Ragnar was AWESOME! Me and Bailey love running, and we love an adventure, so this race was perfect for us! It's a 12 person team, 200 mile relay, that takes place over a 48 hour period.
I went to Girl's Camp with Sonia over the summer. Her sister Heidi puts together a team each year. They needed a few extra runners, so they recruited me and Bailey. I'm so glad they did! I was runner 9 and Bailey was runner 12. We both had about 17 miles to run, broken up into three legs.
Bailey loved our hotel room. Little did she know, she would be spending WAY more time in the van.
Here is our awesome van 2 team.
Katie, Heidi, Sonia, Marie, Bailey, and Tricia
We had lots of fun decorating our van. Bailey and Sonia tied pom poms to the top, which made it so easy to find our van at the exchange zones.
Teton Taters and TaTas! That was our team name.
Mark drawing our Ragnar symbol.
Ragnar Rocks!
'Steve' was our driver, and 'HeeDi' was our navigator.
Katie was runner 7. She had some hard runs, and she rocked the hills!
Bailey cheering for Katie!
Marie was runner 8. She was the spunkiest little lady :)!
I was runner 9, and this was me getting the hand off for my first leg. It was only 3 miles, but I climbed 300 feet in those 3 miles, so it wasn't easy. The wind was blowing pretty good too. A couple times I thought it was gonna knock me off my feet!
Sonia was runner 10. She is so sweet, and she managed to find running friends on each of her legs.
Heidi was our fearless team captain, runner 11, and a kick in the pants. She could totally hold her own against Mark. She changed Mark's name to Steve right from the start. I thought it was hilarious, since it's usually Mark changing everyone else's names.
Mark smooching with the rubber chicken while we wait at Bailey's exchange spot.
Bailey was runner 12. Her first run was 3.3 miles, and she did great! She actually beat our van to the exchange zone, so she had to hand off to our van 1 team without us there to watch.
Go Bailey!
Bailey running in to make her first hand off.
Our next legs of the race were the night runs. I ran 3.5 miles, at about 2:00 in the morning. It was a gradual downhill, so it wasn't very hard. Bailey's night run was 9 miles, and she kicked butt! She passed so many people!
She started her run around 4:00 in the morning.
Here's our cute van.
Bailey decided to add more decorations to our van while we waited at one of the exchange zones.
Ta Da!
She even got a Ragnar tattoo.
Getting the wrist band from Marie for my last leg of the race. This was my long one. I ran 9.8 miles, mostly downhill, so my quads were shot by the end. I ran along a bike path going toward Lake Mead the whole way. I was out in the middle of nowhere most of the time with no access to our van, but it was a gorgeous run. I ran WAY faster than I have for a few years, so I was very happy with myself. I averaged an 8:43 mile pace. That's really good for the minimal amount of training I did. I hit a wall at the end though, and I could hardly walk the next day. Bailey was the same way after her long one, but she had one more leg to run. It was the downhill that trashed our legs.
We were freezing at the final exchange zone, while we waited for Bailey's last run.
The final exchange!
Our whole team at the finish line!
A finish line toast!
Our medals!
People keep track of their 'kills' (how many people you pass while you're running), by putting tally marks on the side of your van. Bailey was the kill queen of our van. She got 32! I ended up with 29!
We had a great time! Thanks Teton Taters and TaTas!
