Ragnar: 188.2 miles of love

This was the big race Mark and I had been training for. Well, I had been training and Mark had just been running. :) The Wasatch Back relay is 188.2 miles (from Logan to Park City) split into 36 legs that are run by 12 runners in a 24-hour-plus time period. Also a whole lot of fun. Yes, we runners (I love that I can call myself a runner now, even if it isn't 100% accurate...) are crazy like that: there were around 1500 teams running this year. (Waaaay too many, if you ask me. We're all opting for a smaller relay next year.)

This is our van before we started. Each team has two vans, 6 people in each van. This allows each van to get some down-time, but this also means that you don't really get to see the people in the other van as much. This was a little bit sad for me since we had my large family split in both vans. 

Mark, me, brother Chad, SIL Lindsey, brother Jace,
and Kris (Lindsey's coworker and our anchor... she ran 21 miles total!)

Three of the four Waddoups sisters ran: me, Greta, and Joce. Our oldest (and best!) sister, Sarah, was signed up to run but her best friend was getting married that weekend, so she opted to attend the wedding instead. I suppose that was a good choice. ;)

We had 6 of the 8 Waddoups children running (3 sisters and 3 brothers), plus 2 spouses (Mark and my SIL Lindsey). This is my brother, Jace, barrelling down one of the hills he ran and also achieving one of his many kills. (Every time you pass another runner, you achieve a "road kill" that you get to mark on your van windows. Luckily for me, you don't have to erase the marks for the times that you get passed. :) )

Mark did so awesome on his legs of the race. Here he is, almost at the finish of his first and hardest leg:

He does look like he's walking, but he's not, I promise!

When the last runner finishes, the whole team is supposed to cross the finish line together. The other 5 team members in van 2 weren't able to make it to the finish line because of traffic, though :( so it was just the 6 of us and Ashley, Lindsey's sister, who was runner 12.

We finished in 29:17 (yes, that's hours and minutes!), which was 127the in our division (mixed, teams made up of both men and women). Luckily, you just have to finish to get the medal,which also doubles as a bottle opener...

Mark and I were both very happy with how we did. Mark's goal was to not walk at all, and he did it! My goal, well, my goal was to survive the weekend, and I did. :) I was sooo happy with how I did on my first and longest leg--I rocked that big hill and killed 12 people in the process, plus running faster than I thought I would. The last two legs were shorter and I did fine, but finishing didn't come with as much of a sense of accomplishment as just a sense of relief.

Just before running his last leg...
The last hurrah of the facial hair. :)

Take a look at Mark's shirt in the picture above... I designed it! You can't see it very well in the picture, but I was pretty proud of how it looked, and we even got a few compliments on our awesome shirts. :)