the RAGNAR diaries...

ragnar(n): a raider, a conquerer, an explorer

run. drive. sleep? repeat.

24 hours of non-stop goodness.

Day 1 

11:00 am: I tell my mom that for weeks I had been dreading running this race. The thought of running instead of sleeping made me tired! Anyone in their right mind would rather sleep in on a Saturday morning than waste their time running with a bunch of loonies out in the middle of nowhere. But I was committed, so we made the long drive from Salt Lake to Eden to begin what would become an excellent and truly out-of-my-comfort-zone experience. 

3:00 pm: Time to start the race. I waited anxiously for my teammate to cross his first finish line and pass the baton onto me. I had 3.8 miles ahead of me in the HOT sun on even hotter pavement. The nerves set in. If it weren't for my cute fan club, I probably would have killed over in the first 100 steps...



3:35 pm: I think to myself, i'll be lucky if this heat doesn't kill me. A little dehydrated and still a bit out of shape, I thought at one point I was going to kill over and die. But I did my best to cross the finish line in Old Town Eden, red in the face and all. 

YES! One leg down. Only 24 hours and 2 legs to go...

4:00 pm: Who doesn't wear sunscreen in the blazing heat in the middle of the day when they're outdoors....?

                                                                                                       ...me.
5:30 pm: Uncle B starts the first hard uphill leg of the day. And thanks to his brawny man strength, we made it up over the hill to the most amazing view!! I wish my photog skills could have done it justice.

8:00 pm: Our van pulls up to Morgan High to have a nice spaghetti dinner and try to catch some shut eye while the rest of our team keeps pushing on down the road. After dinner, we curled up in our blankets on the schools lawn and started to drift off for an hour of rest. And right as my eyes closed and I began to drift off... "And here comes Diana on Miss Sally-may, the worlds fastest barrel racer this year. Watch as she turns around those barrels effortlessly and then speeds across the finish line..." Rodeo a block away = no sleep at pit stop #1. Here comes a long night.

11:30 pm: Time to start leg #2 - my hardest run of the 3. 4.0 miles uphill. Death. As I start my run up the first stretch of hill I think to myself, this isn't going to be that tough. i can't even see two feet in front of me so I won't even know I'm going up a hill. sweet. I was wrong. It doesn't matter whether or not you can see the hill you are running - you can still FEEL it!! 52 minutes later, pure exhaustion.

4:30 am: After a quick hour nap in the back of the Tahoe, I woke up as Bart started his 2nd leg. And what a treat that was. The sunrise made the whole sleepless night worth it! 
6:30 am: Our van is finished and it's up to the second half of our team to carry us through the morning hours. We parked at South Summit High School to FINALLY rest up before our last big jaunt. Inside the school's gym were about 300 people camped out on the floor in the dark and quiet. All I had with me was one blanket, the clothes on my back, and a bandana. But I made good use of each of those items as I folded my blanket up three times, soft enough to sleep on, bundled up in my sweat pants and sweatshirt, and tied the bandana around my eyes and ears. As soon as my body hit the blanket, it was curtains for me! 3 whole hours of sleep!!! And on a hardwood floor. It felt sooooo good. 

9:30 am: Time to get up, pack up, and meet the rest of our team for the last 6 legs! I was first and couldn't wait to get it over with. I started running with a nice cloud cover and a light rain - much better compared to the day before when it was 1000 degrees. 5 miles. I could do it! 2.5 miles into it... I was ready to die. I would have laid down right there by the cows and given up had it not been for my teammates driving by me and cheering me on to the finish line. I was so tired. As I rounded the corner to see the "One Mile to Go" marker, I said to myself You're here Lindsey. Commit to it! One mile. One mile. One mile. I turned up the old iPod and off I went. One mile to go. As I neared the finish line, the rain began to pour and I sprinted to my last finish line!! I had made it!!! Wooo-hoo!

2:30 pm: Team DOA sprints across the finish line together to see that we made it in a victorious 26 hours!! Way to go team. 123rd place out of over 400 teams in our division!!

...bring on RAGNAR 2010!!

this one goes out to my ladies...

as my mom has been hard at work remodeling our basement, i have been floating around from room to room trying to put in my two bits of work. today i started helping by cleaning out the storage room that really has become the junk holder. the goal: ORGANIZE and get rid of the useless crap we've accumulated. in the midst of my work, i found a box that looked like it belonged to me. and I don't just mean some lame shoebox. i mean a full-size, top-of-the-line, no bull crap storage box. inside this beast was every card i have ever received since 7th grade. (why i did this is completely beyond my OCD understanding) anyway, if you do the math, that's over 10 years of cards: birthdays, christmas, thank you's, i'm sorry's, notes that were passed in junior high... we're talking 2 hours worth of sifting through (and I was so enthralled with these notes that I completely missed class today. whoops). anyway, the point is...

I have the worlds BEST friends!! 

over the years, i have received so many sweet letters and notes from my friends from junior high, high school, college, and my very closest and dearest friends, and i just want you all to know how much I love you! you guys rock my world! unfortunately there weren't any crazy letters from my P-Town extension, but i got to go to dinner with the woman included in that crazy clan, and girls... you are 100% RAD!! i absolutely love each of you! i'll suffer through terrible waitresses and awkward conversations with y'all any day of the week. 

...thanks to all of my wonderful friends,

both near and far!

you know you love...

...the dentist!

I mean, who doesn't? I went in for my cleaning yesterday after missing my 6-month appointment six months ago, and guess who had a little baby cavity growing in her back molar? (dang diet coke with cherry and vanilla) After braving the shot that went into my left cheek, I thought I was golden. My dentist is so good and gets me so numb that I never feel any sort of nasty drilling.

HOWEVER...

He must have been in a bit of a hurry today.

I felt EVERY grind, and EVERY drill digging out that blasted cavity (goodbye diet coke with cherry and vanilla). And then after he was finished filling that sucker, my face was totally and completely numb. Bad timing I guess.

(notice the over-bulging of the left side of my cheek. no muscle control!)

But at least I had Edward to keep me company while I waited for the numbness to go away (four hours later). 

...sometimes going to the dentist is worth it

when you get to spend all morning cuddled in bed

listening to the rain.

maybe i won't give up the dc with cherry and vanilla.

home sweet... home?

moving home definitely has its benefits. but with every pro comes, well, MANY cons. let's analyze...

Pro: You don't have buy your own groceries anymore!

Con: You are subject to eat whatever your parent's decide (or don't decide) to buy. 

Pro: You get your own bathroom!

Cons: Your dad thinks it's funny to sneak up on you while you're washing your face and scare you by making your mirror move and poking his head in, then walk away cackling like an old, lonely witch.

           Your dad likes to use your bathroom when he's downstairs, leaving "missed shots" all over your once clean toilet

Pro: You're finally old enough to purchase and use your own decorations...

Con: You're dad comes into your room and analyzes every flame on every candle and scolds you like a child by saying "just make sure you don't burn our house down"

Pro: You get the basement to yourself!

Cons: Your dad's office is still in the basement, and on those days he decides to work from home, you get to listen to his redundant, overbearing conversations with potential clients all morning 

           Your parents are so bored upstairs that they frequent the basement more than 10 times a day, hoping to make conversation about any boring topic while you're trying to study, read, or my favorite... be alone!

...aww! it's so nice to be home.

remodel. move. repeat...

For those of you who are familiar with the Cracroft basement, you know it's a mess to be seen! And due to my lack of monetary funding and my busy "pre-teacher" lifestyle, I had quite an unfortunate fate: 

Moving Home. Dun, dun, dun...

My Mom and I gave it 5 months before we took charge of Elder Cracroft's bedroom, and I wish I had the photos to show what it looked like before. But if you're reading this blog, you probably know me well enough to have seen it. (If not, I cross my heart you're not a stalker.) After a long 10 days of work, day in and day out, here is the finished project...

Oohhhhh, and the much acclaimed bathroom. 

This was a treat to tackle. It took me a good few hours scrubbing the "missed shots" off of the toilet seat and it's surroundings. Thanks, Bros.

(notice jon's awesome blue tile from 1998)

After all was said and done, Caitles came into my room and said 

(and I quote),

"Ohhhh my!!! I LOVE your new room. It's pink!!!!!"

followed by the squeal of a 4-year-old...

She loved it so much we had to have a sleepover in it!

And because my mom's now on remodel fire, here's round two...

...wish us luck!

(This blog was made possible by the help of MomT and Bro. Without them, I would have screwed the whole thing up. AND I wouldn't have been able to get a single piece of my furniture transported without their help! A huge Thank Ya to mi family!)

a true story...

Ahhh, the first camp-out of the Summer!

The former ladies of the Aves took a trip up to our rustic cabin in the woods this weekend for a little R&R...

But was 6 girls alone in the mountains really a good idea?

The story begins here:

As we all sat around the fire pit dealing out "Rock, Paper, Scissors" to see who would have to be responsible for starting the fire,

our trusty Brownie Scout, Brooke, explained that starting a fire is simple.

All we needed was one tampon and a match. 

Six girls? No problem. And we already had our match.

None of us really believed her, but much to our chagrin...

Fire!

There she is, in all her feminine hygiene glory!

(I'm in the pic cause I just wanted the credit)

So our two course meal began with the eversoclassic HotDog.

Little did we know, Kris hates this mystery meat. So, she almost got away with scarffing one down. But then... Shanna reminded us of the time we went to Huntington Beach, roasted dogs, and then forced her to try her first. Surprisingly, she liked it!

So... Karissa suffered the same fate.

She, however, didn't feel the same.

Ashley and Brooke enjoy a good dog every now and then, 

and gave our roasting abilities 5 stars!

To finish off our meal, we ended with the traditional Mallow Roast-Off.

We had to come up with the most creative way to roast our mallows.

The winner won the honor of getting to put out the fire... Lucky!

In my attempt to win, I seared two eye-sized holes in my mallows so that when I stuck my head in the fire to roast them, I could see when they were a nice, toasty brown.

Okay, that part was a lie.

To conclude our story, I was supposed to label these mallows to represent each of us fine campers. However, I am lazy and don't feel like doing it.

So, I'll leave it up to the imagination of the reader.

(But just for good merit, I'm the brownest one on top...)

The End.