that point. I ran for 4 miles and then we waited for one more of our runners to finish. We made it to a high school where we slept for 3 hours before the rest of our team finished. We left the high school at 6 am and I ran another 5 miles at 8 am.  What she didn't mention was the shower situation. I paid $2 for a shower--expecting some sort of sponge bath in a relaxing hot tub.  What I got was a high school locker room, with urine-capped tile and the tree of life shower head arrangement.  At one point, it was just understood that we would leave that high school with a disease--either from the unsanitary locker rooms, or from the wrestling mats nesting ring worm, which we used as mattresses during the night.  No joke though, we seriously felt like Will Smith and his son on The Pursuit of Happiness when they were racing to get into the homeless shelter.  It was a race to get the good spot in the smelly gym. Luckily we were fast ones.
 
This is me after running 5 miles. I was done at that point and gave the camera the, "I'm a moron" look.  I think she looks great after running about 16 miles!

Here is Reuben finishing his last leg of the race. I swear he sprinted the whole thing. It started to rain super hard during his race so he looked all pro when he came through the finish line sprinting and soaking wet.  Little did Kira know that I had stopped by a hotel pool, had taken a swim, and had hitched a ride a block away from the finish line. ... hence, the wet look and the energy to sprint.  Once I figured this race out, it was cake.

Overall, I need to give props to Kira.  She was my Mrs. Miaggi and taught me everything I know.  She outran our target times and gave me candy when I was weary.  I couldn't have done it with out her. (applause here)

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