Hood to Coast 2010!

This past weekend I participated in the Hood to Coast road running relay with a group of our friends from Portland (and a few from Seattle). I am not a naturally gifted runner, and am pretty pleased with myself when I'm able to maintain sub 10-minute miles (which I did successfully on all three of my legs. Phew!). Our team was just out for fun though, and we had a great time!

Teams are made up of 12-runners split into two Vans. Each runner runs three legs as the team travels from Mt.Hood all the way out to Seaside, OR on the coast. Our team's start time was at 6:30 a.m. last Friday, but since I was in Van 2 we didn't have to be ready to run until our first six runners had finished their legs - which was at around 11:30 a.m. (I think).

Yet again, I have managed to butcher uploading my photos to the blog so they are hopelessly out of order. You'll get the idea though!

Here I am finishing my third leg (leg #35) - don't I look tired? That's because I absolutely ruined myself trying to catch another team that we were trying to beat (Team Mexico!). I almost couldn't walk later that day because I had so much lactic acid in my legs!

This is Michaelene, our Van 2 driver, who was amazing and managed to stay awake and friendly for over 24-hours while she shuttled us along the race course. We were so lucky to have her drive!

We had the passenger's side window labeled as the 'Master Navigator' - we snuck this shot of Pat as he was snoozing and totally slacking on the navigator duties! (it was about 3 a.m. though - so you can hardly blame him!)
Almost our entire team at the hand-off between Van 1 and Van 2 on the second leg. Top Row: Jen, Stacy, Katy, Me, Michaelene, Pat, Danika, Ryan & Amy. Bottom squatters: Ben & Sam. (We're missing Amber, Melissa & Ivo here - not sure where they were off to)

Here's the entirety of Van 2 before we started our first leg: Danika, Michaelene, Katy, Me, Ryan, Amber, Pat (& Lily - Amber & Ryan's 2 year old who did not come in the van with us!)
The back of our decorated Van 2. Our team name was Unethical Time Travelers. I'm not really sure where the name came from...some inside joke of someone's, I think.

Katy -- sending me off on my first leg with a nice slap on the a$$! (Did I mention that Katy is about 5 months pregnant? Amazing! She ran all three of her legs too - very impressive!)

About 400 yards into my first leg: still smiling.

Finishing my first leg (leg #11).

Overall I had a great time - and a ton of fun with the people in my van. I don't think this would be an every year event for me, but I could certainly see doing it again in a couple of years!