This last weekend, April 26th through the 27th, my cousin, Krystyn and I ran in the Zions Ragnar Trail Race.
It was a bonus weekend, not only did I get to spend time with my cousin, my Mom and my Aunt Julie (Krystyn's Mom) came down to spend the weekend with me in St. George.....well minus the time Krystyn and I were at the race.
We did get to see some of St. George together, and it was fun to just sit around and talk. I just want to say, I have been blessed with a wonderful family.
Back to the race. Did I mention this was a Ragnar Race?? My very first Ragnar Race. Did I also mention that this was a trail race? Meaning, I would be running in the backwoods on a little trail, with ruts and rocks sticking up out of the ground, loose rocks, and uneven terrain. Again, did I mention this is my first Ragnar??
For those who don't know what a Ragnar Race is, it is a relay run. It takes 2 days to run the race since you get to run 3 times throughout the 2 days. There was 8 on my team. There were 3 trails we each had to run once. We would each take turns running one of the courses, till all of us had run all 3 trails. We each ran roughly 15 miles. It is different then a Ragnar on the road, we got to camp, sit around, eat, get a massage and sit by the campfire instead of following a runner crammed into a van with other smelly people and driving all night.
Tent city!
The race was held just outside of Zions National Park at a place called Zions Ponderosa Ranch. We had to drive through the park and come out on the way to Kanab to get to this ranch.
There were thousands of people there, this is only one side of camp and my camera doesn't do justice as to how many people are actually there.
That white tent is where you would start and finish your trail race.
This is what the course looked like. The Green run was 3.9 miles, the Yellow run was 3.8 miles and the Red run was 7.2 miles.
The Yellow trail was my first run, I was the 5th runner and started my running time about 5 P.M. The first little bit wasn't too bad, but once you hit that incline, it is pretty much straight up. I was hiking not running, though some people did run up the mountain. At one point you are on top of the mountain and able to look out over the beautiful scenery. Once up and over the mountain the run down was fun, I would say the run down was my favorite part of the all the trails, though going up was brutal!
I had to run the Red trail at midnight....needless to say I walked a good amount of it. I had a head lamp but after watching 3 people trip and I myself almost tripping I decided I would be safe and walk instead of face plant it in the dirt.
The Green trail was my last leg, and it was claimed to be the easiest. I ran this leg about 8 A.M. I was out of gas by this point. I did run a good amount of it, but my knees weren't taking it anymore. I ended up walking some of it, which I wasn't too proud of doing, but I didn't want to injury myself.
Here is Krystyn coming in from her last run.
I made Krystyn stop to get our picture taken before she could even go get some water after her run, aren't I a nice cousin?
Just for fun, I saw this cool lizard hanging around our camp. There are lots of lizards down here, I think I might need to try and catch one.
I will admit I did not train well for this race. It was a good experience for me though. I like running, I have a long ways to go though to get to where I want to be as a runner.
Will I do one of this again?
For right now I am good, but who knows maybe I will change my mind about that.
