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!