Wasatch Back: Ford Famdamily

Ragnar Wasatch Back has been a dream of mine for a few years now. I always thought it would be fun to put a team together that consisted of just my first cousins and spouses from my mom's side of the family. Well we finally were able to make it happen!! My cousin, Kim, took on the team captain role and did a great job putting our team together. Our team consisted of mostly my cousins, but last minute we had to add a few friends into the mix. Here we all are at the finish line. Top row from the left: myself, Spencer, Damon, Brian, a friend, and Tom. Bottom Row: Emily, Sami, Kim, Jenny, and another friend. We had a great team and ran a difficult, but fun race! I love my family, they are all so amazing!

Spencer and I were lucky enough to leave our kids with my mom for the long weekend so we could fly to Utah for the race. So fun to run another Ragnar with this guy!

Here's our van members. We were van #2, so it was nice to not have to start to early in the morning. Spencer was the only guy in our van, but he didn't seem to mind too much.

We had such a fun van. I had a blast with everyone! 

This picture needs a little bit of explanation. If you look closely you can see Kim on the far left of the photo in the grey tank top. Look at how exhausted she looks? She just ran 4 miles all up-hill. This is one of the hardest portions of the entire race. It's 8 miles up a steep hill. It's split between two runners. Emily ran the second 4 miles of the hill. We were all laughing at how happy Emily was starting this leg of the race and how miserable Kim looked when she finished. It didn't help that it was really warm outside too. We were all worried about how Emily would do. This was her last leg of the race too, so she was already wiped out from her two previous legs.

Here's Sami, Kim, and I on the side of the road waiting for Emily to run by so we could give her some water and cheer her on. To all of our surprise, Emily was still smiling when she passed us and was actually still running. Every other person who passed us was walking. Emily is such a stud!!!

Hey Sam, sorry I blocked your face with my arm!!

This is my friend Lisa and I at the start of my last leg. Lisa has been my running buddy, but she recently moved to Utah so I've really been missing her. She was so sweet to meet up with me to run my last leg with me. This was a really tough Ragnar for me. I struggled with the elevation and the course was very challenging with lots of hills. My last leg was no exception. It was 10 miles long with lots of ups and downs. Luckily Lisa was there to encourage me and keep me going. I really struggled to get through it. I felt awful pretty much the entire time, but on the bright side it was very beautiful!

Here I am coming into the finish line after my last leg. I was so happy to cross that finish line and hand off to Sami!!

And here I am right after I crossed the finish line. I was seriously dead! I think I laid like this for 30 minutes. I wasn't feeling so hot. 

After I rested a little bit I started to feel like myself again. Such a fun experience!! I can cross Wasatch off of my bucket list and I don't think I need to do it again. It was a beautiful race and I loved our team and being with my husband and the finish line party was the best one I've ever experienced at any race, but overall I feel like the race has a lot of flaws and is extremely difficult. I am happy to say that I've done it and got to do it with my awesome family, but will probably try a different Ragnar the next time I want to race out of state.