Sunday, August 31, 2014

Hood to Coast 2014

I'm back. At least for tonight. It is 7:30 and both the kids are in bed early so I have some time to my self. I have about 3 different craft projects going that I should probably be working on but instead I am sitting here writing and watching Charlie St. Cloud. I know...i know... probably not a "great" movie but I don't have to think which is what I need right now.

So last weekend was the Hood to Coast Relay. It was an amazing experience. You are pretty much up for 36 hours (our team was slow) not including the travel across the country and back. Our team captain was a friend of mine. We had 2 people drop out the week of the race and had to get replacements. Our main goal was to just finish the race. We are not competitive runners so time was not a goal. We did finish in under 36 hours - well before the 9 pm cut off.

We had 3 legs reach to run. My first and third legs were about 6 miles with half of that uphill with 500 feet of elevation gain. The first run wasn't too bad, difficulty - yes, but I finished feeling good and keeping my pace. My second run was 11 o'clock at night and 8 miles - fairly flat with some mild up and down hills. It was a nice peaceful run. I was mostly by myself and occasionally got passed by faster runners. I could always see a pack of headlamps ahead of me. Amazingly you are running along a highway, in the dark, and not afraid of something happening. Beside a random guy running up to me about 1/2 mile in giving me his number. The third leg was by far the hardest run of the entire race. It was 3-3.5 miles uphill a mountain then 3 miles down. Luckily as my team van passed me they also passed off some much needed water. I finished somewhere around noon time, we went to pick up out last runner (in our van) then headed to the beach to wait for the 2nd van to finish. That last run was incredibly tough but all the support from other teams and runner (as they passed me) were encouraging.

Overall I am So glad I had the opportunity to do this. It was a great experience and I had a ton of fun with friends I haven't seen in years. However, I would probably NOT do this again.





I am glad that I was able to see Portland a little the day before. We got some lunch, went to the rose garden and did some shopping. The roses were in full bloom and beautiful. I forgot how nice they were. When we lived there I only went a couple of times, now I wish I had taken advantage of this and all the things Portland had to offer.




So now, I am trying to keep miles up for my next race, which is a half the end of September. Luckily it is local and hopefully my husband will be home to watch the children, otherwise my father will have his hands full, because Mom is running it with me.

I guess it is time to get back to all the things waiting for me here.

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