This past weekend was the Ragnar Wasatch Back Relay. This is a 12-person, 178 mile relay from Logan to Park City. I was invited to be on a team by Geoff's cousin, Laura. The team was mostly made up by some form of family, but also had a few friends, too.
I started training again a few months ago for racing. I hadn't done any races in a year and was ready to get back into it. My training wasn't as consistent as it should have been because of all the stuff we had going on, but I figured I could just force my way through it. Boy was I wrong!! The lack of training, moving, and being sick made this race a lot harder then I thought it would be.
Our teams start time was 11:00 am. We got to the start line about 30 minutes early, and had enough time to check in and watch some other teams start. Finally, it was our teams turn. Geoff's cousin Spencer ran our first leg - and he did awesome. I was runner #5 which meant I ran legs 5, 17, and 29. Watching everyone else go before me, seeing how easy it looked for them, and knowing I had a very hard 7.4 uphill run coming, I couldn't help but be very nervous.
After a few hours of waiting, it came to my turn. Laura handed the baton off to me, and I took off. The Ragnar Relay classified my run as a Very Hard leg - but failed to mention that it was uphill on a DIRT trail. The first 2 miles went pretty good. Then, the 95 degree temperature got to me. I couldn't keep up my pace and ended up walking. This was the most frustrating part to me - I hate not being able to do something. I alternated walking and running for the rest of the leg, and what seemed like an eternity later, I finished.
We had one more runner, then handed off to the 2nd van. We waited for a few hours while van 2 ran their legs, then it was our turn again. The first 4 runners from my van ran their legs and did great. It was then my turn for my second leg. This leg was rated as a Moderate leg and was 5.9 miles long. I started running around midnight and was determined to not have the same problems as earlier in the day. During the race, the van you're in drives ahead and waits for your to give you water, then drives a little farther and waits. During my 2nd leg, I told them to go 2 miles. Everything was going good, so I was planning on telling them to just keep going. Well, there was a mix up and I didn't see them until about 3/4 of a mile until the end of my leg. It wasn't that big of a deal, except I didn't want to finish and have them not be there. But everything worked out ok.
After our last runner, we handed off to Van 2 again and headed to the middle school up there to sleep. We rolled our sleeping bags out and slept on the grass for 2 1/2 hours. It felt so good to sleep, but made it very hard to get up. We then headed off to start our final legs. Despite injuries and illnesses we were all able to run our legs - which was good because I don't think any of us could have run anyone elses leg! My third one was rated as Very Hard -even though it was mostly a steep downhill. I think I was more nervous for this leg then any others. Every race that I have run that has a steep downhill has been a challenge for me - I seem to always get really bad side aches that don't go away. This run was nothing different. About 10 steps into my run I got sharp pain on both sides of my ribs. I ran as long as I could like this, but ended up walking about a mile of the 4.1 mile run.
We made our last exchange with van 2 and headed to Park City to wait at the finish line. A few hours later our team finished. We ran the 178 miles in 31:39:18 . The race was so much fun!! I am so glad I was able to do it. It was one of the hardest things I have ever done, and maybe I'm a little crazy, but I would LOVE to do it again...in fact, I'm already putting together my team for next year!!!
Monday, June 23, 2008
Thursday, June 12, 2008
He finally got one...
Those of you who know Geoff, know that he is a BIG video game fan. We have the PS2, and for the last, well, forever, I haven't heard anything but how much he wanted the 80GB PS3. Granted, it is very cool how real it all works, but when they're around $600-700, it's not going to happen.
Well, Geoff was talking to a friend last week and found out that on June 12th, the Metal Gear Solid 4 game was being released, and Sony was going to be doing a bundle that included an 80GB Playstation, the game (regularly $60), and a controller (another $50) all for $499.00. When Geoff called me to tell me about this, I could tell how excited he was. So, we agreed that he could get one.
Later we found out that Walmart would be carrying these bundles, and also had an ad out for a $100 gift card with any Blu-Ray player - and they also had a 40 GB Playstation pictured. So, we were hoping that we could talk them into the gift card with this bundle. Then, to top things off, I found out that Chase was giving a $100 credit when you bought a Playstation with the Sony Chase Visa.
At 12:30 am on Monday, we went to Walmart because we had heard that some were selling the bundles early. We got to the Electronics department and saw the guy stocking some of the shelves. In the pile of things to be put away were two brown boxes that had big stickers that said "do not display or sell before 6/12/08." But the guy had them out so we were hoping we would luck out and he would put them away and we could buy one. After waiting for 1 1/2 hours, he took the boxes back to the back. We went home - disappointed.
Needless to say this whole week was filled with visits and phone calls to the Walmart Electronics department - only to be told that no one knew anything about Metal Gear Solid or any bundle.
So, last night, at 10:30 pm, we made our way to Walmart one last time to wait for the 12:00 release. We were the only ones in the department, and debated on if we wanted to wait or not, since we were the only ones who had asked the whole week about it, but decided to just wait it out. At 11:35 we asked if it was possible to just buy one now, but was told "you have to wait until midnight." Twenty-six minutes later we marched up to the counter, ad in hand to argue for the gift card, and asked if we could please buy our Playstation. FINALLY, they let us buy ours - and the gift card actually rang up too so we didn't have to argue. (Thank goodness since both Geoff and I hate to do stuff like that.)
Five minutes later, we walked out with our 80GB Playstation 3, game, and controller - all for $299.00!!! That's a KILLER deal!!! And the chance to see how excited Geoff was was worth all the hassle and waiting of this week.
Well, Geoff was talking to a friend last week and found out that on June 12th, the Metal Gear Solid 4 game was being released, and Sony was going to be doing a bundle that included an 80GB Playstation, the game (regularly $60), and a controller (another $50) all for $499.00. When Geoff called me to tell me about this, I could tell how excited he was. So, we agreed that he could get one.
Later we found out that Walmart would be carrying these bundles, and also had an ad out for a $100 gift card with any Blu-Ray player - and they also had a 40 GB Playstation pictured. So, we were hoping that we could talk them into the gift card with this bundle. Then, to top things off, I found out that Chase was giving a $100 credit when you bought a Playstation with the Sony Chase Visa.
At 12:30 am on Monday, we went to Walmart because we had heard that some were selling the bundles early. We got to the Electronics department and saw the guy stocking some of the shelves. In the pile of things to be put away were two brown boxes that had big stickers that said "do not display or sell before 6/12/08." But the guy had them out so we were hoping we would luck out and he would put them away and we could buy one. After waiting for 1 1/2 hours, he took the boxes back to the back. We went home - disappointed.
Needless to say this whole week was filled with visits and phone calls to the Walmart Electronics department - only to be told that no one knew anything about Metal Gear Solid or any bundle.
So, last night, at 10:30 pm, we made our way to Walmart one last time to wait for the 12:00 release. We were the only ones in the department, and debated on if we wanted to wait or not, since we were the only ones who had asked the whole week about it, but decided to just wait it out. At 11:35 we asked if it was possible to just buy one now, but was told "you have to wait until midnight." Twenty-six minutes later we marched up to the counter, ad in hand to argue for the gift card, and asked if we could please buy our Playstation. FINALLY, they let us buy ours - and the gift card actually rang up too so we didn't have to argue. (Thank goodness since both Geoff and I hate to do stuff like that.)
Five minutes later, we walked out with our 80GB Playstation 3, game, and controller - all for $299.00!!! That's a KILLER deal!!! And the chance to see how excited Geoff was was worth all the hassle and waiting of this week.
Friday, June 6, 2008
It's been a little bit since I've updated this, but i have good excuses. We've been sooooo busy lately. This whole week both Geoff and I worked the SUU team camp - as gym supervisors. It was so much fun to be around that much basketball and some of Geoff's teammates and coaches for the week. Now Geoff will be helping with a lot of Westminster's camps.
It finally hit us this past week that we are really moving. This past year in Cedar has been so much fun and has been so good for us. We've had so many experiences that we wouldn't of had, had we not moved away. It's going to be very different being back in Salt Lake without many of the friends, teammates, and coaches that have been there for the last 3 years, but I'm sure this will be good for us too.
I know many of you are wondering when we're moving....we dont know yet. We are just waiting on a few things. Most of our house is packed, the guy at Budget said he would make sure he had a truck for us, and our awesome friends are read to help us. So, we're just waiting on the last few things to fall into place and then we'll be moving up.
It finally hit us this past week that we are really moving. This past year in Cedar has been so much fun and has been so good for us. We've had so many experiences that we wouldn't of had, had we not moved away. It's going to be very different being back in Salt Lake without many of the friends, teammates, and coaches that have been there for the last 3 years, but I'm sure this will be good for us too.
I know many of you are wondering when we're moving....we dont know yet. We are just waiting on a few things. Most of our house is packed, the guy at Budget said he would make sure he had a truck for us, and our awesome friends are read to help us. So, we're just waiting on the last few things to fall into place and then we'll be moving up.
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