Wasatch Back Ragnar, June 2011

This was my 2nd year in a row being able to do the Utah, Wasatch Back Ragnar relay. My first one was the year before, and since had done the Arizona Del Sol relay. My first two were SO fun and I felt so good on all of my legs. I was even THAT much more excited for this one, and it was mostly family, and all girls, on our team.

This is us at the finish line - how neat that of the 6 sisters in my family, 4 of us got to do it together. The other two in my van was my sister in law and her sister.
Camie, Diana, Robin, Nora, me, and Haley.
Our team name -ReAL Women, after the Real Salt Lake.
Nora, our little helper (more like entertainer!).

Getting ready to run my first leg!

Night running. Woo hoo! Caught off gaurd much, Diana? lol ;)

And our team!! (can you tell I was the last one to finish? lol)

The only problem was I didn't anticipate that it might actually be HARD this time around. I was fighting off a cold before I got there, but knew I could run through anything (except like a bad flu), so I thought...

A few yards into my first leg, on a hill, my lungs felt like they froze up. I started at a pretty decent elevation, and probably pushed myself harder thinking I could, but I didn't know it was a chest cold too. Anyway, from there on I had faucet nose and closed lungs. It was brutal, and I have learned to push myself, so it was almost too much.

I was runner 12, and I had some pretty tough runs (first almost 5 miles, second 7, and last 7, hills, but others still had it harder; being sick is what got me).

I was so grateful to be finished, and SO grateful to be apart of such a fun team!!! It was a good lesson for me to learn that things aren't always going to be a breeze, and that no matter what you've done before, running wise, you still have to train and be prepared for anything (training for elevation is a little harder in AZ, but since I didn't have an issue my first year I thought I'd be okay -I was runner 1 the year before, and did start at a lower elevation).

Its fair to say from there the rest of the summer I was chasing down a better experience to "prove" to myself that I could do hard things and not have to walk (having never had to walk before that really got to me mentally). It didn't work, lol. I did a half marathon a month later, another HARD relay a month after that... and did fine, but I was just wearing down :) More of that to come later.