Running Ragnar.. the Relay..

Team #705 out of over 1100.

204 miles.

100+ personal "kills" (killed only 7x)

12 runners.

3 hours of sleep.

2 drivers.

1 Dairy Keen Home of The Train!

I was SOOOOO lucky to be apart of the Franson Family's "reunion" by taking part of their Ragnar Wasatch Back Relay Team. Jan & Bill own The Dairy Keen up in Heber, they are cousins to James, who is married to my sister. Family tie established lol I've always considered the Cleggs basically in-laws since we spend actually a lot of time with James' family- more than I think most in-law families do.

So you can think that me being invited to tag along on their lil "reunion" made me feel a little more family to them. That PLUS the fact they took my nut allergy seriously when shopping for food :) They had a few members of their family drop out due to travel or pregnancy, so besides me there were 2 other friends filling in a spot and 1 runner who actually works at the Dairy Keen.

Due to some issues with the outlets in our van, no one was able to charge their phone, and I didn't pack a camera so most of my pics are JeNae's.

Here is our team in running order:

Van #1: Dave, Phil, James, Me, Paul, Caleb.

Driver: Ruth

Van#2: Lace, Matt, Jeff, Collin, Todd, Colleen.

Driver: Bill

Van #1 had the start time of 5:15 am in Logan, meaning we had to be there by 4am, meaning we had to meet up to drive to Logan at 2:30am! Here we are all packed up and ready to go!

Stormy but we ran in the rain anyways.

 My legs were really easy. #1 4ish miles of flat to mid-incline. However when we got to the exchange point it was so backed up (I think because no one wanted to pull off into the muddy field and risk getting stuck) that I waited for about 10 minutes at the exchange before walking back down to the van.  Paul met me halfway and off he went.

Can you see the train of cars up ahead?

There was no sleeping in the van really, it was all so exciting! I did master the van tent in order to change clothes.  Ruth helped out with the tent making process.

First exchange between vans. Lace took this photo before Caleb passed off to her.

Bought me some bling and then we headed up to Snowbasin for some naps- that didn't happen because of traffic. Then craziness.  Stress. Dead phones.

Can I just say how much I love Lace's hair?! You can't tell in this photo but I love the curl she has in it! (She's the blonde one in the pink headband).

We went around drawing lil ice cream cones on cars for a free small cone and there was actually a van who were totally appalled that I marked their van. 

Nelson/Clegg cheering squad. My dad and JeNae were our volunteers for the race that we had to provide.  They had an early morning shift that didn't end until 3am. Allen and Suzanne Clegg also came up to various parts to cheer on their boys.

Leg #2: Again another 4ish miles flat this time, in Morgan. My only night run thank goodness cuz the headlamp was something of a challenge running with for me.

JeNae was hustling to get pictures of our trade off so I started doing this slow motion bunny hopping, waiting for her to catch up before I could take off.

Families that lived along the way were out cheering people on, offering s'mores to runners, and high 5's.

NEVER underestimate the power of a high 5 from a child who's super excited to give you one.  The best feeling ever after giving high 5's and the little kids got way excited :)

At the exchange I had to wait for Paul because someone had to use the lou.. this time it was only 5 minutes.

Major exchange #2 in East Canyon= holy. freaking. cow. batman.

Total Choas! We spent over an hour looking for Caleb and trying to figure out what was going on.

Then a road adventure that hopefully Ruth can laugh about now :)

(Part of the decor of our van).

Sleeping at rodeo grounds out on a lawn.

Best 3 hours of sleep I've ever had.

Last leg: 6ish miles downhill, flat, uphill. HOT.

There was only one time I actually said "kill" to someone: The guy was WALKING DOWN HILL ON THE PHONE.  He deserved it.

Then the only jerk-face I really encountered because he was just so cocky, he was doing push-ups while waiting for us at the light.  I found it mean since there was also some "fluffy" runners waiting at the light with us. Didn't have to wait for Paul this time which was cool.

Van #1 Finishes around 11am.

Clegg boys all done.

Shower at Paul & Sammy's house. Lunch at Dairy Keen.

Van #1 done!

Then waiting at the middle school in Park City for Van #2 to finish.  They had some of the more tougher legs including Ragnar Hill so we knew it'd take a while.  We ate up on some freebies, including some pizza that another team gave us their coupons for. When Van #2 joined us it was nice just hearing about their stories and chilling while we waited for Colleen to finish the race. And of course, the start of talk of Ragnar Relay- Las Vegas in November to complete the Saints & Sinners medal. (Fingers crossed I get to tag along!)

Running in as a team, I'm kinda in the middle, you can only see my butt in this picture.

Signed the wall for Max :)

Our Team :)

:)

Headed back to Dairy Keen for dinner celebration/James' birthday.

Ragnar Relay was a blast! I made new friends and Jan said that the restaurant had the busiest day EVER that Saturday! I hope that Ragnar paid off as an investment for them, Jan & Bill are super nice people and I'm so thankful that I was able to be apart of their team. I loved every minute of it :)