Ragnar Wasatch Back 2012

Ragnar is done!

This was a great experience to have with my family.

IN KILTS!

Clan McRagnar!

I was SO happy to see my beautiful wife improve SO much since last year!

Tired but doing GREAT after our first legs

WOW she looks amazing!

I totaled 21.43 miles this Ragnar, and felt a LOT stronger than all the previous Ragnar Relays.

The only issue I had was a blister on the steep downhill of my final run that held me back just a tiny bit at the end. Nothing to really complain about (or blame!)

My first run was a tough 7.38 mile run up a canyon road that had been closed due to water damage. Sections of the road had basically collapsed and sunk or buckled. Very dangerous for a motorcycle or car to drive along that at night. 2 years ago I did the first half of this road, and I gotta say - by the time I got to where I finished then - I felt AMAZING. So much better than that time. Beautiful run.

In fact, here is a silly little bumpy video of me just after that halfway point - or where I finished 2 years before! Pardon my attempt at a Scottish accent!

My next run was a beautiful 6.8 mile morning run. The sun was shining, the temperature was great, and I was able to try out my new Altra Adam shoes I got for Father's day! I had NO problems with the shoes on that run (you can see them in the picture below) but I ran with them again today and may post a bit more on some problems I found. ANYWAY it was a beautiful run, but I was getting a bit tired by the end!

Proper Kilt-wearing Running Form!

Finally my last leg was a crazy 7.2 mile run up and over a little pass and then DOWN into Park City.
I like Ragnar's Elevation chart on that leg explanation! ZOOM! We went pretty dang fast, but because of that I developed a large blister just below my right big toe - felt like I was trying to run on a tiny and painful water balloon!

I need to improve my end-of-run power...

We finished with a time of 37 hours 19 minutes. Considering half of our team was completely new to running, that's not too bad! I'm a little frustrated by the lack of TRYING by some people, but over all the majority did fantastic. Even my 60 year old father!

A few of our newbies did phenomenally, especially my 12 year old niece and my sister's husband.

I kept my yoga-poses-at-exchanges to a minimum - only doing Mayurasana at the finish

Hey you wouldn't want people looking up your dress right? Same with kilts!

Fantastic experience! However we aren't sure we will try to do it again in the same configuration. I've already had multiple people ask me if I wanted to run this years Vegas Ragnar, which is actually more appealing to me at the moment than next year's Wasatch Back. We'll see what happens!

Next up - CAHOOTS! I'm looking forward to seeing how this turns out, and having a REALLY hot partner to run it with!

 

Official After Picture from the Dirty Dash

So I bought a picture from Flo-Foto, the official race photographers for the Dirty Dash. 

Here it is!

We also decided to enter the Dirty Dash's Facebook Contest to win a free entry to the Fall Race AND a Dirty Dash Hoodie. The top 3 pictures with the most likes would get the entry and the hoodie!

Here are the entries:

My Entry

The Wife's entry

She ended up getting 3rd place, SO close to 2nd, and I got 4th, about ten votes behind 2nd place, which was a great picture of a person lying almost covered in mud. I think it was the stinky warm mud out in the lake too. Very impressive. SO impressive, in fact, that the Dirty Dash people gave them a reward anyway and gave 3rd place to me! So we both got the win. Woot! I'm very excited.

We also decided that we needed to do ANOTHER run up at the same location and very similar for our 11th Anniversary (okay, so more like NEAR our anniversary not really FOR it...)

Cahoots!

The cool thing about this one is that the obstacles are made so you HAVE to have a partner to finish. Or in their words:

The Cahoots Duo Challenge is a race series where you and a friend combine wits, strength, strategy and stamina to negotiate a barrage of nearly two dozen unique obstacles and challenges.

Sounds like a blast to me!

So now the schedule is:
Ragnar next week!!
Cahoots in August
Dirty Dash (again yay!) in September
Tough Mudder in October. <- that one is taking too long to get here!

Looks to be a fantastic summer!

Dirty Dash 2012!

Fantastic Fun this year!

This year I had the grand opportunity to run with my wife! We had SO much fun we might even try to put together a team for the Fall Dirty Dash!

None of the obstacles were particularly challenging - not necessarily easy - but not really hard either. Probably the biggest difficulty was in navigating the hordes of people! Some of the lines at obstacles were pretty ridiculous. Still TONS of fun!
Here are LOADS of pictures:

Before the Race with the Altramaniacs!

Team Mud Pirates ready to get dirty!

Um... I think I'll take the Easy route...

Okay fine I took the 'hard' (it wasn't very hard)

Just step over this here...

"Whatcha gonna do, brother?"

Halfway! Beautiful Day!

Astavakrasana on a haybale! That's hard while muddy!

Astavakrasana by the lovely Kakes!

Hooray!

Guy in Red Shirt is really impressed I tell ya.

Monkey Bars are fun

I'm actually pretending to do devil stairs...

Hit the deck!

What a beautiful partner-in-battle!

Ready...

Takeoff

CANNONBALL!!

Successful landing!

Wallowing in the mud

One of my favorite pictures

So much fun, so many people.

My awesome brother - our personal photographer for part of the race

All Done! Just before the shower.

Such a fun race - I wonder what kind of shots the licensed photogs got of us. In some ways I doubt it will matter because we got some amazing pics! Such a fun race.

Makes me even more excited for the Tough Mudder in October.

Less than 2 weeks until Ragnar. I'm going to miss the beard... but I think it WILL be time to shave it.