Run. Drive. Sleep? Repeat: Ragnar Relay Part 1

We finished.

We're exhausted.

And my legs feel like a cross between a rubber chicken and a dead fish...

But everyone is ready to sign up again next year.

Over the course of 30 hours, 12 runners ran 188 miles. In the process we rocked out to the finest music the 1980s have to offer, ate our weight in snickers and cliff bars, danced on the side of dirt roads surrounded by mountains, bathed with baby wipes, became intimately familiar with porta-potties, got blisters the size of golf balls, popped said blisters, slept in a high school gym, ran under the stars, cheered on everyone that ran by, ate McDonald's (twice), took a lot of ibuprofen, told jokes, had complementary massages, drank free chocolate milk, and sprayed febreze on shoes, clothes, bags, pillows and each other.

Suffice to say, it was an amazing time and we'll be attempting to chronicle the entire experience. We've got a ton of pictures, some grainy video footage, and crazy memories that already seem surreal.

It's hard to know where to begin, so I better start with our alarm clock.

Friday morning it started blaring at 4 am. We made coffee, showered and drove to Paula and Rob's house. Once there we loaded up their Acadia with running shoes, changes of clothes, food, water, pillows, and sleeping bags. The car was stuffed, luckily they had a roof-top box and a cooler-hitch for their trailer. Look at our mountain of running shoes!


I should mention that Paula (a 2nd year resident) and Rob have 4 kids. Their 15 year old daughter Soleil (pronounced like "Cirque du Soleil") ran with us (she's a high school cross country runner) and the other three participated in decorating our vehicle with window markers the night before the race. Here's one view:


Here's another:


They wrote all our name's on various locations.


And didn't forget to prominently display our team name.


We then drove about 90 minutes to Logan Utah where the race was set to begin. Our team of 12 runners was split between two vehicles and being in van #1, we started the race at 7:30. The start times were staggered every 10 minutes, with approximately 15 teams beginning at each interval. Here is the registration area.


This is the starting line (notice the clock on top).


Here's Audrey, Paula, and Soleil at the start. They look ready to rock!


Our first runner, Kim, is getting mentally prepared to run. It was about 50 degrees when she started running.


Kim stretching with 7 minutes to go!


The second runner on our team was my beautiful wife, Kim's portion took us out of the city of Logan and into the country. Here's Audrey getting ready with Paula and Soleil looking on.


This is part of her course, pretty nice view. Most of the race took place on back roads, meaning there was minimal traffic (other than race support vehicles) and tons of beautiful scenery.


While each runner ran their leg, the rest of us would drive the van ahead a few miles and stop to offer encouragement and H2O to the person currently on the course. Here's Paula driving the van.


Here's Audrey finishing her first leg, she ran the 6.7 Miles in about an hour (10 minutes faster than her projection, we were barely ready for her at the hand off). I had no idea I was marrying such a stud athlete! And although she was tired, check out the big smile on her face.


Here's a video of me delivering water to Rob while he was on the course. Even though it was only 10 am, the temperature was approaching 75 degrees and the sun was blazing. Rob's first leg had him running more than 5 miles without a glimpse of shade. Thankfully he slowed down during the water stop so I could run alongside him in my flip flops.

This is what Rob got to look at while running (do you want to come visit us yet?)



I think I've sufficiently wet your "Ragnar appetite", Audrey will be posting more pics and video soon. Today we are going to rest and relax, we start our residency orientation this week (and even get paid for being there!) and are going to need all the energy we can muster.