Being There

Hood to Coast is a Nike relay race that goes 197 miles from the Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood down to the beach at Seaside. Despite a lifelong general dislike of distance running, I totally participated! My legs are officially drained of energy. More info about this incredible fun time below.

The race takes place over a Friday and Saturday and involves (for 12 person teams anyway) two vans full of six people each. The way our team did it, the first van ran legs 1-6, then we ran 7-12, etc switching off until the very end. For about 30 hours, someone from our team was always running. The rest of us? Either driving to the next checkpoint to get ready to exchange a runner or trying to catch a couple hours of sleep.

Runners wait at an exchange point

I ran about 15 miles across my three legs. I started out with a 6.89 miler down the Springwater Trail - a long stretch of it that I’d never been on. This was in the late afternoon, so thank goodness there was moderate shade almost the whole way down the trail. I think this was my slowest leg, because I was scared of overdoing it, having never run more than about 5.5 miles at once before!

The crowd at the Hawthorne Bridge exchange point

Next up was a night run - 4.18 miles on a country road east of Portland. We’re talkin’ 3AM here. This one was really fun and for some reason running at night energizes people. Everyone in the van liked the night run the most I think. You wear a headlamp and really feel alone out there - just you and your reflective vest. I think I ran sub-ten minute miles. ACCOMPLISHMENT!

Our van decorations were minimal. Some people were wayyy more elaborate - even had speakers blasting out the Top Gun soundtrack on top of the van.

Finally I had a 4.2ish run in the middle of the day. HOT! Full sun with some shade, a couple hills - it was challenging to keep going. I tried to really push out the last quarter mile, which was uphill, and that was the only time I felt like I had no gas left in the tank, so it was pretty difficult.

It’s a great feeling when you finish your final leg. An  hour or two later, I was pretty much totally exhausted. I went to bed at 9PM and then slept until noon thirty. Then I went and played a soccer game at 3:30! I’ve heard that some people stay overnight at Seaside and get up to do their morning run the day after the race. Though I’m not that into running, it’s easy to see how people can be. Hood to Coast is a really good time, for the super trained and the amateur alike. I’m glad I put my body through it and came out injury free and feeling relatively good. There was a point when running a mile seemed daunting - I never thought I’d be running multiple miles a week for training and actually going through with this crazy relay.

Funny thing is - can’t wait to try again next year.