John and I had the honor of being invited to run on an elite Ragnar team sponsored by Elden Dattage towing (well, I think it was more of a 'they wanted John on the team so they got me as well' sort of thing. Thanks guys for letting me tag along!). It has been a great learning experience for me. It started last year as John ran Ragnar with the D-Towers and called me throughout the race from Logan to park City. I could hear the excitement and longed to share the experience with him. So I "trained" for the Wellsville Founder's Day 5k by running two lengths of a block sidewalk and then walking one, running two, walking one until I could run a full block and then two and then two miles and finally 3.2 miles. I ran my first 5k and finished that with a very slow time of 39 minutes. But I did it! John also ran it and came in 7 seconds behind the 3rd place runner - a defeat he intends to remedy this year...
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| My first leg - and my best one! |
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| Van #2 |
John also ran the Hyrum Freedom Run 15k and placed 1st in his age group. Then he went on to tackle the Top of Utah marathon and finished that in 3 hrs. 27 minutes. I was so proud of him! So began my desire to join him in his running glory. I never expect to achieve anything other than a free date with my husband and possibly an eventual love for running. We're still working on that!
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| Crossing the finish line. |
But I did achieve my goal of running Ragnar - one of those things you say "I want to do that next year" and never do it. I don't like to make goals to do something I never intend to do, so it kind of became an obsession. Through a twice herniated disk in my back, two "runners" running schedules to balance with who took care of the 5 children, an executive secretary calling that eventually carried over with an Elder's Quorum President calling and starting a new business, this had been an adventure getting here!! But we did it!
We had an amazing and super fast team - them, not me - who worked their butts off for an average mile time of 8 minutes and 30 seconds, carrying my average of ten minutes. I did give it my all however, so I am happy! And next year I will be even more ready and faster!
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| Ben, John and Alicia |
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| Hand off to Heidi |
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| Ashley and Ryan |
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| Ben - smoking along |
I absolutely loved being able to spend the time with John. He is an amazing athlete! Most of his averages were between 6:15 and 6:50 minute miles! Like I said, he made up the difference from my pace. It was amazing to watch his body work, and made me want to work harder to be as physically healthy as he is.
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| John on his first leg, averaging 6:15minute miles! |
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| Not even winded after his run! |
We finished the all day, all night race in 27 hours and 26 minutes. Which is AMAZING!! It is so much fun to see people pull together to accomplish a pretty difficult task and I think that 192 miles through towns, mountains, nasty hills and night and day qualifies as such. We had a blast!
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| One of the nasty hills - this one was Ashley's |
We've already signed up for the next races, John's 15k and 5k and my Epic relay and 5k - which I plan to run in 30 minutes (or under) this year! It tells a lot when, as I began training for this last year, one mile seemed like a LONG way! Now, during Ragnar, they put up signs that say "one mile to go" and when I saw those signs I thought to myself "Hey, I'm almost there! One mile is only a few more steps!" And next year, I'll take on the Top of Utah half marathon, and then I'll think "Four miles is only a few steps!"
