Ragnar Fun!

Well, considering that this happened almost two monthsago, I guess it is now high time for me to write a post about it!

I like running, I think it is a great time for me to just go run and relax and use my body that God has given me. I thoroughly enjoy running outside, but usually am not motivated to go by myself very often unless I have some stress I need to run out. Joseph was working on getting a team together to run in the Las Vegas Ragnar Relay this year. I decided that I would join the team, David was running in it as well, and we needed more people, so I invited my friend Micquellyn to come along and enjoy the fun that Ragnar is. It was David's, Micquellyn's, and my first time running in one, so we had no idea what to expect. So hence begins the chronicles of the Ragnar relay, since I enjoyed this one so much, I plan on running one again in the future, if not more than one.

The relay happened to be the exact same

weekend as midterms for me, and I had three tests that weekend to finish, as well as three lab reports to turn in and on top of all that I got sick that week with one of th

e worst colds I'd had in a long time. So I had the lovely time of getting everything done before thursday that weekend so I could leave to run on friday and saturday while I was sick. I asked my hometeachers to give me a blessing though, and that greatly alleviated the stress that I was feeling at the time. It was great fun let me tell you. I did fine on my chinese culture and biochem tests, but sad to say I did not fare as well on my quantitative chemical analysis class. I studied for it with the intention to take it on wednesday so I could leave early thursday for it, but I came to the sad r

ealization that it would not be possible for me to do that, so I woke up thursday morning and took it as soon as the testing center opened, hoping it would only take me two hours, sadly it took me 2 hours and 45 minutes and I got a 67% on it, the lowest test score I've had pretty much ever.

After the test I came home and hurried and grabbed my stuff, and then took off to go pick up Micquellyn. She was ready and waiting patiently for me. After shutting my jeep off to pick her up, I went back outside to go, but my jeep wouldn't start. Luckily I know how to hotwire it and within minutes we were on our way to Shelley to pick up David and switch to mom's car to head out. We picked up David, but could not find his gps so we left without it and without a map as well. No worries though, it was all in the sense of adventure. We hadn't had lunch yet though, so we went to the classy establishment of Mr. Pizza's to get a delicious lunch special and head out on our way to Vegas.

The trip through Utah was nice, I drove most all of the way. We stopped in the wonderful town of Beaver, Utah for some overpriced gasoline and then continued on the way. We then continued to drive and be entertained in the car, trying to take pictures of how far it was to Vegas to document our trip. We stopped for dinner in St. George and I ate at in n' out for my first time. It was alright, I wouldn't say its my favorite burger place. The next strip of highway was then unfamiliar territory to me, although it was really gorgeous driving through the virgin river gorge in the corner of Arizona at night.

We continued to drive, just knowing that we were supposed to meet up with Joseph somewhere by Lake Meade and the Valley of Fire state park, so I texted google for directions on my phone, which it kindly gave. We then continued to make the drive through the dark in unknown parts of Nevada. I mistakenly thought that the valley of fire state park would take us to the beginning of the race, and to Las Vegas Bay, which is where Joseph said he was camping. After driving through the entire Valley of Fire State park, I realized that it was clearly not the way to where we wanted to go, and we had to back track. David spent most of this time asleep in the back, while Micquellyn and I were trying to find where we needed to go. We finally found the road that we needed to drive on, but sadly were in an area without any cell phone coverage so we had to drive and drive to get to where we needed to be. The road was brand new though, it looked construction on it had just been finished, and there were reflectors in the middle of it so it was lit up the entire time by the headlights of the car, so we were following the golden light to get to where we needed to go. I forgot to mention that during this time we hadn't seen another vehicle for at least two hours it seemed. We finally found some cell phone coverage and were able to call Joseph and find out where we needed to go to meet up with him so we could get some sleep that night.

The next day started the adventure of running the relay. We were in the second van, so we didn't have to start running until about 4 pm. Which put my leg at about 7 pm so I had the

pleasure of running my first leg in the dark. I ran about 8:30 minute miles which I was pretty pleased with. The end of my first leg was funny, because a guy tried to pass me at what he thought was the very end, and pushed really hard to beat me, but it turned out that it was not the end so he spent all of his energy and I was able to cruise on past him to the finish line, but the first van went to the wrong checkpoint, so we had to wait for them to show up to pass off the slap bracelet. That was pretty funny to say the least.

After that it was about 8 pm and we were pretty hungry, we went to Fazolis and got some pasta and then we went to the next major exchange point so we could get some sleep. It was rather warm sleeping in the van, and I definitely did not get enough sleep, but it was fun. We then started having our van run their second legs in the Ragnar relay. Joseph was first and I was out supporting him while he was running. David was next and ran super fast. Micquellyn did really well on her leg, which was straight and flat and on a closed road, which was nice. My leg was rather challenging for me, as I started running it at about 4 am in the pitch black and it was on a rough and bumpy four wheeler trail in the dark and it was 6.2 miles or so on the dark path, luckily I did not stumble or fall but it wore me out, and my last mile and a half on the pavement killed me.

After I finished my part we got in the van and literally drove through the middle of nowhere Nevada to get to the next major exchange point where we could get some more sleep in the van. Then it was time to run our last legs. I was so ready to be finished, but I was the last runner out of our twelve person team and I got to run the last 4.5 miles of our 195 mile adventure. I was so tired running it, but a nice guy caught up to me and talked with me and we paced each other to the finish line. He was a really great guy and I was glad for his support during that last run, or I would have started walking it.

It was so nice to be done running when I got to the finish line, I had run almost 19 miles throughout the relay, all without showering, and in a two day period. I was so grateful for a good burger from the food court area at the casino/hotel we stayed at, and for a hot shower in the hotel room. I promptly crashed for the night, and then woke up early the next morning to head back home. We stopped in Mesquite Nevada for church, limping our sore bodies into the church building to change and go to sacrament meeting. It was that wards primary program that day, which was thoroughly entertaining to watch. I love little kids and all the funny things that they say. They sang "follow the prophet" as one of their songs, and I just realized that if an investigator were to have been there watching, he totally would have thought we were brainwashing the kids! That was one of my favorite songs when I was little though. After attending the primary program we then hit the road. We stopped at Micquellyn's house in Mountain Green, Utah for dinner then Micquellyn drove us back to my house in Shelley. Then after getting some pie and apple cider we headed back to Rexburg.

It was quite the adventure running the Ragnar Relay, totally worth the medal and the experience of running. I would definitely do it again, and may be hitting up the family members to run it with me next time, so get ready to go run!