BYU runners win Wasatch relay

PARK CITY — Lana Sitterud wouldn't call herself a serious runner, yet she spent two days running a 181-mile relay from Logan to Park City with a group of friends from her church in the 5th Annual MyoMed Ragnar Relay Wasatch Back this weekend.

"I'm not a runner ... After hanging up the shoes, you've got to do something to stay in shape," said the assistant coach for the University of Utah's women's basketball team. "I love crazy stuff like this."

Crazy could be an adjective used to describe the Lone Peak graduate as she volunteered for the race's toughest leg — Ragnar. The 4-mile section of the race gains 1,678 feet in elevation and has an average grade of 7.9 percent.

After two legs, Sitterud was sold on the event, which has grown so popular that organizers had to cap the race at 578 teams.

"It's been a great atmosphere," she said. "A very cool atmosphere."

BYU Men's Cross Country Team won the race with a time of 17 hours, 19 minutes, 34 seconds. Second place was Fast Running Blog/St. George Running Center with a time of 17:54:16; and a second team from the same company won third place with a time of 18:54:03.2.

"The event has really changed," said Chris Derum, a member of Fast Running Blog/St. George Running Center's Blue Team, which came in third. Derum last ran the relay in 2005. "There were stretches that felt lonely that are now crowded with fans and runners. Runners are always in sight and there is a lot more energy."

Derum said the competition among the race's top teams is intense.

"It's very competitive," he said of the six teams that started at 5 p.m. and were among the first to finish. "It's cool that we (ex-college runners) were as competitive with one of the top cross country schools in the country."

Fourth place overall was 26.2 Running Company with a time of 19:29:49.7, and fifth place overall was Peak Endurance, Idaho, with a time of 19:32:13.4.

The top finishing coed team was Stallions, Idaho, a co-ed high school team, that finished in 19:33:55.8. The top finishing boys high school team was Davis High's cross-country team with a time of 20:29:17.7. The top finishing men's sub-masters was Roadrunners with a time of 21:30:45. The winners of the men's corporate was Corporate Chaos with a time of 20:57:21.3.