Hood To Coast 2007

The Hood To Coast Relay was this past weekend. If you don't know about it, and haven't read my previous blog posts about it, here's a quickie (and I know you all love a quickie, now and again): A 12-runner relay race starting at Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood, down Highway 26 through Sandy and into Portland, then continuing up Highway 30 into St. Helens and over the Coast Range, finishing on the beach in Seaside. 197 miles total. 13-18 miles per runner, over 3 legs. And a kickass party on the beach afterwards! Was that a quick enough description for ya?

My team, Bunghole Liquors, finished in 26:24:30. Nike gave us some magnetic signs to keep track of our "roadkills" with (a roadkill is a runner you pass during your run). Our van of 6 runners had 119 total roadkills, of which 41 were mine. I think van 2 had 93 roadkills, bringing our team total to 212. My legs were Leg 6: 7.42 miles in 48:15 (6:30 pace, 15 roadkills). Leg 18: 4.15 miles in 28:41 (6:55 pace, 10 roadkills). And Leg 30: 5.35 miles in 34:55 (6:32 pace, 16 roadkills). My average over approx. 17 miles was 6:37. Not too bad, considering I hadn't trained much the month or so prior! Our team had a blast on the road. Of course nobody slept between legs. We were able to grab showers between our first and second legs, and shovel Olive Garden's nasty excuse for italian food down our necks, but sleep was next to impossible. I think one guy did grab an hour of sleep. Weak. It's not fun if you sleep! Here's a link to some Hood To Coast photos on Flickr, if you are so inclined. None of me, of course, since I had the camera...hopefully some of the others with cameras will kick down some more pics.

[EDIT]: I have to add a huge THANK YOU to the people at Red Bull for handing out so many cans of regular and sugar-free Red Bull to our team. I think every person in our van picked up at least 4 cans, and we drank them all (most of them with copious amounts of vodka!). My friend Kat was 100% correct when she said in her blog: "Red Bull = Liquid Crack".