Run. Walk. Crawl.

Around the middle of May sometime, I realized I had forgotten to wish my dad a happy birthday on his birthday, May 6th. The funniest thing was, I actually called my mom on May 6th to talk to her. It just so happens my dad answered the phone when I called that day, probably because he thought I was calling to wish him a happy birthday. Well, when he answered, we talked a bit and then I asked to talk with mom. UGH! Can you say DUMMY?!?

So about a week later I was driving home from work. I was just singing along to the radio and all the sudden it came to me--I had forgotten to wish my dad a happy birthday on HIS birthday even though I had indeed talked to him that very day. UGH! Boy was I frustrated. It was like a light popped on and BOOM! my brain put it all together without me even thinking about it.

Immediately, I called my dad to apologize for not wishing him a happy birthday on his special day. Of course my dad laughed at my hotheadedness and we chatted for a while. He told me of a run he was preparing for that was to be held around the middle of June, when Dan and I would be in the area. Initially, I was a little bummed that I hadn't signed up for the run and all the spots were already filled up. But then my dad told me how he wasn't sure if he was going to be able to run all three of his legs since he was just starting to get over pneumonia, which had cost him A LOT of precious training time. Without hesitation, I volunteered to run for him if need be. After all, Dan and I had been running a few miles every night to get back in shape after neglecting our bodies during the past few months.

Dan and I picked up a few more miles each night so I could be prepared to run--possibly 9 miles for my dad. Little did I know that my uncle Dean, who was to run in the race, had not yet found anyone to work for him at his Pharmacy...

...5 days before the race, I called my mom. We chatted for our usual hour visit and right before hanging up she mentioned that Dean could not find a Pharmacist to work for him at his Pharmacy. Panic swam through my body. I knew before she even started her next sentence that I was going to have to run Dean's legs.

So that is how I got to run this year's Wasatch Back Ragnar.

---Our Van consisted of (L to R) Liz (dad's sister), Moana (dad's brother, David's wife), Kayla (Liz's daughter), Katrina (Moana's daughter), Dad, me, David (our driver/dad's brother)---

Ragnar was to start on Friday (in Logan, UT) and dad couldn't get off work (in Ft. Carson, CO) until Thursday around 2pm. That meant driving the night before our race--not a good pre-race warm up...ooooops. On our way through Colorado, we ran into major traffic in Denver which cost us precious drive time (about 2 hours). Dan and dad traded off driving while I played with the XM radio (so cool by the way). We didn't arrive at my aunt Stephanie's house until 2:30am Mountain time--3:30 Omaha time......with a race the next day--ooooops, again!

If there is one place I've learned not to sleep the night before a race, it's the floor. AND that's exactly where we slept...a living room floor. --Now I know why we always slept in hotel suits the night before a race rather than the universities' gym floor while running for ISU.--Morning came awfully early at 7:30am when dad's phone blazed to life. Shortly after that we headed to Einstein's Bagels. YUM! Perfect pre-race breakfast if you ask me!

Next we did some much needed snack shopping for all the goods: fruit snacks, cliff bars, PB&J, energy gel & LOTS of water!!! Finally, we were headed for our start line.

Our team had actually already started running earlier that morning. You see the race goes kinda like this:

-Every team is made up of 12 people, split into 2 vans. (we were van 2)
-Every person who runs, has to run 3 legs of the race.
-Everyone averages about 15 miles between their 3 legs which culminates into 192 miles.
-Van 1 starts. Van 2 goes next. Van 1 goes again. Van 2 gets another turn. Van 1 runs their last time. Van 2 finishes up the race.
---Easy as pie, right?!

Stephanie (Dad's sister) passed off to Moana, Friday around noon and we were off...
Here's Dad and my cousin, Kayla. Kayla and Katrina (my other cousin who ran) recently graduated from HS. Kayla's going to ISU for pharmacy, just like her dad and Katrina's going to BYU Hawaii, just like her mom. Katrina's going to run cross country for BYU-H and work towards a degree in dental hygiene.
Our van runners went in a sequence that started with Moana. Then Liz ran, who passed off to me. After I was done running, dad would run and pass off to Kayla. Katrina would then finish off.
Here I am at the first hand off between Liz and I. Liz is in the pink coming in strong.
Instead of carrying around a baton, we wore a snap bracelet. You know, the kind that were popular years ago when I was a kid. lol
Our hand offs were pretty awesome!
My first leg was a very flat 3.2 miles (5k) through a residential area. Time of day: 3pm
I thought the elevation difference between Omaha and Utah (~5,000 feet/1mile) was going to kill me. BUT instead I loved the nice dry heat with a light breeze as opposed to the humidity of Omaha. I felt great!!! Dan said he thought it took me around 18 minutes to complete. I passed (aka "killed" in runner lingo) 14 people and no one killed me!
Here's dad after his first leg. He was the oldest on our team by a land slide at 47. GO DAD! After coming off pneumonia, he started training a little hard and hurt his left calf muscle/Achilles tendon just days before the race. His first leg was 4 miles. He did awesome!
After everyone in our van ran their first leg, and Katrina handed off to Jesse, we went to our next hand off point and TRIED to sleep. People kept driving, walking, talking, and playing music all around us that I couldn't fall asleep. I think I drifted off for maybe 2 minutes before someone honked their horn and I was bolt awake. UGH!
The girls braided each others hair, and Katrina massaged our calves. She said I was the only one without knots in my calves...yay..I was surprised after being cramped in the suburban for hours after running my 5k with very minimal stretching. The down side to the Ragnar being such a popular race (1,300 teams), is the traffic. There is no time to stretch after a hand off because there is barely enough time to get to the next exchange due to all the other vans trying to get there too. Once Kayla was running up a HUGE mountain (to snow basin) and we didn't have Katrina to the exchange before Kayla beat us there. Katrina had to get out of the suburban and run up part of the mountain to make the hand off. It was sad.

Dad broughts cots for us to sleep on. A-mazing!! We only brought 1 sleeping bag though so we had to share. I got the insert and dad got the outer cover. We were warm due to the military-ness of the material...lol

My second run started at midnight. I had to run 9.3 miles up a gradual incline around Ucon lake. It was an unaccompanied run which meant I was running without anyone to cheer me on or give me water if needed. I also had to wear a reflector vest, a head lamp, and a red blinking light on my back. I ran on the road for about 3 miles and then on a really rocky trail around the lake for pretty much the rest of the run. I felt great despite my lack of sleep and stretching. My game plan was to kill as many people as I could by focusing on their red blinking light and picking them off one-by-one.

A mile into the run, I think I'd killed 4 people, and I got killed hard and fast by what appeared to be a white hippie guy with long hair on a very tall, anorexic looking body--No doubt a BYU male runner.

About mile 3 I slightly strained my ankle on a big rock turning onto the trail around the lake. Thank heavens I have strong ankles! I think about the first half mile of the trail should have been cleaned up a bit for runners. It was THAT rocky, especially in the dark.

At about mile 5 I thought I saw an animal running ahead of me. I wasn't sure what it was. Sure enough it was a skunk. Yup. A skunk! I about peed my pants as I passed it. At that very moment I remembered smelling skunk not too far back about the time when I passed a guy walking. Poor guy must have been sprayed! lol. I'm just glad it wasn't me!

While approaching the "1 Mile to go" sign, I passed a blonde haired guy about my age. The turd picked up his pace and passed me back. All I could think of was: How far I'd ran, How much elevation change I just made, and How much I SO badly wanted to kick this kids trash! So I tucked in right behind him and since I run lightly on my feet, he had no idea I was on his tail. Once we turned a corner and I saw a HUGE hill, I knew the top would be the finish. Half way up the hill I kicked it in. The kid about peed his pants seeing me pass him without him being aware until just then. With everyone watching at the finish, he kicked it into 4th gear and passed me. I passed him right back. And with 10 feet left, he killed me to the finish the moment I saw my dad wasn't there at the hand off.

Tears welled up in my eyes . I stopped dead in my tracks and shouted for him, but he wasn't there. Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to leave the exchange zone to go look for him. SO I waited for what seemed like 10 minutes as all the people I'd killed during my run now passed me standing there. What an experience.

Finally, I saw him and David round the bathrooms. Oh, I was so frustrated. I'd given all I had in that run. Come to find out, they banked on me running about 10 minute miles, so that would be 90 minutes, right? But they thought they'd be at the hand off a tad early in case I ran it faster. So an hour and fifteen minutes after I started they showed up. But I had already finished. It took me (estimate) an hour and 10 minutes to finish! YAY! Just under 8 minute miles! Total kills: 19 (2 guys killed me): BYU hippie & turd at the end

After my second leg, we immediately went to the next hand off and were prepared for the unexpected! Dad ran great. He ran with another policeman and chatted with him about politics/military/police stuff. I'm glad he had a good time! He even had to run through a creek and so his feet got all wet. I was a little worried he would get sick, but thankfully he didn't. Unfortunately though after his run his right Achilles tendon swelled up HUGE. So he obviously wouldn't be able to run his last leg. We all knew he wanted to finish, but if he did, he might snap his Achilles--bad, bad idea. He's such a great example of perseverance.

The picture above is on Ragnar hill (MOUNTAIN in my opinion!) It's the mountain up the back of Park city. I ran a 5K up the base of the mountain (with only 2 hours of sleep). The elevation change was 1400 feet (310 feet higher than Omaha's elevation..lol!

I think I ran the first mile and a half without stopping to walk.

I lost count of my kills once I mentally broke and walked. I only got killed twice that I remember.

I wasn't prepared to have to stop and walk. I NEVER walk. I have never walked since...
...well I don't remember.

If I'm hurting, I'll slow down to a VERY, VERY slow jog, but mentally IF I stop and walk, in my mind that's giving up. The way I see it, I can't let myself walk, not even once. I fear if I do, I'll become sensitive to the pain. Walking is an easy out. I just can't. I just don't.

I also had never ran up a mountain without virtually any breaks. I run Omaha's hills. Pretty tough grades actually. But I know even though it's going to hurt, in a few short minutes I'll get a break. Not with Ragnar though. After fooling myself that I'd get a break after the next switch back and after passing tons of people walking and drinking water, I broke. Once I started walking, I didn't know when to start running again. I'd never stopped to walk before. It was something I wasn't prepared for.

Dan said I walked 3 times during my leg. Once I reached the "1 mile to go" sign, I was back in the game. I picked it up and raced a girl to the finish.

After the hand off, my dad hugged me. I cried.

Thankfully a few other teams complemented me on how well I ran the mountain, which definitely helped me piece my mind back together.

Liz finished Ragnar mountain. Her part was 4 miles. I was surprised to see her break mentally and walk a few times too. It's just so strange to see die hard runners break.

Only one guy ran the mountain without stopping to walk. I wonder if he practiced on that mountain. ????
Here is our support crew! Celina and Dan helped check in teams at Logan. They were awesome! They slept in the car in the freezing cold and were such awesome volunteers!

Katrina finished us off! We ran in together as a 12 man team. It was awesome! We finished just under 30 hours.
All the kroPUSHeks who ran (dad came up with our team name for our next run "PUSH" from our last name!)
Our entire team! Maybe next time we'll have a whole team of kroPUSHeks!
Dad and I at the finish! We got free food! Ice cream, pizza, fruit, and drinks!!! YUM! I had such a great time with my dad. After all, it was him to perked my interest in running. He was the one who would tickle my feet Saturday mornings until I'd get out of bed and go running with him. He taught me where to hold my arms and how to relax my hands. He's taught me so much about running! I love you dad!

Now that we've ran Utah's Ragnar, everyone wants to run Nevada's Ragnar in Las Vegas this October. "From Saints to Sinners"--Dad might fly me out if my nursing schedule allows! Oh please, oh please!