Hood to Coast 2011

Where to begin?  Hood to Coast was so many things.  Exciting, fun, new, challenging, scary, and most of all an amazing experience.

Friday morning I packed for the 2 day race.  My mom picked me up and we were at Fred Meyer’s at 11am.  By noon everyone was there an we were off to Mt. Hood, the start of the race.

There were a few tents with freebees, bars and electrolyte drinks, and about 20 teams taking off every 15 minutes.

Some teams were dressed up in rad costumes, while others had matching outfits or looked like my team, just regular old runners.

We had a couple hours to wait before our start time of 3:45pm, so we just hung out watching the different vans come in.

We couldn’t ask for a nicer day.  Blue skies at the mountain.  Pretty sweet right?

Then our time came.  Neil our first runner was pumped and ready to go.

Okay, now he’s more pumped!

After announcing each team – us the running buddies – they were off down the mountain!

The first leg is pretty rough because it’s a super steep downhill.  We stopped once along the way to give Neil some H2O.

In no time he was at the 1st exchange handing the wrist band off to Rick.

As you can see it was super sunny so we stopped along the way to water Rick too.  I’m glad we stopped for basically each of our runners because we got to see how they were doing and made it feel more like we were part of it instead of just waiting at each exchange.

We had a little bit of time at the next exchange so I went around taking pictures of… myself.

The beer supported I am.

Next up was Pam.  Speedy, speedy Pam.

Her first leg was around 4 miles, so we didn’t stop to give her water.

In no time she was done passing it off to my mama.  Those next 2 exchanges were a little delayed because we had to start wearing vests, then making sure there were lights and reflectors and communication wasn’t the best about  what was required.  The worst is coming in and your runner isn’t there waiting for you.  Luckily it only happened twice.

Mom brought a water belt so we didn’t stop for her along the way.

When she got back Alex took off, chatting along on his leg with another runner.  It looked like he was having a good time.  Next up was ME!

I had my longest leg – 6.75 miles.  I took off around 7:30pm, which meant I had to wear a reflective vest, blinkers and have a headlamp/flash night.  I also brought along my phone for some tunes.

My run was amazing.  I got water twice along the way, felt strong, fast and energetic the whole time.  My pace showed it too, finishing in 53 minutes and 2 seconds.  This gave me a pace of 7:51 per mile.  I never run that fast for that long.

As the final runner in our van I got to transition to Scott, the first runner in Van 2.  It was strange, right when I finished running my quads felt like they were going to cramp up.  I walked around and stretched for quite some time before we left.  Little did I know that was just the beginning to what my quads were going to feel.

We drove back to Vancouver to drop off one of our runners and headed to Pam’s house for a quick shower + nap.  The shower was perfect and made me feel SO clean.  I napped for about 45-60 minutes then we quickly headed into Portland for the next change just after 1 am.

Jack, the final runner in van 2 handed off to Jeff, our first runner for the rest of H2C.

After that my picture taking went downhill.  Originally I had planned to get a picture of each exchange, but lack of sleep really kills my motivation.  1 am is SO late for me especially on under an hour of sleep.

We transitioned through our exchanges and I slept a little bit during 2-3 of the runs.  I was in need of coffee, but had none, so I munched on a bunch of cacao goji power snacks sent to me from Navitas (shown in what I packed) hoping they would have a little caffeine in the chocolate.  I think it worked… maybe?

Once it got to my turn just after 5am, I headed out.  I passed 2 runners and got passed by 3.  It was dark.  I ran through some neighborhoods and found it a bit scary in the dark alone.  This was definitely my toughest run.  Although the hills were just gradual, my quads felt like lead and I didn’t feel as energetic as during my first run.

I came into the exchange after 42 minutes and 15 second, so for 5.23 miles my pace was 8:04.  Still much faster than anticipated.  Glad to be done with my nighttime run.

We headed to a school to shower.  It was here I wished I would have packed more clothes because I had to change back into clothes I already ran in.  Ewwww.  We hit up Starbucks for coffee + I got some oatmeal, then headed to the next exchange point.  We had a few hours to wait so I napped a bit and just hung out in the sun.

Van 2 showed up and jazzed up our van a bit.  Jacob designed team shirts for us so the design got drawn on our vans.  Loved it.

The rest of our runs were in the afternoon.  It was HOT out there.  We did a lot more mid-run stops for water.  They were necessary.  One of my favorite parts was cheering on all the runners.  I know when I went running along the cheers were fun and encouraging.

At 2:30pm I was ready for my final run.  I was glad for all the shade I had.

I was feeling a bit antsy and nervous waiting for Alex to come in.  I wasn’t sure how my legs would feel.  The 3rd run with very little rest, would they be dead?

He came in and I was off.

I started out strong, feeling pretty good.

The 2 water stops along the way were really nice and necessary.  Plus there was another van with water guns that sprayed me down too.  Even though I was mostly in shade, it was still a super hot day.

My run was mostly downhill which helped me keep a speedy.  I passed 5 people and got passed by zero.

When I got to the end I gave it all I had and finished strong.  Scott was closer than I thought then all of a sudden I was done.  Yes!

Phew!  Glad to be done.  My last 5.35 miles took me 42 minutes and 56 seconds ending with an 8:01 pace.  Again, I’m so surprised by my time!

I stretched for a very long time, then our van headed into Seaside for dinner, the festivities and running in with Jack, the final runner, for the last little bit… at least I tried to run, it was tough with my dying quads!

I was happy to head home quickly after we finished.  Little sleep isn’t my favorite thing, but I got to nap a bit on the drive home.  We got back to freddies, loaded up into the car and my mom dropped me off home at midnight.

Home sweet home.

A quick shower then into bed for 10 hours!  I can’t even remember the last time I slept until 10 am.

Sunday I didn’t do much at all.  I managed to walk around the dog park with Joe.

He got to run.

I slowly walked up the hill.  I went even slower down.

Sunday was a killer day for my quads.  This morning my calves are officially taking over as the most sore part in my body.  According to Jacob I am still walking funny.  Thanks hun.

I’ll probably take Joe for a walk today and then try to do an easy run tomorrow, which should help my soreness.  Right?

Even though I’m crazy sore and still feeling tired/out of it, Hood to Coast was an amazing time.  I was nervous about the whole thing and how I would do, but my nervousness turned into excitement and a experience like nothing I’ve done before.

Now I can’t wait to do it again next year.

Our team finished the 198.86 miles in 28 hours 18 minutes and 52 seconds.  We came in 353rd out of 1268 finishing teams.  In our division we took 92nd out of 275.  Pretty amazing!

Heather

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