The Mendoza's

Our summarization of the Wasatch Back. 188 miles from Logan to Park City. 12 people on a team, each run 3 times which is anywhere from 3.5 to 9.6 miles, a little level, maybe some nice downhill or some treacherous uphill. 6 people in van 1 run legs 1-6, 6 more people in van 2 run legs 7-12. And then you eat, take a rest, and do it all over again. And then again. When your van is up, you drop off your first runner, cheer for them along their run, then go to the next exchange where they meet their next team member and slap the bracelet on their wrist as FAST as they can! Then, we repeat this 5 more times until our team gets a break. We slept 2-ish hours the whole night. BUT Sarah & Spencer seemed to have gotten a whole nights sleep! We're not gonna talk about that. On our last break, we found a comfy concrete skate park, rolled out our sleeping bags, and drifted into utter bliss. Great break. Until some stupid inconsiderate people close to us would NOT shut up about bagels and cream cheese and not crying while running and whatever else they were saying as we were trying to plug our ears and clench our teeth and hold back some pretty obscene words. Pleasant way to wake up. Now it's time to run our hardest leg!

Our team was "Bringin Sexy Back". Yes, we may have mentioned our crack, but many other vans talked about what comes out of it.
Mark making sure Sarah had some surprises on her camera.
Coming in on my first exchange. I got to hand off to Mark. That was cool! I ran a 3.4 stretch at 8:24 pace.
Handing off
Time! Time!!
Off he goes! Mark ran 3.5 miles at 5:40 pace. WOW!!!
Here's Mark defying gravity. Naturally built runner!
Mark's hot. Literally.
Lex organized the team and ran 2 legs. He ran 6 times instead of 3. He's a die-hard.
Lex ate some weeds while Sarah walked on his back.
Snapping a pic at Pineview.


My midnight run. It was 7 miles mostly downhill, I ran a 7:18 pace.
This is Nikki's mom's restaurant in Coalville that we had an exchange at in the middle of the night.
Bad pic, but we needed proof that we passed Wanship. Then we passed our friend Greg on the freeway on the way home!
These dogs ran with the runners for at least 1 consecutive legs. I think it was their first experience with Ragnar.

Mark in his night running attire. He found out about an hour before that his leg was 9.6 miles uphill, not 6.2 miles level. He's incredible though and ran a 6:46 pace!
Chillin in the van before my last leg.

Me & Sarah at our last exchange. It was 6.1 miles climbing 373', I sucked it up and ran a pitiful 9:29 pace.
Pretty sure I was saying "this SUCKS!"
Nice lady I shared my water with and then killed: road kill is how many people you pass.
Sarah giving me water.

I ran my butt off and my team wasn't there at the exchange!!! Mark came, had to pull off a pair of extra shorts, realized he had no number, so we unpinned mine and pinned it on him, then he FREAKING POSED FOR A PICTURE!!!! I was screaming "NO TIME! NO TIME!"
Mark's hardest leg, up the first half of Ragnar - 3.6 miles climbing 1482'! It was insane! He ran a 9:50 pace, but come on, he never walked!

Hand off to Spencer who gets to finish Ragnar! Good luck!
We're not sure, but we think he's a member of the "Tighty Whities" team.
Spencer conquering Ragnar while checking his nails.
Giving our buddy Mitch water on his acension back down Ragnar.
Water boy
Over the Heber Valley. Hey, we were just down there 10 minutes ago!
Team Photo