Wasatch Back Ragnar 2012

This year marked doing the Ragnar Relay race for a second year in a row.  We did a 12 man team with 6 of them being guys and 6 girls.  The total race mileage was 198 miles.  Why can't the race coordinators just add a couple more miles just to be able to say 200? C'mon!  The guys shown here are many of those with whom I run frequently, or our running group.  The race is divided into 36 legs in which each runner is supposed to do 3.  Most everyone's breakdown of mileage is between 15 to 21.  My legs added up to 20, which were broken down into 7.25, 5.5 and 7.25 legs.  Next year, we're already signed up to do an Ultra team, which is a team of 6 runners instead of 12.  Double the miles, double the fun!

Me - Joey Orton - Taylor - Jake Carlile - Nate Younger - Tim Flinders

I only knew 2 of the girls on the team.  Kim Schoepke is in the rear leaft back next to Tim.  Becky flinders is with the crutches.  She broke her femur bone half way through her second leg.  Amazingly, she was able to finish that leg before bowing out of her third and final leg

At this point of the race, it was approaching 100 degrees and we were nearing the end.  Nate, the shirtless male phenom with the cap on, was finishing his leg and handing off to me going into my final leg.  My final leg was a 7.25 mile stroll down a mountain road that declined 1800 feet in elevation.  Other guys on the team had taken their shirts off during the race.  Tim had just completed his final leg just before Nate going up "The Ragnar Hill," which is the hill I did last year.  We kept squirting guns of water at him in an effort to keep him cool.  In doing so, he was so wet that his shirt was adding a lot of weight so he shed the shirt.  Although, I think he did it in an effort to show off his manly physique.  After that, I think all of us were stripping down

So, this is the result of running a steep decline...blisters!  Tim was giving me a hard time while getting the medical attention so he had to take this picture.  He couldn't believe "mr. cool" had to get medical help

Our team name was "Hurts So Good."  While running Ragnar, we mark the number of "kills" which is the # of people you pass while running on the van.  All the guys did great adding up to around 450 kills.  I had the most with 58 kills on my first leg, 28 on the second and 19 on the final leg.  The hardest leg was the first one during which I killed 58 people.  My first leg had a net elevation gain of 1800 feet over 7.25 miles.  That was brutal.  The second leg was a 5.5 mile flat sprint around a reservoir in which I averaged a 6:58 pace per mile.

A funny moment occurred when the guys in the van were getting kind of sentimental talking about how this kind of a race is a great sense of accomplishment for many people.  Nate said, "for some people, this marks a great sense of accomplishment in their lives, being able to complete a race like this."  I responded with a sly remark, "yeah, and for the rest of us, these people are just road kill."

So, why do people do this kind of a race??  It's all for the sticker that goes on the car.  There's something about being able to have that sticker on your car that just shouts, "I'm cool!"