Wasatch Back Relay

This past weekend I ran the Wasatch Back Relay with a team from Nu Skin. The Wasatch Back Relay is a 181 mile relay race that starts in Logan and finishes in Park City. The race starts Friday morning and finishes Saturday afternoon. Teams of 12 participate, running all day and through the night. We had 8 runners from Nu Skin and 4 non-employees participate. Our team, The Diff Dems (short for The Difference Demonstrated, Nu Skin's tagline), ended up finishing 347th out of 545 teams and 28th out of 50 coed corporate teams with a final finishing time of 29 hours 21 minutes and 34 seconds.

I think the highlight of the race for me was actually getting some sleep -- a whole 3 hours worth. At one of the checkpoints (a junior high school in Heber), they had wrestling mats set up on the gym floor for runners to sleep on. I lied down and conked right out. Three hours later, I was up and at em and back to running again.

I had what everyone claimed to be the hardest section of the race -- the Ragnar hill. It's a 4-mile leg with an 8% grade on the way from Midway to Park City. The elevation gain is around 1,700 ft. I was a little worried that I wouldn't be able to run the whole way and would have to walk. About a mile into the run, I joined up with another runner and we talked while we ran the rest of the way. I think that saved my bacon because I was able to keep my mind on the conversation rather than the pain. The Ragnar hill turned out to be not so bad. It was much easier than what I was expecting.

Overall, I had a great time. It was a lot of fun getting to know my teammates and running with them for over 29 hours straight. I will definitely do it again next year.