Hood to Coast

We did it!  We had a great time running Hood to Coast this weekend, or am I just forgetting how painful it was?. . .  probably a little of both.   We had such a great time participating in the race that they call the "Mother of all Relays."  Our race started out with the great spearheading efforts of both Bob and Lynsey and the gracious support of the entire Portland-based Kehrli family! Thanks so much guys for making this possible for us. The race itself was 200 miles long and went from Mount Hood to the Oregon Coast, Seaside to be exact.  This was the 30th running of the race and the hottest in years from what we hear.

The entire team (from the left, Melissa, Jeff, Mike, Lynsey, Bob, Elizabeth, James, Julianne, Lauren, Catherine, me, and Chris)

Our team consisted of 12 people split between two vans.  I feel like we didn't get to see much of van two, but that is the nature of this race, I guess.  I feel like I know each of my fellow van one participants (read, "fellow sufferers") very well now.  We have been through something together that was pretty awesome.  

Meet Van 1:

Mikey

Chris

Lynsey

Me

Bob

Elizabeth

The Start: The start was at the base of Mount Hood.  Mikey started us off with a brutal downhill leg while we all enjoyed the gorgeous views around us.  It was truly breathtaking and the energy from all the teams was palpable. 

From Start to Finish: The in-between consisted of running (duh), lots o' sweat, getting naked in parking lots, hyping ourselves up for our next leg, ingesting as many gel energy cubes as we could stand, getting gated in a public park (that could have spelled disaster), cheering each other on, drying out our reflective vests out the car windows, and lots of laughs, Advil, and maybe a little bengay. :)

Finishing leg one.  It was hot and long and I was happy to be done!

Getting naked in the parking lot.  Mass applications of deodorant were made.

Getting ready for our night run in downtown Portland.

Could not help but include this picture because his face looks like how we all felt ("I have to run again in an hour")

Getting our whole two hours of sleep.

Waiting to start my final leg.

A hug for Lynsey as she finished her part of the race.  So cool that we got to share this together.

The Finish:

Elizabeth finished van one's last leg like a champ and we made our way to the coast with hugs, huge smiles and perhaps slightly sore legs.  We stuffed our faces with the first unhealthy food that we could find and made our way to the after party at the beach.  While we could not stay long at the party, it was still cool to see all the teams and to hear the roar of thousands as they lifted their beers in a group toast. 

Yes, there are people like our neighbor who has done 25 adventure races or the lady who ran up the stairs at the Boise airport taking them two at a time after running her 17th Hood to Coast race, but Chris and I walked our tired legs happily up to the escalator and stood proudly because we had done something this cool together.  Our team finished in the top quarter of all finishers.  While my times in no way contributed to that finish, I still think it is pretty good for a rookie team. This really is one of the coolest things that I have done in a long time.  It was awesome to be able to do it with such a great, supportive group of people around me.  Congrats to the No exSCUses team and to all other who ran this race with us, it was awesome!