Ragnar Relay

In August when my sister in law Kenna was here she told us about a relay race she was doing October 22nd and 23rd. She and eleven other girls were running 195 miles around Vegas in a Ragnar relay race. There was going to be 36 legs of the relay and she would run 3 of them. One of her legs were going to be at night and she is terrified of running in the dark. So she asked Dan if he would be her night pacer. Which is someone who runs with you at night basically so you wouldn't be alone. He was of course thrilled. As October approached Dan and I decided that we would make the trip a kind of second honeymoon for ourselves and go to Vegas with out the kids. We haven't had a vacation without the kids since our honeymoon. So I was totally excited and was planning some really fun things for us to do. Kenna's night run was going to be around 1am and was 5.5 miles long. So Dan didn't really train to run it because he knew he would be able to run 5 miles without any problems. We decided to leave for Vegas early Thursday morning and then come home Sunday. We were both totally looking forward to getting away and spending time with Kenna. Well on Monday before the race the team found out that one of the girls has gotten a concussion and was not going to be able to run. So they looked for a replacement. By Wednesday morning they still were not able to find anyone so they asked Dan if he would be willing to step in if they couldn't find anyone by that afternoon. They couldn't find anyone so of course he said ok. So my second honeymoon weekend getaway was turning out to be me being alone while Dan was off with 11 girls running a relay race. I was ok with it because I knew that Dan would feel so great after running and being able to accomplish it. Well the girl that dropped out was in Van 1 and Kenna was in Van 2 so I asked if anyone in Van 2 would move to Van 1 so Dan could be with Kenna. Well Kenna's friend Kellie volunteered, the only problem was that she had the toughest legs of the whole race. So Dan stepped in on Wednesday to run two days before the race and he was going to have to run just under 22 miles basically uphill the whole way. I attached the course maps, the first is the whole 195 miles, the next three are Dan's legs and on the 3rd he was going to have to run 6.3 miles uphill and then 3.8 downhill. He was really nervous about saying Ok once he saw his legs.So we left Thursday got to Vegas about 1:30 picked up Kenna from the airport and then just kind of hung out all night. Kenna had told me that she thought they would be done running on Saturday about 2 and asked if I would be at the finish line to take photos for the team. Also since they were in van 2 they wouldn't be starting their running till about noon on Friday so we could hang out all morning. I was thinking that I could handle 24 hours alone. Well then Kellie said they probably wouldn't be done running till 6 on Saturday and I thought wow I am going to be by myself for a long time. Then Kenna asked me if I wanted to be the driver for van 2. That way I could be apart of everything they were doing and not be alone. In a moment of insanity I said yes. Just kidding I had a great time driving them around and being apart of it. I definitely would not do it again since a week and a half later I still don't feel completely recovered since I only slept about an hour but it was the memories I will never forget. Also the team's name was TuTu P.H.A.T. so their uniforms were these lime green tutu's that they wanted Dan to wear. It was hilarious. This next picture was when Dan saw the Tutu's for the first time and tried it on, he was totally embarrassed but was a great sport about it. The tutu's ended up being a great idea because we could recognize our team from far distances and everyone commented and knew our team the whole weekend.Lake mead was the 1st checkpoint of the race where van 1 ended their 1st legs and van 2 began. It was amazing to look at.At the first checkpoint the team had to have a safety meeting to learn about the rules.Ragnar gave us this number to use to report any problems or people cheating. We thought about reporting a couple of teams but we didn't.Here is van 2 meeting up with van 1 for the first time.Dan taking off on his 1st leg. It was 1:40pm. Van 1 had started running at 6:15 am and then they were able to rest while the 6 in our van ran their 1st legs.Dan on one of the many hills of his 1st leg. He ran 6.18 miles on the 1st leg and finished in 1 hour and 6 minutes. He looked great running and felt really great afterward.These signs were on every leg to let the runners know they only had 1 mile left to run. Unfortunately we found that they weren't really accurate and usually meant the runner had a mile and a half to go.This picture was taken at the second checkpoint were van 1 took over to run their 2nd legs. Van 2 finished running their 1st legs at about 6:30 and we were able to rest until about 9:30 when we had to load up in the van and drive to checkpoint 3 to meet van 1. Unfortunately we missed understood van 1 and were at the checkpoint about 40 minutes early so we missed out of a little more rest but that I was glad we were early instead of being late.I don't have any pictures from the night runs but they were hard for everyone in van 2. Tara had it the worst because she had to run 6 miles in a river bed with huge boulders and rocks at 3:30 in the morning. Dan's night run was 5.9 miles and most of it was in a residential neighborhood. He started his night run at 10:30 and finished in 1 hour and 8 minutes. Again it was mostly uphill and everyone that I saw finish said the last mile and a half were the hardest. When Dan finished this leg he was so exhausted and I was worried he was going to faint. Luckily he didn't and about an hour after his leg he was looking and feeling so much better. As we got to our last checkpoint the sun was coming up and it was so pretty.Dan tried to get some sleep before his last leg. I think he may have slept for an hour or so and when he woke up he was so nervous. He wasn't sure he was going to be able to make the 10.1 miles. I knew once he started he was going to be fine. He finished his last leg in 2 hours and 5 minutes. He did incredible the whole race and I was so proud of him.The last couple of legs of the race took us threw Red Rock Canyon, it was so beautiful. Since I wasn't running I really got to enjoy all the scenery. In Red Rock Canyon is also burro county. We passed signed that warned us of them but I didn't really think we would see any. Well I was totally mistaken because we did. They came up to are car and totally scared Kenna and then at one of the exchanges Lauren went up and was petting them. The team crossing the finish line at 5:40 Saturday night. Team Tutu P.H.a.T. finished 195 miles in just over 35 hours. Dan and I at the finish line. I was so exhausted but so excited for them. Dan was so happy that he finally won a medal.This was all twelve team members at the finish line.