Hood to Coast 2013!

About three weeks ago I ran into my friend Phil at the First Thursday Adventure Run (we go way back, like junior high era) and as luck would have it his company's Hood to Coast team, Argo Insurance, was short at least one runner.  I jumped at the chance to run in the relay, and I knew being on Phil's team would be a blast.  Then about a week ago we found out they needed one more runner and Brooke said yes before I finishing asking if she wanted to participate. 

Hood to Coast is a 198 mile relay race from Mt Hood's Timberline Lodge to Seaside on the Oregon Coast.  Its 1,050 teams, each with 12 runners divided into two vans.  Portland to Coast is the same thing, but is for walkers and is less mileage.  Altogether this year had about 12,600 runners, 4,000 walkers and at least 4,000 volunteers, all of whom kept the race working seamlessly.

 

 The person running has a slap on bracelet that is passed from runner to runner at each exchange point.  Once a runner is off, the vans move to the next exchange point and await their arrival.  When the last runner of the van (in our case me) finishes their leg, they pass the bracelet to the first runner of Van 2.  Van 1 then has a few hours break before meeting up with the last runner of Van 2.  There are three total legs per van.

So Friday Brooke and I got off work around 11:30am, headed over to Phil's office to meet up with the rest of Van 1 and drive up to Timberline Lodge. 

(Me, Brooke, Phil, Jamie, Kelli and Lora)

Phil, Jamie and Lora all work for Argo Insurance, and Kelli's a friend of Phil and Jamie's.  Lora, Brooke and I were the newbies to the race, and Kelli had done it only the year before, so Jamie and Phil took care of everything.  I think Jamie has done it for the last 20 years, and this was Phil's 11th time.  They were pros - they kept the times, drove the van, and supplied the water/Gatorade/snacks/etc.  And the weather was perfect - cloud cover almost the entire way, very little humidity and low 70s.

Runner 1 - Phil

Runner 2 - Jamie

Runner 3 - Lora

Runner 4 - Kelli

Runner 5 - Brooke (What the Five?!?)

Runner 6 - Moi

You will notice per the last column Brooke's #5 position is ranked the most difficult of the entire relay and second longest in mileage.  So it is of absolutely no surprise she totally rocked it!

 We got up to Timberline around 1:30 for Phil's 2pm start time, took some pics and gathered a bunch of free stuff from the vendors.

Then before we knew it Phil was off!

 Our first Hood to Coast officially began!

Everyone ran great!  I even ran sub-8 minute miles - these people were obviously inspiring me to get my rear end moving. 

 After we completed our first leg and Van 2 was knocking theirs out, we stopped by Jamie's house and his wife, Molly, cooked up a huge spaghetti feed.  She also laid out towels and we each took showers before heading out to meet up with Van 2 for our second leg.  Phil kicked us off around 11pm from Oaks Park heading out Hwy 30. 

Jamie, Lora, Kelli and Brooke continued their legs out Hwy 30, and mine cut in through a neighborhood (around 3am) where we met up with Van 2.  After we passed off the bracelet, we went directly to where we would pickup our second leg, a large field filled with team vans and tents provided by Dick's Sporting Goods.  But due to the congestion of so many vans, we weren't able to park until closer to 6am, so as Jamie cut the engine we all immediately dispersed to find a place to sleep.  Jamie and Kelli took the van, Lora found some ground space by the tents, and Phil, Brooke and I crashed at the end of our line of vans, very ready for our two hours of sleep.

All of the sudden Kelli was panickly waking up Brooke and I - Phil was gone, he had apparently already started running some time before, and we were now late getting to the next exchange.  She had already found Lora, so we jumped up, grabbed all our stuff, sprinted back to the van, and took off.  About five minutes into the drive we passed Phil.

Turns out he had actually started only about 15 minutes earlier and we weren't late at all - he had got up to use the restroom, thinking he had about a half hour before the last runner of Van 2 reached us, then saw said runner running into the exchange.  Phil just took off - he ran up to the exchange, got the bracelet and started running.  The guys in Van 2 found our van, woke up Jamie and Kelli and told them Phil had left at 7:15am.  Kelli then ran around the entire parking lot, waking up every redhead she could find, until she found Brooke and me.  When we reached Phil we realized he had actually started running at 7:50, not 7:15.  We weren't late and had caused zero delay, and at the next exchanged we were able to reorganize (aka stuff the sleeping bags and tarps back into their respective spaces), catch our breath and finally use the restrooms.

 Jamie totally rocked the sweatband.

The pass off between Lora and Kelli.





This was in the middle of our last leg on Saturday morning.  Brooke was about to run three miles straight up a mountain and was trying to psych herself up for it.

Argo's teams have a tradition of pulling over at the top of this hill and rolling out a toilet paper finish line for the kick-ass runner who just conquered it.  From this point on the rest of her leg, about 2 more miles, was all downhill.

We jumped back in the van and set off for the exchange, but due to van congestion realized she was going to beat us there.  In the end, Phil (as our timekeeper) and I got out and ran the last half mile of her leg to make sure we beat her to the exchange, which we did by just a few minutes.  She passed on the bracelet and I was off, running the end of our last leg.

(Whoohoo! Go me!)

When I got to the end of the trail of vans I thought I was close to the exchange, but soon realized they were backed up for over a mile. When it become obvious I was going to pass our van and beat them to the exchange, Phil again got out and ran the last three quarters of the mile with me to record my time.  When we got there the first runner of Van 2 was no where to be found. Phil ran though all the parking lots and fields until he found them, just waking up from their down time.  Darin sprinted up the exchange, snagged the bracelet and began the final leg of the race.  Our van was done!



Seriously, this team rocked.

Since we were finished with our legs, we went directly to the Best Western in Seaside.  Argo Insurance had rented us a hotel room, so we were all able to clean up before joining our last runner on the beach and cross the finish line together.  Turns out our team finished 118th overall and 15th out of 100 in our division!

When we got to the beach we met up with Hannah, who drove out specifically to support Brooke and I and bring us home that evening (yeah, she's that awesome),



and Luke who came out to do one of the volunteer shifts our team needed to fill.

The party was officially under way.  We ate carbs and drank beer and thoroughly enjoyed the sun.

Then Brooke, Hannah, Luke and I said goodbye to our new friends and drove up to Gearhart Beach where we met up with JP, Melissa, Alejandra, Dominique and the Brit, Andy, for a bonfire on the beach.

This day could not be more beautiful!

Then the sun set and the fireworks from Seaside began.  We roasted marshmallows and ran around the beach before heading back to Portland.

I cannot wait until next year, although I am hesitant to believe it could even come close to topping this year's adventure.  But its worth a shot!