Race Report - Recap of the 2011 Hood to Coast Relay

Two reasons why this post is a bit "late" 1. I needed to cool off from my bitterness towards the race organizers 2. Life just got in the way this week (basically I have been slacking). So, here it is in all it's glory, my recap of the 2011 Hood to Coast "Mother of All Relays" that took place on the 26th and 27th of August.

Basic race description - 2011 marked the 30th year of this event. It is a 200 mile running relay that starts up at Mt. Hood and finishes on the beach in Seaside. Teams typically consist of 12 runners and each runner runs three legs. This year there were 1250 running teams, typically this is about 1000. Needless to say, this is a HUGE event in Portland especially if you are a runner. This year there were teams from every state and 14 countries. I definitely heard a lot of foreign languages that weekend.

This is my fourth year as team captain and third year racing it. I took 2009 off because I was five months pregnant (although I did see at least one pregnant woman running this year). I have a love hate relationship with being captain. I have a type A- personality (the minus because I am not a total control freak) and I don't trust too many other people to get it done and or do it. There, I said it. But it's a lot of work and sometimes the stress of planning/organizing the team can take some of the fun out of running. With that said, I have an AWESOME team that makes doing all that work so worth it. This year's team consisted of the following people.

Jeff - my husband

Betsy - my mom

Dana - my twin sister

Anne - my younger sister

Darin - Dana's husband

Meaghan - my cousin

Gage - Meaghan's husband

Amy - Good friend

Jen - Co-worker/friend

Ryan - Co-worker/friend

Scott - Co-worker/friend

These are some of my favorite people to run with. They range in skill from newbie to Ironman but despite the level of running ability we are just a great group of people that like to run and encourage others to run too. They are the reason I will probably be crazy enough to do this again next year.

For the sake of keeping this post on the shorter side, I will spare all the details of the race. You can look at all the pictures instead. Bottom line, it was a BLAST - we ran, we ate, kinda slept, sat in a lot of traffic, and it was really hot.

In case you interested, ok maybe I want to brag just a bit too, here are my times;

• First leg - leg #3 - 4.26 miles (according to my Garmin, more than what HTC says) @ 7:45 pace at 12:12:pm - mind you this leg was all downhill. I am not normally that fast... I wish!



• Second leg - leg #15 - 7.26 miles (and it was SO boring) @ 8:52 pace at 10:22 pm and it was freaking HOT still.



• Third leg - leg #27 - 5.98 miles @8:48 pace at 8:15 am - this is always my favorite leg b/c I love the countryside in Mist.



• Overall, our team did pretty darn good! We finished the race in 29:54:46 ( I think, HTC took down the unofficial times) and we placed higher than the top half in our division! I'll take it.
  

Has anyone else out there done a relay race before? Which ones? Would you do it again? What did you love/hate about your experience?

The Start up at Mt. Hood - First time it's ever been hot at the start at 10:45 am. Not a good sign.



You can't do your night leg without some glow sticks! Jen and Scott getting ready for the evening.


Gee, I wonder why they call it Mist? Such a beautiful place to do a morning run. Especially as the sun starts to come up.


Getting ready for my last leg. Barely made it out of the porto potty before Ryan handed off to me.