Hood to coast is described as "the mother of all relays" and honestly.....there really is nothing like it. You have to experience it to understand. I did just that in August 2009. I remember thinking during my first run (which was 7.2 miles in the HOT sun on HWY 26) "I am NEVER doing this again. I hate every second of running....why the HELL did I think that this would be fun?!".....................and then seeing that exchange.........the bright cones where zillions of people are waiting for their teammates to come in. I remember seeing my person and thinking "oh my word she's cheering me on!...I can do this!" and somehow mustering up what little strength I had left in me to sprint it home and hand off the 'baton' (aka snap bracelet). The feeling was exhilerating....addicting even............so addicting that I ran it again in 2010 with that same team, and then AGAIN (I must be certifiably CRAZY) this year!
Although I absolutely LOVED my portland team, I decided to do things a little different this year and put together a team a little closer to home. SO.Without further ado I present the names of our 2011 Hood to Coast Team # 90 "CPR Certified"(in their running order):
1. Kay Miller 7. Lisa Hudson
2. Jesse Staggs 8. Ben Wallace
3. Myself 9. Tyler Bushnell
4. Candace Loretz 10. Windy Noss
5. Maria Dunn 11. Robin Wade
6. Charla Staggs 12. Danny Dill
Runners 1-6 were in "Van 1" and 7-12 "Van 2." The basic breakdown of the race is to literally RUN (relay style!) from Timberline Lodge at Mt. Hood to the sandy beach at Seaside. THIS IS 200 MILES. All the while we have drivers taking care of us (THANK YOU Dexter and Amber!), and making sure we get to our exchanges on time.
We ran, this year, in 30:10. That's an average pace of 9:05 per mile......which is so stinkin awesome I can barely contain my pride for my team.
The race is HUGE....bigger than huge......it's gargantuom!!! (how the heck do you even spell that?!) - There are thousands of people running.......thousands of vans/people decked out in hilarious garb. You see team names such as "Go NADS, honeybadgers, roadkill grill, run lola run (while wearing red wigs the whole race), etc"...........and the costumes did not disappoint either.
All hilarity aside though, the main point of this race is shown through the team work and cooperation it takes to finish the damn thing. You have 12 people signed up to RUN from point A to point B to get you just that many miles closer to that lovely sea breeze. They are committed to getting less than 2 hours of sleep in a 30-40 hour period of time (I think our van averaged about 45 minutes per person), cramming themselves in a stinky sweaty van, and eating nothing but nuts and bananas for an unreasonably (and probably unhealthily) LONG amount of hours, and all the while having a SMILE on their face. WTF. I mean I complained and whined just as much as the next person - but I could never have done anything like this without the sheer dedication of my teammates. We freaking rocked it. And I feel so blessed / grateful to have this experience in my memory now.
OK. I'm over typing. Let's look at pictures!!!!! :)
Top of DA MOUNTAIN!
Re-create pic from 2 years ago! WOO! 2011 was AWESOME!
First hand off - nice one Jesse!
Dex aka "team mom" - always makin sure we had our agua......Mt in the background!
Danny cooling off....
This was somewhere around 11pm...........
2nd van exchange - somewhere around 8am....nice one guys!
Maria kept finding little treasures.......all fun and games until she's running down the road at 3am with a SLEEPING BAG in her arms. Dang girl. We kept it.
Glowy and fun! Notice Jesse's badass attitude.
Ze girls. Robin / Maria.
The field we slept in. Notice how it looks cold?
It was.
We had to pry Jesse / Charla out of their sleeping bags. Jesse wanted to just run in his, but the safety vest wouldn't fit.
Getting closeeeeer!!!!!!!
Charla-la running down the mountain!!!!! YIPEE!! it's only 91 degrees!!
LAST EXCHANGE!! YEAH KAY!!!
Sister / Jimmy were our volunteers - we saw them at one of our exchanges! COOL GUYS!
We made it to the beach!! And this guy had a giant corn dog! We followed this van for a LONG time....Maria needed a pic.
Hello Mr. Crab. We like you better than mountain creatures...
Yesssssssssss! VICTORY.
Post party fun. Yes Noah, I WILL take a back rub.....or 3.
Chris' father in law ran so he participated in the merriment post race. Jesse is sad his glass is empty...
I'm not sure if this is pre or post keg-stand...but that was probably one of the funnier things I've ever witnessed of my dear sister. First one ever.
Awe. :) Clover and I. Her dad freakin rocked it!
Speaking of Danny Dill......
Boys decided to surf the next day....."hey jimmy - how was it?! did you like it?!" upon his first day of surfing.....Jimmy - "HATED EVERY SECOND!! I didn't know I was going to swallow the whole ocean!! GROSS!"
whatever......they're wearing wet suits and lookin good.
Nice sand-beard.
Boys being boys.
All in all the race - and post race festivities were an incredible success! I am sooooooooo happy it's over with - and already looking forward to trying again next year.
WHO'S WITH ME!? :)
Love you all. I'll probably write more later.....but for now - this will do. :)
