My Big Fat Ragnar Relay

over the weekend, i rocked a freakin' sweet race called the Ragnar Wasatch Back Relay. i loved it so much it hurt, both figuratively and literally. it is 188 miles from logan to park city. my team was called the 12 olympians, and we were in the co-ed division since we had six guys and six gals. after spending from friday morning at 7 to saturday evening at 7 with them, i am actually kinda going through team withdrawals.
to pump myself up and really rock the relay, i shaved my hair to this mohawk. it was immortalized in soap on this window by the amazing artist and speed demon lydia. side note, lydia and mary ray's middle names are sting and sunshine respectively. i am not making that up. i love those girls.
i ran three legs of the race, the 1st(7.8 miles, rated very hard), 13th(8.3 miles, rated very hard), and 33rd(3.6 miles, rated very hard but should have been rated ridiculously hard). my last leg was actually supposed to be the 25th, but we missed the exchange point, so i switched with someone else. the first two legs i ran really didn't seem so bad. the third that i ended up running was the single hardest running experience of my life. basically, i was running straight up a mountain side. i hated/loved it completely. it was the steepest leg of the whole race, although it was only the second hardest in total. the hardest was the very next leg, which christian hunt ran. i have a hard time putting into words how amazing it was to watch him haul up that hill, passing everybody on it. i struggled on that mountain, he thrived. he was the fastest man on that hill that day, truly a work of art in running. he is the mannest mancore that ever manned.
there were some awesome vehicle decorations (cars dressed as mammoths, strung up with christmas lights, etc.). this was a rather scandalous van from minnesota.
we ran through the night, which meant reflective vests, headlamps, and surprised pilmers.
we all slept in the van, which meant that we didn't really sleep much at all. although, cara is actually sleeping in this pic, she just sleeps with both eyes open, always staring at you. what a creeper.
about 7 miles left in the race, we passed a hotel/resort under construction. all of the workers silently watched us go by. some of them were rubbing their bellies. no lie.
from left to right: emily, christian, jason, bronson, tyler, lydia, mary, colby, cara, becca, deba, and some goofy kid.

this was one of my favorite things in the history of the world. i love these people. we added on deba and tyler the week of the race, and they performed like rockstars. as a team, we ranked 53rd out of 658 teams in our division. hells yeah. i actually got emotional talking about the race on sunday, it was really awesome all around. i can't say enough about how amazing each person on my team is, including the drivers of our vans (paige(jason's girlfriend) and judine(becca's mom)). much love to them all. after all that time together, they know far more personal things about me than most people. this bud's for you.