Robert's Race (Ragnar)

Robert ran the Ragnar race here in Utah back in June I think it was. He had a great time. He did it the year before. He runs on his work team. They have a good time and he really likes doing it. It is a relay race with 12 people, and each take 3 legs of the race, in the same order. The Utah Ragnar is like 189 miles I think.

Once he finished the Utah Ragnar, he looked and saw that there was one in WA during the time we might still be there vacationing. Well, he signed up and found a team to run with. It it mostly flat, compared to the Utah one going over Guardsman pass (I think that is what it is called). He ended up signing up with an ULTRA team which is 6 runners instead of 12. They take 2 legs together at the same time instead of just one leg.

He was to run like 24 miles I think, he figured that would be okay and he could do it. They start on Friday and run all through the day and night until they reach the end on Saturday sometime. This one in Washington started in Blaine (which is right on the border of Canada) and went done to Langley, WA which is on Whidbey Island. I was somewhere around 185 miles.

I ended up getting roped into volunteering for the race, at an exchange station, where the runners pass off the baton (slap bracelet) to the next runner. It wasn't really all the bad... I ended up staying with my sister after the volunteer time and until I was to pick up Robert the next day. I don't get to spend much time with her so it was fun and really nice. (We stayed up til like 3 just hanging out and talking.) I was at first bummed because it was the last weekend of my vacation and I didn't want to have to be up north at the race, I preferred to be with family.

As the race began, the team Robert was on found out one of their runners wasn't going to make it. Now instead of running 185 miles with 6 people, they now were doing it with 5. It put Robert's miles from like 24 to 39 miles. One guy ended up running 45 miles I think too. One of the runners had a deep bone bruise (I think that is what it was) so she wasn't able to finish her last bit of running making one of the other runners help her finish.

They were scheduled to run the race with 6 people in like 28 hours, but it ended up being 30 hours. They were ahead of schedule at the beginning of the race and even passed another Ultra team. As they got more miles in, they slowed down quite a bit. Not to mention you don't sleep real good either, if at all.

My sister went with me to pick up Robert, which was good since I was afraid I was going to fall asleep on the way there while driving. I was fighting it pretty hard anytime I was driving I was so tired. We had to take a ferry over to Whidbey Island... which I got motion sick on. I didn't throw up though! I felt better about the time we had to get back on it to go back across.

Robert had a great time racing, even though they were down a man. I wouldn't have ever been so brave to go spend 30+ hours with 5 (ended up being 4) people you don't even know. Lets just face it, some people you just don't want to be around for 30 hours straight. Never the less, he had a great time, and really enjoyed his team mates. I was glad it all worked out. One of the guys was really funny. Robert was telling me stories about him. I am glad he had such a great time. I am thinking this may be something now we go to WA for each year too, or at least him.

This is toward the end of the race...

This is their van, with their names, and then they crossed off the one that didn't make it.

I guess someone was wondering why they were an ultra team with just 6 people... they said, "don't you have more friends?" They thought that was pretty funny, so they put it on the van.

Here's the free shirt they got... well lets face it, you pay for it when you pay the $100 race fee.

For the Utah one, it was Orange and just said RUNNER because they weren't an ULTRA team. The ULTRA were green and the regular ones where orange.


This is at the beginning of the race. Some teams dress up and do crazy things. There was a RENO 911 team that was pretty funny.

They have contests on the most decorated vehicles, team names, costumes, and things like that.

Robert is also going to run in the Vegas Ragnar race in Oct. I think it is around Lake Mead. He sure likes running them. He is running the Vegas one with some runners from our ward/neighborhood area here.