Backtracking: Ragnar

The last week has been a total whirlwind. We ran the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay 2 weekends ago. If you're not familiar, it's a 192-mile relay race with 12 runners. Each team has two vans with six runners each and each runner has 3 different legs to run over the course of the race. Mine was 3.2 miles, 10 miles and 3.2 again. Justin's was like.. 4, 7 and 5 or something to that effect. Total time depends how fast your team is, but for us it took 31 hours (we placed just above the halfway mark, I think 395th out of 820 finishing teams or something like that).

I've contemplated doing this race for years and after doing one I must say that I totally underestimated it. For some reason doing those 3 different legs just made it seem pretty easy to me. But when you're running 10 miles at 2 a.m. and then get maybe 2 hours of sleep if you're lucky, and then you have to run again the next morning, oh MAN, it's exhausting. It was really cool though, I'm glad I did it.

Here's Justin on his first leg. We knew he had to run uphill but we WAY underestimated it. Even though you can't tell by the picture, it was insane! Three miles doesn't sound very long until it's straight up. It was pretty hot, too, but Justin did great.

The night running was pretty cool. They make you wear reflective vests, headlamps and taillights since we run on roads. Here's Justin enjoying a delicious gu all decked out in his night gear.

Justin and our friend Rob waiting for Sheena at the night exchange.

Can't see much, but here's Justin passing off to his friend Christian at the night exchange.

Okay, so it's daytime again. I don't know where the pictures are of me running, but here is the hill I ran up. Wait, did I say hill? I meant mountain. I started at the bottom of this. Yikes. It was BRUTAL. And after I had already run 10 miles in the middle of the night. Crazy.

Here's Sheena taking the second part of the mountain, infamously known as "Ragnar Hill." She was flying up it like it was flat, crazy.

Justin took over after Sheena. He got to run down the mountain. Sounds easy, but when it's that steep downhill it's actually pretty hard. He had to go 7 miles down a mountain.

Here he is finishing his last leg. We were all out of our minds, deliriously tired.
 Justin passed off to Christian here, our last runner, and then we got bussed to the finish so we could all run across the finish line together.

And here's our team! Woo hoo, we did it!

We like outside

 Yes that is mud. And yes he tried to eat it.

 Yes that is a double rainbow and no I couldn't figure out how to get the camera to capture the rainbow AND my kids' faces. So I told Makenzie to make a cool shadow pose and this is what she came up with.

 And this one just because. Jarom was saying, "ROCK AND ROLL!" and apparently he was pretty passionate about it.

It has been so fun to be outside lately. It's finally warm enough for shorts and even though I think we had to wait longer for warm weather than the rest of the country, it's been really nice to have temps in the 70s for the last little while. Hooray for sunny days, evening rainstorms and even muddy kids!

Iosepa

I know I've posted about Iosepa before, and I'm pretty sure most of you know what it is, but just in case:

Iosepa is a place in the western desert of Utah where the Hawaiian LDS pioneers were sent to set up a town. Those poor people. It is ROUGH out there. All that remains now is the cemetery, but they have built a huge pavilion with a stage, a kitchen, bathrooms and there was even a small playground this year. 

Every Memorial Day weekend, the Polynesian community (and some of us white folk, too) spend the weekend there to care for the cemetery, camp, eat lots of good food, dance, play music, etc. 

We used to camp out there, but after many years of terrible weather, we've decided to wuss out and just go on Saturday for the luau. 

And it's a good thing, too, because it was freezing and raining the entire time.

We were cold, our feet and hands were numb, we were piled under blankets and rain was blowing on us even under the pavilion, but we still had a great time. That's when you know you're in good company.

 (Wasn't too cold when we first got there...)

Hiking the hill. Pretty much the main source of entertainment for the kids.

 Isn't he darling?

Pretty sure that's snot, poor Jarom. I couldn't keep his nose under control!

My cute girl.

 Reed making poi and goofing off.

With Tasha & Ka'aulani.

Justin and Kenz hanging with the Touhuni's.

Okay, here's the good stuff. They're digging up the umu.

Unwrapping the burlap.

And there's dinner! 

(It's pork wrapped in tin foil with some green stuff (I think it's watercress) on top. Jarom said it smelled stinky, and I kind of know where he was coming from with the burlap and watercress (kind of musky smelling), but I knew how good it would taste so it smelled like deliciousness to me!

Kenz getting a good view of the umu action.

 This is when things started to get rough. It started pouring rain while everyone was in line for food and it was freezing. Jarom was a total mess- runny nose, dirty from dinner and playing in the dirt and it just became a lost cause to try to keep the kids clean. So here we are in all our glory. Kenz said the next day, "that felt like camping." Yup.

My poor freezing baby!

 Makenzie found a flower that probably fell off someone else's lei. She was pretty excited.

 Reed and Kimo playing some Rebel Zion goodness. Ka'aulani made a most adorable backup singer.

You can see all the rain blowing in on my right arm. I was able to block Kyle's face from it with the blanket so he could sleep, and I was honestly grateful he slept on me because it kept me somewhat warm. It was soo cold! We were told it snowed that night for the people who were camping. Wow, what a way to usher in summer!

Justin doing some audience participation for the group that danced.

Uncle Devin keeping Jarom warm. I can't stop laughing at Jarom in this picture. I love you buddy, but you look so wasted! Hot chocolate mustache this time... I promise my son is clean sometimes... just not at Iosepa.

We got to see some amazing fire knife dancing . First time I've ever wanted them to bring the fire closer.

And here's our friend James, otherwise known as Misi, singing his heart out for the dance.

So yes, it was miserable weather, but we had a lot of fun. It was great to get out with family and friends and enjoy good food, good music and dancing.