Hood to Coast Relay
My friend Heidi invited me to be on her Hood to Coast team this year. It took me about 1 second to say yes.
Our start time was 9:30 a.m. on Friday morning. A perfect time to start a run, wouldn't you say? This is us at Mt. Hood just before I left on leg one which was a 6 mile run down the mountain, from Timberline Lodge to Government Camp.
The race was 200.1 miles, broken into 36 legs. Each team has two vans with 6 runner each and the runners/vans alternate for the course. So there's a lot of running involved...
And a lot of time riding/waiting in the van while the other runners are on their leg.
As we leap-frogged our runner we'd often stop to wait on the side of the road so we could cheer for them as they came by. (I like being cheered for, by the way.)
And then it is back to the van to beat the runner to the next stop.
One of my favorite things about the race was cheering for other runners. At the hardest leg on the course (done by Heidi on my team), my team mates stretched toilet paper across the route at the top of a particularly brutal and long hill climb. It was great to watch people feel revived (at least a little) by a roll of toilet paper.
This is just before my second leg (leg 13 of the course). Don't you love the sunglasses + headlamp combo? It was about 8 pm, sunny when I started but full on dusk by the time I finished.
There were lots of Honeybuckets on the course.
So it did feel like luxury when Safeway kindly let us use their inside toilets!
This had to be about 1 a.m. We managed about an hour and a half of sleep (in a field!) around 3 a.m.
Driving into the night...
My third leg (leg 25 on the course) started about 5 a.m. and was absolutely glorious. I took it slowly and just enjoyed the views. Don't I look relieved to be finished?
Did I mention the Honeybuckets? Seems they were on everyone's mind first thing in the morning!
After our van finished we made our way to Seaside to meet up with family who was waiting there for us.
Our team took 30.5 hours to complete the course.
The Welcome sign in Seaside was great to see!
Our start time was 9:30 a.m. on Friday morning. A perfect time to start a run, wouldn't you say? This is us at Mt. Hood just before I left on leg one which was a 6 mile run down the mountain, from Timberline Lodge to Government Camp.
The race was 200.1 miles, broken into 36 legs. Each team has two vans with 6 runner each and the runners/vans alternate for the course. So there's a lot of running involved...
And a lot of time riding/waiting in the van while the other runners are on their leg.
As we leap-frogged our runner we'd often stop to wait on the side of the road so we could cheer for them as they came by. (I like being cheered for, by the way.)
And then it is back to the van to beat the runner to the next stop.
One of my favorite things about the race was cheering for other runners. At the hardest leg on the course (done by Heidi on my team), my team mates stretched toilet paper across the route at the top of a particularly brutal and long hill climb. It was great to watch people feel revived (at least a little) by a roll of toilet paper.
This is just before my second leg (leg 13 of the course). Don't you love the sunglasses + headlamp combo? It was about 8 pm, sunny when I started but full on dusk by the time I finished.
There were lots of Honeybuckets on the course.
So it did feel like luxury when Safeway kindly let us use their inside toilets!
This had to be about 1 a.m. We managed about an hour and a half of sleep (in a field!) around 3 a.m.
Driving into the night...
My third leg (leg 25 on the course) started about 5 a.m. and was absolutely glorious. I took it slowly and just enjoyed the views. Don't I look relieved to be finished?
Did I mention the Honeybuckets? Seems they were on everyone's mind first thing in the morning!
After our van finished we made our way to Seaside to meet up with family who was waiting there for us.
Our team took 30.5 hours to complete the course.
The Welcome sign in Seaside was great to see!
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