The Deaners: June 2011

We were able to have both sets of grandparents come over for a Bar-B-Que. It was a fun, relaxed evening. Thanks for coming Bob and Mary, and Wayne and Dorleen.

We even got Caitlyn to come!

My nephew Derek was in town, so we got him too!

Of course, Dex wants to be doing whatever Dean is doing.

So these two are the same picture, just with some fun editing on the Black and White one.

Dex loves running around in the back yard chasing the birds. Don't know if you can see it, but there is a bird on the fence that has caught Dex's interest.

As you can see, we got Mike and Amanda and Dex too! (Braden had other plans) Amanda was a little late showing up because on her way out here, she was stopped at a red light and the car behind her hit into her. Bummer! She was a little sore that evening, but felt better the next morning.

I'm going to attempt to explain Ragnar, Wasatch Back.

It starts the year before, at the finish line....that's when you can sign up for the next year's race. It costs $1000 per team. There are 12 members on a team, divided into 2 vans. This year, Dan and his family were "Van 1", and the Deaners were "Van 2".

Before the race even starts, you must decorate your vans. So we headed up to Bountiful, where Riley had come up with an idea for our decorations.

team name: B-tween a Rock and a Ragnar

After the vans are decorated, you MUST stock them with the best munchies! Among other things, we had to have Einstein Bagels! Done.

Time to head up to Liberty, and check in. Our team had to provide 3 volunteers, so Janna, Cristian, and Riley filled that assignment.

So here's how it works: Van 1 started running this morning and were just finishing up their first leg of this race.

They had this wrist band, that they pass off to each runner at the exchange....the "baton".

Here is Caitlyn waiting for Ryan to finish his run, and pass the baton to her, and our van will start doing our runs. We ran into Michelle Todd at this exchange.

And we are off! 12:33p.m. Ryan handing off to Caitlyn. Caitlyn will run 4 miles through the towns of Liberty and Eden.

We are responsible for getting our runners water and any other support they may need. The rules are you have to wave this orange flag any time you are crossing the road to support your runner.

Caitlyn hands off to me, I get to run 3.4 miles through Ogden valley.

Lovely photo....I may have overheated just a little bit on that run.

Next up is Braden. He will be running an easy 3.2 mile run, continuing through the Ogden valley. We are glad this one is an easy run for him, because neither Mike or Amanda have shown up at this point, so that means one of us will have to run their turns, and both Mike and Amanda have hard runs coming up.

Braden passes off to Dean. We were hoping Amanda would have been here by now, so she could run the easy run, and we would have Dean run the hard one.....but still no Amanda, so Dean takes off on a easy 3.9 mile run.

Cailtyn was awesome at aiding our runners. (notice she is in flip-flops running along side Dean)

Grandpa Jenson had given Amanda a ride from SLC to the place we were to exchange runners, so he dropped her off at the exchange. We were in bumper to bumper traffic, so we had Braden get out of our car and run Amanda her bib number up to her. Dean passed off to her before our car even go to the exhange. She was in for a very hard run, 986 ft. gain in just 3.2 miles.

This was the first time we got to see Amanda, no time to talk, just honk and wave at her. This leg is a "no support" leg, which means we aren't able to stop to give any support to our runners. (busy road, to dangerous to have cars stopping) So she was on her own.

This was a killer run! Amanda did awesome. Still haven't seen Mike yet, he didn't get off work unitl 2:30 pm, and had about an hour and a half drive to meet us. No problem, we'll just make Braden run Mike's very hard run.

So Amanda handed off to Braden. Braden ran about 2 miles of the 4.7 very hard run of Mike's. In 4.7 miles, they gained 995 ft of elevation....ouch!

This also was a "no support" leg, so Braden was on his own.

Then things got tricky. Mike was getting close, but there was terrible traffic, and this was a no support leg, so we weren't supposed to stop. Amanda got out of our car, and jumped into Mike's car, so as soon as they caught up with Braden, Mike could jump out, and Braden could jump in Mike's car, and hopefully it wouldn't cause too much of a traffic problem. Apparently it worked, because here comes Mike!

So Mike finished his leg that ran up to the Snow Basin ski resort. There we were to hand off to Van 1, and they start legs 13-18.

Mike gets to the exchange, and Van 1 is stuck in traffic! We waited about 20 minutes before Dan could get there. But we made the exchange, and Dan was on his way.

That's Mike in the Navy blue shirt, and Dan is in the yellow shorts.

Yay for Van 1!!!

This is the first time all of our van was together. It was kind of tricky with both Mike and Amanda having to work, but here we are, and we all got to run at least part of our 1st leg of Ragnar. Now we get a 4 hour break while van 1 is running their turn.

We drive down to Ogden, grab a bite to eat, drop Mike's car off in Sugarhouse, and start heading up to East Canyon. That's where we are to meet up with Van 1 for the next exchange. Half way up the canyon, there is a gate saying the canyon is closed! We had to drive back down, and drive around through Hennifer and up the other side of East Canyon....gave us a little bit of a panic, but we made it there with time to spare.

So here we are at East Canyon. It's starting to get cold, and we only brought blankets, not sleeping bags, so that meant we all had to snuggle. Well, we were all a little tired, and maybe a little silly, ok, a lot silly. We knew this was the time we were supposed to be sleeping, but it was cold, noisy, and still light out. Sleep was not going to happen here.

This is Mike, trying to act like he is sleeping.

Mike put this pillow case over his head. Not sure why, but at the time, it was extremely funny.

So after no sleep at all, it was time to get up and start running again. Caitlyn would start us off at 10:33 pm, running 3.8 miles with an elevation gain of 626 ft.

Great run Caitlyn!

She handed off to me, I ran 7.0 miles into the town of Henefer. This is the second time I've got to run this run. It is by far my favorite! I finished up at 12:03 am, and hand off to Braden. (In the picture below, I'm the one in the blanket, and Braden is just running out of the picture)

Braden took off to run 9.3 miles, and this was a "non support" leg. After he left our site, we got a text from the race organizers saying this had changed to a 10 mile run, finishing uphill. There was no way to get word to Braden....boy was he in for a surprise.

Braden finished strong, and annoyed, and handed off to Dean. It was 1:30 am when Dean started his 7.6 mile run along the Weber River. Both Dean's and Braden's night runs were on the rail trail. We meet up with Dean in Wanship, and he hands off to Amanda who will run 5.5 miles, again, a "no-support" leg, up to and around Rockport Lake. By now, it's 3:41 a.m., and Mike gets to start his run.

Mike has a 6.9 mile run from Rockport into the town of Oakley. He finished and we were on our way up to the MacDonald cabin around 5 a.m.

We slept for about an hour and a half. Janna made us a yummy breakfast, and we were on our way again!

Caitlyn started us off again at 9:15 a.m., running a 4.2 mile run.

I'm thinking she is pretty happy at this point, because as soon as she is finished with this run, she is DONE!

While Caitlyn was running, I was preparing for my final run. These Honey Buckets were an important part of this race. 7 of the 12 members of our team got the stomach flu just before we started this race. We made good use of the Honey Buckets!!

Awesome job Caitlyn!

The final exchange for Caitlyn. Oh the joy she must be feeling!

I finish up with a 5.9 mile run.

I tried to dance as gracefully as Caitlyn did for her photo shoot, but didn't look nearly as graceful as hers did!

Oh, what a great feeling to hand off on my final exchange!

Good luck Braden, I'm DONE!

Braden gets the pleasure of doing his final run straight up hill! They named this run "You gotta be kidding me"! This has a "very hard" rating. The description is "severe uphill climb through Wasatch Mountain State Park (gravel road)." 1484 ft climb in 3.2 miles.

This was a "support" leg, so Mike decided he would really support Braden.

He made it!

One happy Braden. Oh the feeling of handing off for that last time, especially since he had to finish on such a tough run. Way to go Braden!

Dean's turn. His is the only other leg that is given a name besides the one Braden just finished. They call Dean's "RAGNAR". 1711 ft climb in elevation over 4.0 miles. On the map for this run is the definition of Ragnar:

Ragnar (n.) In mythology and legend, a man often of divine ancestry, who is endowed with great courage and strength, celebrated for his bold exploits and favored by the gods.

This is what the road looked like during Dean's run, it was sometimes a little hard to get water to him. He said people were willing to throw snowballs at him to help cool him off. Ya gotta love Guardsman's Pass.

Here is Dean's final exchange.

Now Amanda gets to run up to the summit, and then she runs a killer downhill to Deer Valley Resort. Her run is 7.3 miles, with a total elevation loss of 2091 feet! Ouch! And it's an non-support leg, so she is on her own.

You go girl!

Dean is feeling what Caitlyn, Braden and I have been feeling, we are done! Welcome to the club Dean! Now lets go support Amanda....wait, we can't, but we can take pictures!