Halloween happened. Emmy was Wonder Woman, Cousin Itt, and Doug the dog
The cast of Up and their trick or treating buddies
After learning that people put candy in whatever bag you are holding,
Emmy starting carrying a bag everywhere she went
After successfully completing their first half-marathon as a
married couple Jarom and Alixa moved on to stage 2 of their fall race schedule.
Race week began on Tuesday with the arrival of their babysitters, who were kind
enough to schedule a long layover in Dallas on their way to Hawaii. All three
kids were thrilled to spend a few days under the watchful eyes of Jarom’s
parents, because that usually means lots of fun times with Grandma and Grandpa.
Sadly, Jarom and Alixa didn’t get to spend much time with them because they
took off on Wednesday morning to catch their flight to Vegas.
After a typically amazing Spirit flight they were met at
baggage claim by their favorite host, Grandpa Winn. The first stop, as it
always is whenever there is one within range, was at Café Rio for lunch. Then
it was Walgreens to get some sunglasses, because Alixa forgot hers and it was
marvelously bright and sunny all weekend long. Wednesday and Thursday were hang
out with Grandpa days, eating wonderful meals, visiting the strip, checking out
the new baby lion cubs and dolphins at the mirage, stopping at the Bellagio,
eating more wonderful meals, and generally enjoying not having nap times and
trying to feed toddlers and hearing the kids yell. In their absence the kids
were having a blast with the grandparents, and except for the time Alixa sent
Grandma to the wrong location for a birthday party things went well back in
Dallas. On Thursday evening in Nevada the Carters arrived with Jeremy. They
spent the evening chatting and playing cards, and everyone went to bed
relatively early. That would be the last decent rest for the weekend.
First stops: Cafe Rio and a movie theater with recliners
For the uninformed, Ragnar is a 12-person, 200 mile relay
race. The team is broken up into two vans of 6 runners each, and each runner
has 3 legs they must run of differing lengths and difficulties. The race began Friday
morning, but the Winns were in van 2 so they didn’t start until noonish. Alixa
and Jarom had opening runs that were about the same: 5.5 miles, almost
exclusively up steep hills. Their van was done around 5 and only a few miles
from Grandpa’s place, so they met him for dinner and then headed back to his
house for showers and a brief rest. That rest was about 2.5 hours. Then they
were off to their next run, this time through the dead of night. Alixa’s was 6
miles, mostly downhill, and Jarom’s was 5.3 and very downhill. Combined with
the cool night temperatures the second runs felt much better than the third.
After finishing around 3am they headed back to Grandpa’s place for showers and
another brief sleep. Then they were up and out for their final runs. Alixa
finished with another 5 mile run and Jarom only had to do 3, but they were both
uphill again and the repeated runs without rest was starting to get to them.
Even Dave, the groups best runner by far and the relay anchor, was struggling
by the end and even got passed by a few people. The crew finished the course in
about 29 hours, which was good enough for a distant 23rd place out
of 305.
Pre-running
Post port-a-potty and feeling great
With the strip behind her
Lix had the misfortune of following a mariokart racer
In total Lix ran 16.6 miles at an 8:15 minute pace and Jarom
did 13.7 at 8:30. Most people have confused looks when you tell them you are
running a race like this and ask you why. The main reason is the atmosphere. It
is fun to try and push yourself to see what you are capable of physically, but
hanging out with good friends that you don’t get to see very often is a ton of
fun too. The lack of sleep and exhaustion from running makes for lots of silly
and memorable experiences, and doing it all against the backdrop of Vegas with
our favorite Nevadan as a host makes it all even better. After finishing up the
group grabbed one more bite to eat and then the Utahns took off driving north.
The Winns just relaxed with Grandpa for the afternoon, catching another few
hours of rest and a last nice meal before boarding their red-eye flight home.
There was no sleeping there, and when they got back they had to retrieve the
kids from Nate and Kenz and start getting back to normal life. It was a few
days of recovering before they really felt normal, but they had a great time
and loved seeing everyone. And for now their race schedule is over. But they’ll
probably end up doing something like this again soon enough.
Finish line pics
And Bo playing piano, because I think it's funny
