Hood to Coast and back again...

Wow, I honestly can't believe how long it has been since I submitted a post...let's just say I'm 34 wake-ups away from the end of the school year, and the last post I did happened somewhere around 170 wake-ups.  Oops, no good!  Here's hoping that now that the school year is almost over, I'll have a lot more time to post.

I'm a little ashamed to admit that I had to go back and read my last post to remember where in my 2012 race schedule I stopped...also no good!  But I did realize that it's time for me to recount one of my favorite races of last year.......wait for it....THE HOOD TO COAST RELAY!!!!

For those of you who love to run, have several running friends, and yet have not run a relay race with said friends...WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!?!?!  This was one of the most fun, challenging, and rewarding races I have ever run, and I've run quite a few races (some have thrown out the word addicted...I just don't see it).

Now I know that Hood to Coast is a hard race to get into (lottery process) since it has become so popular, but there are other relay series that don't have the tight selection process and that I have heard from friends are also a blast...I'm signed up for two different ones this summer myself, including Rainier to Ruston and Ragnar Northwest Passage (I'm hoping to get a group to try Spokane to Sandpoint next).  Luckily for me last year, my amazing friend Dave Uhl happened to work for Project Zero (an organization dedicated to raising funds and awareness to end prostate cancer)...

...and they had procured a team spot in Hood to Coast (a little easier for charity teams since they are raising money for a good cause) and they happened to be looking for some runners to fill a couple places on the team.  Thankfully, Dave thought of me and asked me right away if I wanted one of the coveted spots, and right away I said yes, no thought required!  He also asked a few of our other college friends, and before I knew it, we were all going to be in the same van to experience our very first relay race in the mother of all relay races!

Now for those of you who are new to relay races, here's a brief rundown of how it works. Hood to Coast is broken down into 36 legs, ranging in length from 4 to 8 miles, and ranging in difficulty from easy to very hard, depending on where in the course it is.  Now if you're an extreme ultra-marathoner, the relay can be run with as few as two people, but most teams involved submit a 12-runner roster, so that each racer takes 3 legs of the relay.  Each team is comprised of two vans, with the first 6 legs of the race in one van and the second 6 legs of the race in the second van.  My friends Dave, Buri, Eleanor, Allison, and I, along with the team captain, Jerry, were all in Van 1.  I was the 2nd leg out of 12, so the sections of the race I ran were Leg 2 (5.67 miles, Hard, 1500 ft elevation loss), Leg 14 (6.08 miles, Medium, 100 ft elevation gain), and Leg 26 (5.96 miles, Hard, 150 ft elevation gain).

Little known fact: packing correctly for a relay race is almost as important as training correctly for a relay race.  Gallon-sized resealable plastic bags and baby wipes are your best friends!  You are going to be in a 12-passenger van for at least a 24 hour period, you are going to run 3 separate times without being able to shower or wash the clothes you've been wearing.  I had a bag for each of the following:

• extra pair of running shoes, and a pair of flip flops for non-running times
• dry outfit for after 1st leg (sweats, shirt, bra, socks)
• running outfit for 2nd leg (sports bra, socks, shirt, shorts)
• dry outfit for after 2nd leg
• running outfit for 3rd leg
• dry outfit for after 3rd leg
• safety gear (reflective vest, head lamp, flashers, etc)
• nutrition (gels, energy bars, granola bars, bananas, etc)
• miscellaneous (tylenol, vaseline, bandaids, deoderant, hair ties, gloves, hat, anything else you think you might need)
• baby wipes for wiping off after each leg

I also had a sleeping bag and pillow (since we had to sleep in the van in between the 2nd and 3rd legs), and my good luck charm, a little elephant, Ellie-phant, Michael got me...

...so I was all ready to go.  Team PC had a 7 am start time, so up to Mt. Hood the excited members of Van 1 trekked...

...to get ready for the start of the race.  We decorated Rex the Wreck (the super-appropriate name for our van that was literally rented from a place called "Rent-a-Wreck")...

...we got our packet, including our super cool snap bracelet that was handed from runner to runner throughout the relay...

...took the obligatory team picture at the start line...

...and then Dave lined up at the start, the countdown started, and Team PC was OFF!!!

The rest of us piled into the van and drove down to the first exchange, where I would get the snap bracelet from Dave and continue the journey down Mt. Hood.  Once I got the snap bracelet, I took off like the wind!  The run was a little scary, seeing as how I was on the shoulder of the freeway with huge logging trucks, cars, and tons of H2C vans whizzing by me, but it was exhilarating as well, and I was almost sad when I approached the shoot to hand the bracelet off to Buri so he could start leg 3.

Dave and I were both happy to have our first legs under our belts...

...and excited for a bit of a rest before we had to go back out and do it all over again.  Once Eleanor handed the snap bracelet off to the first runner from Van 2, we headed toward the next van exchange to get ready to take over again.

Van 1's second set of legs started us off right in the heart of Portland, right at 5 pm on a Friday evening.  Dave got the bracelet again and took off, and we tried to head to the 13th exchange zone, TRIED being the key word.  It took us so long to get there through rush hour traffic, that by the time we arrived, Dave had been waiting in the exchange zone for a good 15 minutes.  I had just enough time to leap out of our moving van, grab the bracelet, and race off.  The sun was blazing, it was extremely hot out, lots of cars so lots of exhaust, aka not the best of the 3 legs I ran.  I ran a bit slower than I had wanted to, but eventually the exchange zone came into view, and I picked it up until I got the bracelet to Buri and started guzzling water like it was my job!

I thought the R'n'R Portland shirt was an appropriate choice for my second leg since I ran through Portland, and Ellie-phant was very proud of me indeed for powering through even though I was tired.  After our van made it through all of our second legs (which included a 2 mile increase in poor Jerry's leg because they had to reroute the course around a fire at a local business along one of the roads they were supposed to run), we drove into the Coastal Mountain Range to get to the next van exchange to try to catch a few hours of sleep before the last legs of our journey.  With no cell service in the mountains, we had no real way of knowing when exactly the second van would get there, so we had to go off of peoples's estimated running times.  Unfortunately, everyone severely overestimated how long it would take them to run the second leg, so poor Peter was waiting at the exchange zone for almost 30 minutes before we finally realized they were calling our team number and Dave raced over to get the bracelet.  Because we were caught off guard, I had to change in a moving van on the way to exchange 25, but thankfully we made it there before Dave this time, so I was in the exchange zone ready and waiting to get the bracelet...

...I know it's hard to tell, but I'm the one with the 3 red reflectors on my vest, I promise.  My third and final leg was at 4 am in the pitch dark along tight, winding roads in the mountain range.  Unfortunately, I hadn't checked the batteries in my head lamp, and it died 2 miles into my 6 mile run, and I spent the rest of the run A) trying to get close enough to other runners to see the ground with their head lamp light...which many of them did not seem to like seeing as how they all sped away from the weird chick who was a "close runner", and B) squinting fruitlessly through the dark trying to dodge potholes I couldn't actually see.  Good times!  My inability to see where the hell I was going severely hindered my time, but thankfully I made it to the exchange zone in a fairly reasonable time and without a twisted ankle, so I chalked it up as a win...

...and I was able to hand the bracelet off to Buri and know that I had done my part, and now I could sit back and relax.  By the way, the picture above is one of my favorites from along the course, since Buri and I are back-lit perfectly during the exchange at the exact moment I was snapping the bracelet on his wrist...great picture taking by Allison!  After all Van 1 members were done with our third legs, we had to take a moment to celebrate being done, and of course Rex the Wreck had to be in the picture too!

Then we all piled into Rex and headed to the coast to get to the post-race party at the finish line...

...so that we could start celebrating while we waited for Van 2 to finish up the race.

Above: Me, Buri, and Allison enjoying the post-race beer garden! 

Below: Jerry, Dave, and Eleanor were stoked about the post-race beer as well!

We even had a couple friends come join us in the festivities...

...while we waited to see Peter finally approach the finish line and finish the race for Team PC!

We went through the finisher's chute as a team and finally got our medals after all the hard work and dedication we had put into the last 30+ hours...

...darn it, not made of chocolate!

But still, a great medal for a great accomplishment with a great group of people that gave me some GREAT memories...here's hoping this isn't the only time I have the opportunity to run this amazing race!

By far and away, my favorite race of the summer!

Have you ever run a relay race?  If so, which one?