Last August, my company KOIN TV became the official television partner of Hood to Coast, "The Mother of all Relays", a 200-mile road running relay from Mt. Hood to Seaside, Oregon. Teams of twelve complete 36 legs anywhere from three to 7+ miles in length. The whole thing takes great teams about 18 hours to complete, and takes some teams as long as 36 hours.
On the day of the race, I walked across the Hawthorne Bridge with a few of my co-workers to cheer on the KOIN team as they passed Exchange 13 on the east side of the bridge. I saw serious runners, people just out to have a good time (our team), people who didn't care how they did as long as they beat KGW (also our team), people in costume (note: when a man wears a tutu, shorts of some type are strongly recommended, in my opinion), but everyone regardless of their goal was most definitely having a great time. And so it was, that even though I had never been a runner (save for a few totally forgettable mile and two-mile races in high school track some 30 years ago), when the KOIN team captain began recruiting for runners to make up our 2013 team, I raised my hand. At this point, with a year until the next HTC, I wasn't completely locked in. In fact, there was a chance that other, more experienced runners would step up and I wouldn't even be picked to be on the team. Nonetheless, at age 46, I began training for my first Hood to Coast.
Believe me when I tell you I was starting from scratch. Up until that point, my idea of strenuous exercise was Sunday city-league softball games, or 18 holes of golf. In a cart. But since unlike a lot of guys my age, I had mostly avoided the late-forties beer belly (despite copious amounts of beer consumed in my life), I wasn't completely in the well.
We live next to a middle school with a track, so that's where I began my training. My friend Christi had recently taken up running and had completed a couple of 5k's, and she offered to run with me. Our first time out, after completing roughly 1/3 of a lap, I blurted out "Why in the HELL do you do this God-awful sport?" I'd like to be able to tell you that her response inspired me to new heights of training glory, but it was actually something like "I don't know, it's just fun." Uh, thanks, and no it's not.
Working in television, I've always been at my best working toward a deadline, so I signed up for my first competitive run - the Lackamas Lake 4-miler in Camas, Washington. I ran with Christi, and Diane, a woman Christi knows from work. We had dubbed Diane "the Energizer Bunny", because no matter the weather, the terrain, how steep the hill is, or whatever, she just keeps going and going. I think I finished that run in about 48 minutes, which is about a 12 minute mile pace, and a good 5 minutes behind Christi. Not great, but it was a start.
I kept training as the days got shorter. Despite most of my runs having to take place in the dark, I completed the Couch to 5k program and signed up for my first 5k - the Jingle Bell Run for Arthritis, December 2 in downtown Portland. That first 5k went ok, but before I was even finished, I was already doubting my chances of being able to do Hood to Coast. Lets see, I have to run twice as far as this, three times in about 30 hours? Never gonna happen.
But over the next several months I kept at it and it actually started to get fun.
Me and the running buddies
We did the Tulip Trot, the Earth Day run, the Vancouver Parade run, and THIS bit of awesomeness:
...the Rugged Maniac 5k run. Mud, Fire, Beer, Glory.
I even decided to sign up for a 10k, the Pacific Crest Weekend Sports Festival in Sunriver, Oregon. Had it not been 100+ degrees, I might have actually enjoyed that one. But the important thing is, I started to build stamina and my average mile time had decreased to the low to mid 9:00's. So I began to feel as if I could not only do Hood to Coast, but actually not completely embarrass myself.
Officially on the team now, I am tasked with running legs 10, 22, and 34. Leg 10 is 5.2 mostly-flat miles along the Springwater Trail in Gresham. I'll mostly likely be running this one in mid-afternoon - the hottest part of the day. Leg 22 is out in Vernonia and starts out with a steep uphill for about a mile, but then finishes with about 5 miles downhill. I love downhill. The thing that will make this leg interesting is that I will likely run it in the dead of night. Then I finish up with leg 34, a pretty tame 3.4 mile course through Astoria on the Oregon Coast.
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