12 friends, 181 miles, & a lot of fun

Chelsea's fallen off the blogging wagon, so I'm gonna fill in. We just finished the Wasatch Back this last weekend. I started our team off at 9:20 with an easy leg (just learned how to imbed links...impressed?) through Logan, Providence, and Millville. Nice cool weather, no real hills--good leg to start with. Passed the baton off to Chelsea for her first leg--the first real hill (little did we know what was coming...) of the race through Nibley and Hyrum. She powered through, getting a few kills (Ragnar term for passing someone) on the way and we got to rest for the afternoon, while our team worked their way over Avon Pass (thank you, Marc and Mary Ellen!). There, we passed the baton to the second van and headed to our next exchange at Snowbasin. My next leg had a killer first mile, followed by a long downhill run--right at sunset and a gorgeous run. I passed off to Chelsea for a quick 3 mile leg through Mountain Green in nice cool mountain air. The rest of our van took us through Morgan up into East Canyon reservoir in the middle of the night, where we passed off to the other van, and headed off to catch a few hours of sleep. My next leg climbed up from Rockport State Park into Oakley, at which point Chelsea took the baton through Kamas. Fawn had a tough climb up around Jordanelle reservoir, and Marc and Mary Ellen took us into Heber. Aaahhh--we were done and able to sit back and watch the other van trudge through the 96 degree heat. Guardsman pass is the toughest climb of the race and split into two legs--"You've got to be kidding me" and "Ragnar". Our runner, typically an 8-minute miler, was reduced to 14+ minute miles by Ragnar and the brutal heat; the other climber, an experienced marathoner, said she'd "rather run 10 marathons than do that leg again". Their last two runners then brought us down into Park City for the finish.

Sound fun? Well, we're all signed up to do it again next year--even the Guardsman runners. In Chelsea's words, "I can't imagine a funner race".