The Bored Pencil: Ragnar 2016

Wow what a couple of weeks!! Last week was my birthday and in keeping up with tradition I participated in the Utah Valley Marathon race series. This year I decided to run the 10k and trained to try and set a new personal best. When I was a freshman at BYU I ran a 10k in 46:57, that was over 10 years ago. My training went alright and i felt like I was in good shape, however the race didn't go accordingly to plan and I finished about 4 minutes off in 50:43. I was pretty disappointed however I knew I pushed myself hard and did my best. We met up for lunch with Linda, Jamie, and Jadzia Kreyling who all ran the half marathon, and always try and invite us to do more races with them.

I used my birthday money to get a Fitbit and Katelyn and I are enjoying having daily step challenges, and are finding its helping us move around and stay active throughout the day.

Now for the main event....RAGNAR WASATCH BACK 2016!!! About a month ago my cousin Sean Popa asked me if I would like to join his Ragnar team as they had a last minute spot open up. Well joined team "Not Fast Just Furious" and had a blast. I was in Van 2 with a two couples and a crazy man (Ben and Chelise, Rena and Jared, and Paul). Ben, Chelise and Paul are all from the Logan area where Sean lives. Rena (Julie Popa's niece) and Jared came up from Vegas. I would elaborate on the fun times we had, however in the spirit of Ragnar - what happens in the Van stays in the Van.

LEG 1 (3.0 mi)
My first leg in the middle of the afternoon heat. I ran a nice conservative pace (9:00 / mi), it was hot and I almost threw up at the start. While Rena (who was the runner before me on each leg) was out on her 6 miler I though i had a little bit of time, Paul said "Hey you should have a banana", I though that was a good idea as I had about a 1/2 hour left before my run, as soon as I finished the banana, Jared came over and informed me that he got a text and Rena was going to be finishing in 10 minutes. OOPS.

LEG 2 (6.1 mi + a little extra to make it a personal 10k)
Prior to our second set of runs, Van 1 informed us that they were upset that we were running to fast and not allowing them enough rest. (Each set of runs our Van took an hour of the estimated finish time). At exchange 18 Sean told us to run slow and turned to me and said "Don't to anything stupid like try and set a 10k PR". Well that got the wheels turning and when it came time for my run just past midnight I had a lot of energy (I don't know why as I hadn't slept all day) and I decided it let fly. I took off with a lot of adrenaline, about a half mile in I settled down and just tried to keep a solid pace, I tried not to look at my watch and focused on kills (Ragnar term for passing other teams). As I neared the last exchange I picked up the pace considerably, which made things quite interesting as they had my make a U turn, then I missed Chelise's arm with the slap bracelet, and kept on running, I turned around got the slap bracelet transferred, turned around the other way ran to get out of the way and at that moment the sprinklers at the exchange site turned on. (all of this happened in less than a minute). Final time for the personal ragnar 10k, 46:30!!!. I think its time to start running races with no sleep in the middle of the night, or at least look for races that have cooler race day temperatures.

LEG 3 (4.4 Miles)
I was determined to get prove to myself (and to my team) that the pace in Leg 2 was no fluke. I decided to push the pace for the first 3.1 miles and then use the last mile to cool down and get ready to sit in the van. (There is not a lot of time at Ragnar to cool down as you are constantly driving to get runners to the next exchange point). It didn't start out all the great as we were rushed to get to the exchange point after Ben conquered Ragnar Hill (2700 elevation gain up Guardsman pass) and Rena took off at a very fast pace. My fuel belt wasn't tight, my shoes were still tied really loose, and I still had my phone in my pocket, after I ran back to the van and got everything situated, I restarted the leg and ran the first 3 miles at a good 7:40 clip. It was the middle of the afternoon and the road was very hot, my feet were on fire it felt like i was walking on the beach on hot day. I cooled down into the exchange and was glad to be done with all my runs.

Overall I had a blast and enjoyed making new friends, and pushing my body to the limits. We had a lot of fun supporting each other and having a good time (especially as we got more and more sleep deprived). Total stats for the weekend... 1 PR, 2 times "killed", 3 hours of sleep, 5 new friends, 13 miles, 48 "kills", 2 really sore legs, and 1 heck of a time.