A year ago Scott and I decided to put together a team of family and friends to run in the Ragnar Relay Wasatch Back, and man are we glad we did. Ragnar Relay is 192 mile relay race from Logan to Park City. Each team consists of 12 people divided into 2 vans. One runner is constantly running and then passes off the baton (a slap braclet) to the the next runner. The race spans over 2 days with very little chance for any real sleep, just cat napping here and there. The coarse is pretty brutal basically running up and down mountain after mountain, but it was absolutely beautiful! Our team might not have been the most "trained" or "in shape" but our only goal was to have fun and look good while doing it. At least we had fun. 
Team Purple Stuff (name is an inside joke referring to a commercial the boys made back in high school) finished in 32 hours. Our team included (back to front L to R) Kevin Flanagan, Kyle Flanagan (practically part of the Hale/Camp family), Scott, Beetle, Tyson Camp, Chris, Whitney, Rachel, Cami Redd, Jennica Redd (both Camp family friends), Kacie, and Karlie Christianson (Kacie's sister) who's not in the picture because she got really sick and had to go home during the night.
Team Purple Stuff (name is an inside joke referring to a commercial the boys made back in high school) finished in 32 hours. Our team included (back to front L to R) Kevin Flanagan, Kyle Flanagan (practically part of the Hale/Camp family), Scott, Beetle, Tyson Camp, Chris, Whitney, Rachel, Cami Redd, Jennica Redd (both Camp family friends), Kacie, and Karlie Christianson (Kacie's sister) who's not in the picture because she got really sick and had to go home during the night. 
Van #1, the better of the two vans.Why is there no picture of me running the first 7 miles of the race? Oh, because my van decided to run to Walmart and pick up a few things rather than supporting me with water and cheering me on during the run. I then reached the first exchange and had to wait 10 minutes for them to arrive. Oops! Did I mention none of us had done this before and it took us a while to figure out the best way to do things? Once I had a drink, there were no hard feelings. My 3 legs combined for a total of 20 miles, and I loved every second of them.
Scott did awesome in his first ever race and ran a total of 18.1 miles. I'm pretty sure he had the fastest pace on the team and never slowed down at all. 
Whitney, the birthday girl, was an absolute rock star running 7.5 miles up Avon Pass on a rocky, dirt road with constant dust clouds from all the support vehicles. Not to mention the altitude change she had coming from Arizona. This was, in my opinion, the hardest leg of the entire race, and Whitney made it look easy.
Chris ran a literal total of ZERO miles to train for this race. Not only that, but he chose to run one of longest legs that totaled 18.2 miles and included running up a mountain by Jordanelle Reservoir. Call him crazy, but he did it without a hitch. 
Kacie not only completed her 3 legs, but also picked up Karlie's 2 remaining legs after she got sick, running a total of 5 seperate legs and a total of 21.3 miles. Amazing! 
This might be the only picture we got of Tyson, Kyle, and Beetle smiling. It was before their first leg. After this pretty much all we heard from van #2 was "This is AWEFUL!", "Who's idea was this?", and "We are NOT having fun". Oh and plenty of inappropriate Congressman Weiner jokes. Despite the bad attitudes, we know they had fun. Thanks guys!
Brandon joined our team just a month before the race when someone else had to drop out. With almost no training he ran one of the most difficult legs that totalled 18.8 miles. Not only that, but he did it all in a singlet. He even had enough left in him to throw in some kartwheels throughout the race.
Tyson wasn't about to let nipple chaffing slow him down.
So would I do it again? ABSOLUTELY. This race was like a dream weekend for me. It included everything that I love most. Running, my family and friends, and a great race environment. How cool is it that all 3 of us Hale kids and our spouses were able to do this together? This was the first race I've done with Scott and it was so fun to share this experience with him. I am so proud of him! I think the hardest part for most people is the fatigue from no sleep. We were able to get 3 1/2 hours of sleep on some cheer mats in a high school gym, which was actually better than I had hoped for. For everyone else 3 1/2 hours of sleep was hardly any, but that's more than full night's sleep for me after I work so I was completely rested and ready to go. So, until next time....
