I meant to update from my iPhone during the race using the Weebly app, but coverage was spotty to nonexistant for most of the race. So here's what happened to Team 518 - the Trail Nuts.
Our van felt pretty good after our first set of six legs. All of us had run strong and fast. We grabbed dinner and took showers at a teammate's house, and then went to meet up with Van 2 near OMSI for the exchange.
I ran Leg 13 (4.21 mi) through downtown Portland around 7pm. The temperature was just right and it was a nice, fairly flat run. My legs were a little tired and stiff, but I managed to finish in 39:45 (9:22 min/mile pace). I got a little sleep in the van while my teammates ran their legs, and on our way to the next major exchange. A fire had shut down part of highway 30 and caused a couple of changes. Traffic was pretty bad along other parts of the course anyway, so it got a little stressful in our van. Everything was kind of a blur until I had to run my last leg at 5am.
Leg 25 (3.75 miles) is in the middle of nowhere on a country road (technically from Mist to Birkenfeld, OR). It was dark and I was tired and just wanted to sleep and eat and sleep some more. I ran as fast as I could make myself run, which ended up being kind of slow (10:30-11:00 min miles I think?). I was really glad to be done, and slept some more until our van finished our last set of legs and could head to the beach to wait for Van 2 to finish.
Our van felt pretty good after our first set of six legs. All of us had run strong and fast. We grabbed dinner and took showers at a teammate's house, and then went to meet up with Van 2 near OMSI for the exchange.
I ran Leg 13 (4.21 mi) through downtown Portland around 7pm. The temperature was just right and it was a nice, fairly flat run. My legs were a little tired and stiff, but I managed to finish in 39:45 (9:22 min/mile pace). I got a little sleep in the van while my teammates ran their legs, and on our way to the next major exchange. A fire had shut down part of highway 30 and caused a couple of changes. Traffic was pretty bad along other parts of the course anyway, so it got a little stressful in our van. Everything was kind of a blur until I had to run my last leg at 5am.
Leg 25 (3.75 miles) is in the middle of nowhere on a country road (technically from Mist to Birkenfeld, OR). It was dark and I was tired and just wanted to sleep and eat and sleep some more. I ran as fast as I could make myself run, which ended up being kind of slow (10:30-11:00 min miles I think?). I was really glad to be done, and slept some more until our van finished our last set of legs and could head to the beach to wait for Van 2 to finish.
Once Van 2 arrived at the beach, and the last runner came in, we all crossed the finish line together. Our team was 350th overall (out of 1070 total teams), and 77th out of 362 teams in the Mixed Open. We skipped the beach party in favor of the food and drinks that were waiting for us at the beach house we rented, where we ate and drank and fell asleep by 9pm.
Yep. We were pretty tired.
We came home from the beach mid day, and I'm going to try and get back on track with eating healthy (basically the past two and half days have been nothing but eating and running. And more eating. And more running.)
I almost didn't run Hood to Coast this year, but my team pretty much made me do it. Who you run/live with in a van for three days makes all the difference in the world, and I'm lucky to have such awesome running buddies. We all ran hard and had a good time, in spite of all of the crazy stuff and lack of sleep. We were all pretty disappointed by how Hood to Coast was run this year (although the volunteers did an awesome job, as always--thank you so much!), so we're considering finding a different relay for next year.
Have you run a relay? Or is it too crazy to even think about? :)
Yep. We were pretty tired.
We came home from the beach mid day, and I'm going to try and get back on track with eating healthy (basically the past two and half days have been nothing but eating and running. And more eating. And more running.)
I almost didn't run Hood to Coast this year, but my team pretty much made me do it. Who you run/live with in a van for three days makes all the difference in the world, and I'm lucky to have such awesome running buddies. We all ran hard and had a good time, in spite of all of the crazy stuff and lack of sleep. We were all pretty disappointed by how Hood to Coast was run this year (although the volunteers did an awesome job, as always--thank you so much!), so we're considering finding a different relay for next year.
Have you run a relay? Or is it too crazy to even think about? :)
