Runners are Wild

The Alpine A-Team


"Runners are wild. Joggers are runners that have been domesticated."

I love running. My most recent race really goes to show that runners are "wild" as the quote says. To think that this last weekend there were over 7,000 runners that were willing to participate in an event such as the "Wasatch Back" is mind boggling. For those of you unfamiliar with the Wasatch Back, the race goes from Logan to Park City. Each team has 12 runners to complete 188 miles. Each runner runs three times over the duration of the trek, with 1-2 hours of sleep in-between if they are lucky. Sounds like suicide, right? NO! I love it. It is such an exhilarating experience.

This year I ran with a team of colleagues. We were known as the Alpine A-Team. Joe was on my team again and we were in the same van, which was a lot of fun. He made a fun running soundtrack for each car with the A-team theme song and a bunch of other songs about running. Our Captain Barry Graff gave us each a nickname. I was dubbed as "Little Red-Running Hood" and Joe was coined "Dash".

I was runner 9 and ran just under 17 miles total. My second leg of the race began at about 3:30 AM and was 9.6 miles. Nothing like running through the country in the middle of the night with a headlamp on your head to give you a runners high. Here are a few photos...

Joe got really creative with some of his photos. I thought this one was kind of cool.


Running up the Ragnar Hill


This sign says it all. That little runner on the left hand side is me...


Joe getting a road kill on his last leg of the race


My race face just as I'm getting ready to start my first leg


Joe pretending to be running because we missed him coming through the exchange point the first time... Gotta love it!


This is what the sunrise looked like as I was running my second leg... It was breathtaking.


The entire team ran the last 100 yards into the finish line together


We were team 127... This shows our final time; 27 hours, 31 minutes and 49 seconds.


Our team ended up taking 114th over all, with 700 or so teams actually completing the race. Captain Graff has already purchased us a team again next year, so we are going to come back more prepared and even better next year!