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- Jul 24, 2007
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I was able to participate in the "Hood to Coast" 202 mile relay over the past weekend. It was my 5th time at the event.
The challenge is that there are 12 people on your team and you take turns racing until you reach your destination.
I have always enjoyed these races but had to take a few years off due to injuries. My team has done this race for 7 years straight. You must be in the top six finishers each year to be guaranteed a spot for the next year. Our team usually takes third.
This does not sound difficult but there are 1300 total teams. The race fills up on the day it opens for registration every year with thousands of teams being turned away. It is a very special race that incredibly popular.
Our team organizer had trouble filling the team this year and had gotten out of shape himself. He decided that this would be the last year for us. I came back from injured reserve and took a spot on the team.
This proved to be the most event filled and fun year for me. I decided that if we were able to secure a sixth place finish, that I would take the team over for next year.
The teams are split into two vans with six members in each. I was the only person in my van that had done this race before. The logistics are challenging and have a direct affect on the race completion. It is easy to get lost or get trapped behind a long line of vans trying to reach a checkpoint. The van driver and navigator are essential. The driver and navigator have to run as well so others need to rotate through the positions. The exchange point rules are extensive and designed for safety and fairness. It is possible to end up parking a half mile from the exchange point. In this case, you need to finish your leg, find your teammates, and hustle back to the van so you can rush to the next exchange.
The race goes for over 24 hours for most teams. There is not really any opportunity to sleep. You get mentally and physically exhausted during the course of the race.
We had a couple of instances where we got lost. One of them cost us 13 minutes of time but could have cost us a lot more. The navigator plugged in the wrong coordinates which took us off course. Our runner finished his leg and found nobody from our team. He almost kept running to the next exchange which would have been a disaster for us since we would not have known where to find him. The other instance found us driving into some endless loops of roads in the back hills of Oregon. We had no phone service or GPS and drove into empty locations for about 1.5 hours. We were fortunate that this happened while the other van was running but we missed out on getting some much needed food.
The race turned ugly for all participating about halfway though. A big storm came through with high winds and rain. I ran one of my legs at 3:am in the pouring rain and high winds with almost no visibility. The hills were steep and covered with debris. My headlamp was not enough to illuminate the path. Of course I charged through it but it was tough.
By the end the winds had picked up to around 60 miles per hour and was directly in our faces. Somebody is selling a t-shirt online that says "I survived the H2C Hurricane of 2015".
Our van had five type "A" personalities. It was really concerning at first as there was a lot of commotion and order barking. It settled down though and ended up being incredibly upbeat and positive with people that did nothing but run with all their might.
We ended up taking 6th place in our division and have locked in our spot for next year.
We have a beach house that we stay in every year while there. It was very enjoyable as was the small community of Seaside, Oregon.
Just to top off the end of the event, I was able to catch a flight back home on the Cardinal's (football team) jet. One of our teams participants is one of the owners (Opportunities for conversation and learning exist everywhere). That was a pleasant experience in itself.
The challenge is that there are 12 people on your team and you take turns racing until you reach your destination.
I have always enjoyed these races but had to take a few years off due to injuries. My team has done this race for 7 years straight. You must be in the top six finishers each year to be guaranteed a spot for the next year. Our team usually takes third.
This does not sound difficult but there are 1300 total teams. The race fills up on the day it opens for registration every year with thousands of teams being turned away. It is a very special race that incredibly popular.
Our team organizer had trouble filling the team this year and had gotten out of shape himself. He decided that this would be the last year for us. I came back from injured reserve and took a spot on the team.
This proved to be the most event filled and fun year for me. I decided that if we were able to secure a sixth place finish, that I would take the team over for next year.
The teams are split into two vans with six members in each. I was the only person in my van that had done this race before. The logistics are challenging and have a direct affect on the race completion. It is easy to get lost or get trapped behind a long line of vans trying to reach a checkpoint. The van driver and navigator are essential. The driver and navigator have to run as well so others need to rotate through the positions. The exchange point rules are extensive and designed for safety and fairness. It is possible to end up parking a half mile from the exchange point. In this case, you need to finish your leg, find your teammates, and hustle back to the van so you can rush to the next exchange.
The race goes for over 24 hours for most teams. There is not really any opportunity to sleep. You get mentally and physically exhausted during the course of the race.
We had a couple of instances where we got lost. One of them cost us 13 minutes of time but could have cost us a lot more. The navigator plugged in the wrong coordinates which took us off course. Our runner finished his leg and found nobody from our team. He almost kept running to the next exchange which would have been a disaster for us since we would not have known where to find him. The other instance found us driving into some endless loops of roads in the back hills of Oregon. We had no phone service or GPS and drove into empty locations for about 1.5 hours. We were fortunate that this happened while the other van was running but we missed out on getting some much needed food.
The race turned ugly for all participating about halfway though. A big storm came through with high winds and rain. I ran one of my legs at 3:am in the pouring rain and high winds with almost no visibility. The hills were steep and covered with debris. My headlamp was not enough to illuminate the path. Of course I charged through it but it was tough.
By the end the winds had picked up to around 60 miles per hour and was directly in our faces. Somebody is selling a t-shirt online that says "I survived the H2C Hurricane of 2015".
Our van had five type "A" personalities. It was really concerning at first as there was a lot of commotion and order barking. It settled down though and ended up being incredibly upbeat and positive with people that did nothing but run with all their might.
We ended up taking 6th place in our division and have locked in our spot for next year.
We have a beach house that we stay in every year while there. It was very enjoyable as was the small community of Seaside, Oregon.
Just to top off the end of the event, I was able to catch a flight back home on the Cardinal's (football team) jet. One of our teams participants is one of the owners (Opportunities for conversation and learning exist everywhere). That was a pleasant experience in itself.
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