Leg 34 and beyond

Carissa had another killer of a leg, her second 7.8 miler of the weekend. Remember this is the leg I was so terrified of doing, leg 9/21/33. The last one 33 was long, hilly and hot, as it was already in the upper 70s when she started about 10:30am.  

After cheering her on, we drove ahead into Astoria to the beginning of my last leg.  By noon it was probably 80. Thankfully the leg was short, only 3.4 miles, with only a few rolling hills. The highlight was my friend Diane, aka "EndoStalker", sending me messages of encouragement that the Endomondo computer voice would read to me. Technology is cool. I finished the leg in about 33 minutes and handed off to Jenny for her last leg, another 7+ miler. 

We all noticed that other runners seemed to get more friendly as the race wore on.  On the first legs everyone is über competitive and intense. On the second leg, which was in the middle of the night for us, people were loosening up and getting chatty when you passed them or they passed you.  Maybe it was because of the isolation from running in total darkness. By the third leg everyone was cooked and just wanted to be done and didn't mind talking about it. 

After we all finished we met up with Van 1 in Seaside and crossed the finish line on the beach as a team. 

The party was huge! Big stage, food, beer and wine, and lots of vendors handing out freebies.

 

The highlight of the party was when a guy on another team proposed to his girlfriend right on the beach in front of everyone.  

Great moment. Our sports director Dan Christopherson was there covering the finish and put them on tv.

After a celebratory beer on the beach...

We went to Fultanos for some pizza then hit the road for home.  Right now I'm totally exhausted, and my legs are killing me, but if someone asked me if I will do Hood to Coast again, no doubt in my mind I will!

Leg 22

 After showers at the KOIN gym and a big pasta dinner at Ernesto's, we made our way out to The Columbia County Fairgrounds for the next major exchange. Karyn started leg 18 at about 11:15pm and we were on the clock again. 

The next three legs were really hilly and a couple of them were on gravel roads which made it really dusty.  Karyn, John and Carissa destroyed them though, and at about 3am it was time for me to hit Leg 22. 

It started to rain lightly just as Carissa handed off to me, which both kept me nice and cool and also created some great light effects in my headlamp. The moon was bright but behind the clouds and the raindrops looked like millions of tiny shooting stars flying at me. At least when you are running on 21 hours with no sleep ;)

The first mile and change was straight uphill but it's surprising how much easier a hill can be when you can't see it.  Then it turned almost completely downhill for about five miles all the way to the exchange. I LOVE DOWNHILL. somewhere along the way it started raining harder and I ended up pretty soaked by the end of it. 

After Jenny finished her second leg we stopped at the Natal Grange outside Mist. They did indeed have the pancakes out early, and they were awesome. 

Doesn't look like much but I would have paid double the seven bucks they charged. 

After Bruce finished leg 24 we drove ahead to the next major exchange at leg 30. This guy probably pays his mortgage for the year with what he makes serving coffee and food on this one day:

We are back in the van after a couple hours of "sleep".  One more leg to go. 

Leg 10

So glad to have the first leg behind me! Started leg 10 around 4pm and it was starting to get hot. About 2 miles into it the sun went back behind the clouds and it got pleasant again. Leg 10 is 5.2 miles completely on the Springwater trail in Gresham. Almost totally flat, which was nice. Finished it in right about 46 minutes , or about a 9 minute mile pace. 

We have a great van, a good mix of experienced (John is on his 9th HTC) and newbies (me, Carissa and Jenny are one our first).   As soon as Jenny and Bruce knock out their first legs we will hit a gym for a shower and grab dinner before heading out to our next exchange point. My next run should be around 2am. Woo hoo!

First major exchange

On the way to Sandy

Our personal Meteorologist / chauffeur Bruce Sussman has us on course...

The day before

So apparently this grange always has Saturday morning breakfast available for Hood to Coast runners. Sign me up. Hope they have it out early, because we should be passing it somewhere around 3:00 or 4:00am.

Race week

On Sunday I did my longest run ever, 7 miles in 1:09:44. Just under a 10-minute pace. Thanks Diane for pushing me! If I can do leg 22 as well as that, I will be happy.  Probably one more short (3-4 mi) tune-up run on Tuesday or Wednesday then I will call it good.