Ragnar Del Sol!!!

Last weekend I ran my 3rd Ragnar race. If you are unfamiliar with Ragnar, it is a 12 person relay race that is about 200 miles long. The one I ran this weekend was Ragnar Del Sol. It started in Wickenburg, AZ and ended in Mesa, AZ which ended up being 203 miles total. All 12 runners will run, and then you start back over and run again. Everyone runs 3 times each and every time you run is a different mileage. Nobody runs the same amount of miles. From start to finish it took us about 37 hours. So needless to say, we ran alot and didn't get much sleep. It is exhausting but a lot of fun!

So the team is split up into 2 different vans of 6 people each. The first 6 will run and then the next 6 will run while the first 6 eat and rest. I was in van 2 with a friend of mine from high school and 4 other girls that she knew. Van 1 started running about 5am. My van started running around 11am. This is us on our way to our van's start line where we will meet up with Van 1.

So I was runner #9. My first run was 13.5 miles! I started running at 2pm, the hottest part of the day, not to mention it was a gradual incline the WHOLE way. By mile 9 my calves were cramping up because of all the uphill running. It was the hardest 13 miles I have ever run, but I got through it! Here I am at the end handing off the "baton" to Jamie. At least I kind of had a smile on my face!

This picture was taken the next morning, but they gave a special medal to all the runners that had to run the 13.5 miler. The medal said "The Longest Run Ever" on it. Ragnar has never had a leg this long in any of their races. Let's hope they never do that again =)

This was dinner at Zupas a few hours after my 13.5 miler. It was delicious!

The next leg I ran, started at about 3am. Here I am marking off my 2nd leg. Only 1 more to go!

 

After all 6 of us in my van were finished with our 2nd run, we decided to freshen up a bit. It felt SO nice to brush our teeth. This is Blair and me. We were out in North Scottsdale at this point.

This is our whole team (except for the one girl that was out continuing our run)

 We had been making fun of the "hands on the hips" pictures, so we decided to all do one together. This is definitely Not a natural pose for me!

 This was at our last major exchange. There was a high school gym they let us hang out in while we waited for our other van to get there.

This is the Grand Finally! Runner 12, Brittany, is finishing up the race strong! We all joined her to run across the finish line!

It is finished. It was long and tiring but I'm sure I will definitely do another one! Kent said he will run the next one with me. We both ran a Ragnar race in California last April. I loved running with these girls but it is definitely much more fun with Kent there!

Grand Canyon/ Valentine's Day

For Valentine's Day, Kent booked a trip for us to take a train to the Grand Canyon. It was such a nice trip and we were able to spend it with Kent's parents too. We left Gilbert Friday night and got a hotel in Williams near Flagstaff. Saturday morning we boarded a train that took us on a 2 hr long ride to the Grand Canyon. We stayed there for about 4 hours and then boarded the train again to head back to Williams. From there we headed home. It was a really fun and relaxing trip!

We had to arrive at the train station about an hour before the train was scheduled to leave so we could get our tickets. So part of the whole experience included an old western show. It was pretty entertaining. The picture below shows one of the old men getting shot because him and his buddies were stealing horses.

This was us getting ready to board the train.

We happened to be in the very last car, which was really nice because they had a little deck that you could go out on. The weather was beautiful and it was so nice just standing out there and looking at the scenery rather than being stuck in the train. Unfortunately the sun was in a bad spot so we couldn't get a super clear picture.

During the train ride they had a couple entertainers. This guy came around playing his violin and the lady sitting behind us just jumped up and started dancing along to the music. I am pretty sure she had a couple drinks in her, but it was pretty funny. She had a good time!

This was the first lookout at the Grand Canyon. We had both been here before but I was too young to really have a good understanding of how incredible it really is. It was Amazing!

This is us with Kent's parents.

We decided to take a bus a couple miles up the road so we could see different views of the Grand Canyon as we walked the trail back to the train. The bus was packed!!! For a minute I felt like we were back in Peru on one of their buses. Don't move a muscle or you will knock someone over!

We got off the bus and walked about 2 1/2 miles down this trail that went right along the side of the canyon. There were views like this the whole way. It truly was spectacular. We could have just sat there for hours staring at it. It was Beautiful and I can't wait to go back and be able to spend more time there.

Super Bowl/ Birthday Party

Sunday was our good friend's daughter's 1st birthday.  They decided to have a birthday/Super Bowl party to celebrate. Chloe is the cutest little thing ever! We love her to death and it was so cute watching her play with her cake. It took her awhile to get into it. When she finally picked it up, she was very concerned that her fingers were messy. I'm pretty sure we had more fun than she did!

 Here she is trying to wipe off the frosting that got on her finger =)

Grandparents are so great! They probably took a million pictures, literally!

Kent had no idea I took this picture, but it shows how much he loves playing with kids. Unfortunately I didn't get Chloe in the picture but he was chasing her around the couch.