And the rest......

And thus it was.....here is the rest!

The journey of a small town van making it in the big world of Ragnar and the Wasatch Back Relay!!!!

Our journey actually began on Thursday night. We left town about 8:30 ish and picked up the team on the way. We ended up at my sister Britney's for bed. Thank you by the way! It really helped considering we only got about 3-4 hours of sleep, it would have been much less.

Our team was not the fastest and we got the wonderful time of starting at 5:00AM!!!! We had to be there at 4:00 for the safety meeting, which meant that we had to leave at 3:15....oh my, oh my!

Here is our journey in pictures, the only way I know how to do it:

I love how you can sense the excitement here in Nicole. Very impressive for not being fully awake. This would not be the same look any of us would have given you at the end of the race. It would have been a smile because we are done!

Why not get a team picture to get us going.

Here starting on the left is Phil: Phil is the bro-in-law to Suzie. I know Phil because his wife worked with my mom.

Then Em: Emily is the cousin to Phil and Suzie, and pretty hilarious I might add. Kind of tell you how it is, in a way you can handle it!

Then Amy: Mua, Your's truly.....even at 5:00!

Then Nicole: You may also know Nicole as that wonderful friend and more recently a running buddy.

Then Mrs. Brie: Brie and Susie met last year when they were on the same Ragnar team in Vegas....so funny. She was the veteran pro and helped us to know what was around the next corner.

Lastly we have Suzie: I like to call her the master mind of this little operation. Suzie is a great friend who has worked with my mom for years. Kind of like a sister....ahhh!

More on all of us later. The other van was comprised of people from Suzies ward.

Well wouldn't you know it we ran into our friend Kelly from High School. It's a small world after all, it's a small world after all! I can hear it now. I was surprised how many people I ran into including my good friend Holly's cousin Em! Good Luck Kelly!

Good Luck Brie, kickin' it off for team Ragnarley! Here is Suzie's excited morning face. Let's get it started!

Oops, camera shake....kind of cool effect though. Trippy!!!

Here we have the first attempted potty break by Emily. Who knew going number one could be so dangerous.....

Ouch, don't look now but I don't think you should be sitting down anytime soon!

Some of the beautiful scenery we got to experience...

One of the funnest things about this race is how into it everyone can get. This team had a pirate theme, yup. Ran in tis getup the whole time. And she even waved to me, everyone is united in one goal....RUN, DRIVE, SLEEP?, REPEAT!

After our first leg of the race we kicked it up on the lawn of Snowbasin, where the first Exchange was. Brie and Nicole know how to have a good time! It was pretty hot up there, but at least there was a nice breeze.

All right, let's get this second leg started.....woooo!

Here was another enthused member of another team. I do believe that is a jock strap he is wearing. I'm just glad that I didn't get a shot of the front. You can see that others were amused too....kind of weird a guy is taking the picture? Maybe that's just me!

This is Phil's alter ego, Billy Bob. In case you were wanting to know who he is wearing

Shirt: women's medium Ragnar shirt......$100.00 entrance fee

Glasses: broken and taped.....$10.00

Phanny Pack: Walmart!.....$10.00

Missing Teeth....priceless!

Ahh me and Nicole! I'm starting to think my 5$ glasses were not the best purchase. Do you think I can pull them off??? Maybe not!

This is for all you Jersey Shore fans, some fist pumping!!!! Never seen it but Brie had a pretty good rendition of what I've heard of! Go leg 2!!!! Good job Stacy.

Um yeah, this kid was 10 years old!!!!! Putting us all to shame. It was cute I was behind his sister on my leg. She was maybe 16-17 but her van pulled up next to her and was so cute and encouraging. Hope Katy likes to run....although I don't know if we'll do this until she's a bit older than this. Impressive still.

You know this guy is on his wife's team. Hey maybe it's his team....nothing but love people! You know that Steve would not be caught dead in this shirt. "No self respecting man would be caught dead in that shirt," Ha...what do you do. Great movie by the way...more on that later.

On the other hand, maybe I wish I was a vampire too so I could be home right now!

This girl has got some running skills! Good form Em!

My second leg my legs were like jello!!! Let's back up to my first leg. Where to start? Well my first leg was pretty darn straight up hill on a trail. There were certain legs of the race that they decided were "non support" legs. Which basically means that your team can't stop to give you water because they thought it was too dangerous. They didn't want to take any chances. So we were told that my leg was a non support leg. Turns out it was supported, which means that my team took off and left me in the dust!!!! Ahhh. So here I am running 7.5 miles up hill on a dirt road almost rolling my ankle every minute! I think my favorite part though was the dust kicking up from all the tires of the cars driving by...getting into my eyes with my contacts! To make a long story short I was ready to pass out by the end because I was chocking on my own flem! Okay too much info.........

You know that I had to give my team a hard time, right! We all had a good laugh about it after I got some water in my system. So I look like I'm running on empty because of my first leg was a doozy!

Lovely artistic shot here. Ha, not really! Can you see how dirty this old abandoned house is on the inside!

This was not the best decorated "van" but I like the message.

Nicole was our unofficial water girl. She was always there when you needed her. This was Phil's LEG! This was his doozy! Good job!!!! I think it Phil was our van captain. I've always know that Phil is a nice guy, but he really is one of the nicest guys you'll ever come across....and he is totally genuine. We were excited that this was the last leg before the next exchange and sleep.

So we were done. We were tired. And we slept in the High School gym. I am so sad I didn't get a picture of that! Imagine about 300 people on the mats (don't get me started on all the thoughts going through my mind about getting ring worm or something!), and about 50% of those probably had sleep apnea and with the allergies in full swing it was a steady hum of shoring! I actually said "Are you kidding me" out loud...on accident...when I was awaken by the guy across the gym. He sounded like he was chocking! Another great night of 3 hours of sleep!

We actually thought the exchange was outside....actually I knew it wasn't but I was so out of it by that time it didn't cross my mind to say anything. So we were about 30 minutes late. So sorry!!!!!!

Suzie you made it!!!! You are done with all your legs!!!! Her is a smile of accomplishment and happiness that it's all over.

Nicole and I are not as happy. She is gearing up for her third run and the handoff to me! But we are happy that we're almost there! Again with the glasses!

And so our journey ended with Phil barreling through the exchange with full speed force!!!!! Wow we are really great! Honestly I had a blast. People kept asking me why I would do something like this to myself? For this...THE END!!!!! I think these glasses will be banned to my car driving only!!!! Ha

Our van decided to be kind of lame and hit the road when we were done. We were all so tired from having to start so early. I wanted to hang out with Steve before he had to work and celebrate fathers day...and we all decided that with Phil's wife about to pop with their 4th he needed to get some sleep just incase she came early!!!!! Oh and we were all running on about 6-7 hours of sleep in the last 48 hours! So here is our final picture!

THE END!