The Mother of All Relays - Part 1

This is the unofficial, 

yet boastfully descriptive,

title of the enormously popular 

Hood to Coast (HTC) relay.

I first heard of it years ago when my brother ran in a team.  Those were the days when I was basically .......  clueless.  I had no appreciation for running whatsoever.  To emphasize just how horribly clueless I was - Favorite 2nd Son ran a half-marathon AND a full marathon while at college in 2006 and to my total shame, I WASN'T THERE.  My response had been - How nice!  I had NO IDEA of the significance of this monumental feat.  Granted, I was 700+ miles away, but at the very least I should have been cheering him via long-distance and then demanding a play-by-play account afterwards and crying as I pictured him crossing the finish line!

Likewise, when my brother ran in the HTC, or would mention that he'd ran in any event and won first place in his age group, I was dutifully impressed .... I really was .... but today, I would have gushed with pride and offered my VERY heart-felt congrats along with an enthusiastic high five!

I next heard about the HTC from a friend whose husband had joined a team from his workplace.  Friend and I heartily agreed that the whole thing sounded bizarre.  Pay money to run all those miles, spend the non-running time in a crowded van with non-showered teammates, and sleep on the ground in some field for ten minutes, then repeat it all again.  Seriously??

Then Friend's husband decided to form his own team, titled "Stormin' Mormons" (a name I found to be endearingly obnoxious) and invited my husband - who, by the way, was not a runner.  My husband does not have the capacity to turn down ANY potential fun, so he agreed immediately.  Some months later, after establishing myself in the running community with my first unimpressive 10K, I was offered a spot on the team, that had opened up due to a pregnancy.  I thought about it for a week or so.  Could I do it?  Do I dare??  Scared silly, I signed on and began training like my life depended on it.  Unlike my Husband, who likes to do his training mentally until almost the last minute.  In other words, he procrastinates.  "Running?" I imagine him saying.  "Anyone can run.  Nooooo problem."

The HTC is a 200 mile relay involving over 1200 teams with twelve runners per team.  (Plus 2 vans per team - you can imagine the traffic mess in Seaside.)   That's A LOT of people CHOOSING to do this crazy - expensive, sweaty-smelly, run-at-any-hour-of-the-day-or-night, thing.  In fact, to illustrate how popular it is, registration (which uses a lottery system) fills on the same day it opens, and hundreds of teams are turned down.  (Then the moaning begins on the message boards, "If any team needs a runner, I would DIE to get in .... PUL-LEEEEZE!!!!)

Needless to say, if your team DOES get picked, the giddy reaction is a happy dance of "YES!!!  WE GOT IN!!  Wooo Hooooooo!!!!!  While at the same time, the wide-eyed newbie teammates are: "C--P, does this mean we're really going to DO this??"

Continuing on ..... the relay begins at historic Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood and ends on the beach at Seaside, where they say you'll find the biggest beach party ever.  Your team never stops running until it reaches the sand, which means you may find yourself at 2:00 a.m., trotting along on an obscure, no-cell-phone-reception-cow-path, somewhere around Mist OR, aka the Middle of Nowhere.  Each team uses two vans with six runners, plus maybe a driver, in each van.  One van attempts to rest/sleep while the other van is on the road, alternating throughout the event.

My first HTC was in 2009.  Husband and I were assigned to Van 1.  Van 1 carried teammates Bryce, Mark, Kyndra, Anna, Amanda, and me.  Our Fearless Driver was Greg, Anna's dad.  I regret that I didn't get a photo of Greg because he was an indispensable part of the team.  He kept track of our timesheet and always knew when to send our next runner out there to grab the baton.

 Van 1  

 Amanda started us out.

That year our start time was around noon on Friday.  Unfortunately, we only see our Van 2 five times during the relay plus at the end.  So my pictures miss half of our team.

Mark finishes his first "leg" and Anna is ready to go.

Kyndra hands it off to me.

Our final runner, Chandler, from Van 2 finishes on the sand.  Van 2 also carried Ricky, Christian, Brent, Jeremy, and Jon.  With Bill as our second Indispensable Fearless Driver.

I don't remember when our team reached the beach - sometime Saturday afternoon.  The entire team waits at the end for its final runner, then we all trot across the finish line together, drivers and all.

As I read back over this post, I'm feeling like I didn't do justice to this experience.  How do I express the fun, the camaraderie, the grunginess, the exhilaration, the bonding with my teammates?  How do I convey the feeling of being on a team ... the headiness of actually participating in something this HUGE??

I can't.

I remember how I felt, somewhere around ZigZag, OR, the first time I took that baton and began to run.  Wow.  I am doing this!  I CAN do it!  I'm running in the Hood to Coast!  The thrill, the excitement, the rush of love for my teammates as they cheered me on, was almost overwhelming.  The High lasted for weeks afterwards.

No, I can't do it justice.  Was it fun?  Oh yeah.  Would I do it again?  Are you kidding?  Um ...  YES!!!!!!


Coming, this summer, to a computer near you:  Part 2 - 2010, My 2nd HTC.