.: Wasatch Back 2010!!

So, this weekend was the Wasatch Back 2010, which is a 12 person relay race that goes from Logan to Park City. This is my second year with this race, and it was awesome. Our start time was about 1pm, and we finished in about 32 hours. Our team was made up of some of my really good friends Van 2: Bryan McCracken, Kyle Hansen, Ben Franz, Brad Hansen and Zach Hatch and myself, and Van 1 was mostly Bryans family, but all of them were awesome. Behold Team Witness the Fitness (WTF for short)

My first leg started about 10pm, and was my easiest leg by far. In the dark we had to run with reflective vests, flashers and head lamps. Our first legs in our van took us from Liberty City Park up to Snow Basin.

Our Second Legs started at the top of East Canyon, took us around a few reservoirs (Echo and Rockport) and were our longest runs. Mine was about 8 miles, Bryan had about a 10 mile run around Echo. We handed off to Van 1 and tried to get some R and R before the last legs. At the final exchange they had free Chiropractic alignments, and deep tissue massages, which is exactly what I needed. I have been nursing a sore hammy for the last couple months. I will give our first Van a lot of credit, they had some rough run times, where they were running in the heat of the day and pushed through it all.

Our last legs picked up at Rocky Mountain Elementary in Heber City, and took us through Guardsmans Pass, to the finish line in Park City.

Bryan on the first leg of "Ragnar" which climbs over 1400 feet in elevation in 3.5 miles, and yes thats a dirt road. We were running a lot of runs with a team from Ebay - "Ebay it Forward", which was really motivating to have someone else to run with. This is Bryan with an Ebayer Paul.

These are from my leg of Ragnar, leg 34. Yes, I know I look very skinny, I lost a total of 8 lbs training for this race, and I was skinny to begin with. It's hard to describe Ragnar, but the closest thing I can imagine would be to go running on a beach, turn that beach onto a 45 degree angle, oh and to account for the lack of oxygen at that level, go ahead and have someone stand on your chest. All in all I did it in about 50 minutes, which I am proud of.

We finished abut 9pm on Saturday and everyone was in good spirits. Its definitely a challenge, but I will be back for more next year. I have another Ragnar Relay next month that goes along the coast of Washington State. No Mountains to climb there, I don't think.

Other pictures from the run: