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RAGNAR Wasatch Back

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Apr 28, 2011

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Running Accomplishments:

PR Table and Notable Races

Marathon: 2:21:12 (Chicago); 2:20:41 (CIM)
Half Marathon: 1:05:45 (Long Beach)
10K: 30:03 (Portland)

All race results:
2011 - 2012 - 2013 - 2014 - 2015 - 2016

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Andrea

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to Ukraine's Armed Forces

Miles:	This week:	0.00	Month:	0.00	Year:	0.00

Sat, Jun 20, 2015

Race: RAGNAR Wasatch Back (194 Miles) 30:05:11, Place in age division: 48

Running Miles	Swimming Yards	Bike Miles
13.00	0.00	0.00

A few years ago I wouldn't have imagined typing this next line - I had a really fun time running the RAGNAR relay over the past two days.

Our team was running to promote organ donation awareness. Thus, no kills recorded. Van 1 was a group of surgeons and hepatologists from the Mayo Clinic. Van 2 was an an ecclectic bunch from Intermountain Healthcare, Kansas University, PRA Health Sciences, and BD Medical (our ringer).

We drove up to Eden and spent Friday morning playing basketball at a cabin owned by a teammate's family in Eden. Once the temperature finally started pushing 100 degrees, we were off...

Friday 6:45pm - Leg 9 - 7.6 miles up the old Snowbasin road in 55:17 (7:15 pace). This was a solid climb (+1500 net gain) with beautiful views looking back down over the Pineview Reservoir.

Friday 8:30pm - Leg 10 - 3 miles down the Trapper's Loop road (5:30 pace). A mid-run asthma flare-up caused one of our teammates to abandon her leg... luckily I hadn't taken my shoes off yet and was able to jump in. Too downhill for my tastes (-750 feet!)

Attempted to sleep for a few hours... maybe got 20 minutes worth.

Saturday 4:30am - Leg 20 - 2.7 miles starting in Hoytsville (6:25 pace). It was very dark. The run was relatively flat.

Fortunately one of our teammates lives in Park City, so were were able to hang out (shower!!) at her house for the morning while the Mayo van was on the course.

Saturday High Noon - Leg 31 (the Ragnarliest leg ever, +2200 net gain) - 10 miles from Park City to Empire Pass and then towards Guardsman Pass for the exchange in 1:21:15 (8:10 pace). Aerobically I was never really stressed, but I am still lacking the muscular power to hammer a climb like this (although that seems to be coming around). I kept it at a moderately hard effort that wouldn't test my hamstring too much and had fun with it. Honestly I felt bad for almost everyone else that had to run this leg, I bet it took a lot of people 3-4 hours.

Now that I've finally done a RAGNAR, I'd say that like a lot of things in life, how much you enjoy it comes down to who you are with. We had a fantastic group - nothing but good times for two days. Thank god for 15 passenger vans, finishing an hour under the projected time, and a beer tent at the end.

The aftermath...

Comments

From james (runmehappy) on Sun, Jun 21, 2015 at 10:26:19 from 107.191.1.89

Glad you had fun Jake! I agree completely, the enjoyment of Ragnar is greatly dependent on those in your van...and the size of the van.

From SlowJoe on Sun, Jun 21, 2015 at 10:49:43 from 45.18.50.53

I probably should have told you I was just kidding about the tattoo! Maybe you can turn it into a butterfly or something.

Good report and pictures, it does seem like it was a good time.

From Rob Murphy on Sun, Jun 21, 2015 at 12:36:17 from 24.10.247.181

What does "thus no kills recorded" mean?

From Jason D on Sun, Jun 21, 2015 at 21:06:55 from 68.80.27.222

Good stuff. Mix things up, have a little fun, see what emerges. That's a solid 10 mile climb too.

The hair is coming along fairly well. Not as impressive as the guy who walks on Forbidden Drive with dreadlocks down to his ankles but he's got a few years' head start.

From Jake K on Mon, Jun 22, 2015 at 05:59:02 from 98.202.128.218

James - I couldn't imagine doing this in a minivan or SUV. Or in a location with humidity.

Joe - Who knew the Ragnar temporary tattoos had SPF? Now I have to strategically sunscreen the logo section all summer to keep it there.

Rob - In Ragnar lingo, "kills" is passing other teams and some teams mark how many they record on their vans. It's a staggered start over ~12 hours, so the faster teams have a lot of slower teams ahead of them on the road. We all agreed that was somewhat poor form and not the kind of verbage to be using. And let's face it, this kind of relay is about fun. There are maybe two or three teams really going hard, the other 900+ are just out to have a good time.

Jason - THANKS! I feel like I got through the awkward stage and I'm happy with the current status. Good to know after all those bald years that I still it in me.

From Rob Murphy on Mon, Jun 22, 2015 at 14:08:44 from 24.10.247.181

I'd be all about recording the kills if I ran it.

From Jake A on Tue, Jun 23, 2015 at 12:09:42 from 108.171.130.164

Amazing time up Guardsman Pass. That heat would have done me in. I'm impressed that you weren't stressed aerobically. I think my heart would have exploded.

From Jake K on Tue, Jun 23, 2015 at 12:19:05 from 199.190.170.29

The thing I'm best at right now (from skiing) is moving uphill at a slow to moderate pace. My legs don't quite have the pop to match what my lungs can handle.

Re: the heat... I will say that it was the first time I walked through / stopped at water stations on a run. But I don't think it was nearly as hot as Andrea dealt with on her 1st and 3rd legs. Or yours up Avon Pass!

From Tom Slick on Tue, Jun 23, 2015 at 13:17:31 from 168.179.158.193

Good on you for taking the time to have a great time with your Ragnar team. It can really be fun especially when everybody tries to work and play well together.........You should look into doing the Las Vegas Ragnar, if you do that one next, combined with the wasatch back ragnar, you get the Saints & Sinners medal! It's really coooool !

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