Hood to Coast with Nuun

Yes, I am aware that my last blog post was 23 days ago. I'm just going to leave it at that...

Biggest news since vacation is that I ran Hood to Coast last weekend with Nuun! I filled in for an employee who was injured in Van 2 of Team Night of Afternoon Delight and I feel SO lucky to have been able to do it. Still in shock that it all happened and it's already over. Hood to Coast is "The Mother of all Relays" so expectations were set fairly high for the weekend and those expectations were met and exceeded.

Nuun finger at Mt Hood

Team Night, Van 2

In running order:
Emily - Sweat Once a Day
Katie - Katie Runs This
Sarah - Running Starfish
Harmony - Keep On Keeping On
Me
Kelsey - The You Go Girl Blog

Our van didn't start running until about 6pm on Friday, but we got to Sandy, OR with plenty of time to tat up, hydrate with both kinds of Lemon Tea and get all riled up to run.

Tattoo chain

Cheers!

May May and Mac Mac

Once Emily kicked off running for our van, we were on a roll. Run, drive, cheer, exchange, repeat. At about 10:30pm, it was my turn to run. 4.85 miles easy. It was on a bike path somewhere in Portland where the van could not access me. Only me, this dark path and the creepy sounds in the bushes. The darkness made me run faster and was able to hold sub 8 paces for most of the run. I did eventually get a bicycle guide on part of the path, which was comforting.

Was almost late for the exchange because of this pic...

I navigated us to the next major van exchange with getting lost only a little bit and we cheered Kelsey in. At that point, we were off the hook for a few hours, so we found some food, beer and tried to get some sleep. I probably got 10 minutes of actual sleep until a car alarm went off FOREVER and the exchange point was just loud. Oh well, relays aren't about sleeping anyway, right?

Our 2nd set of legs were in the early morning. Katie had a brutal 2nd run that climbed and climbed, but she also was running when the sun rose. It was a cool feeling to be in the middle of Oregon, driving up this gravel road as the sun rose... I bet it was unreal running.

Cheering for Harmony (Emily, Sarah, Katie, Kelsey & Ray)

My 2nd run was 4.2 miles of rolling hills. It followed a stagnant looking river and there a very crisp feeling in the air with fog. I let my legs do their thing and just appreciated the morning run. That crisp smell of Fall gets me every time. I finished up with a 8:02 pace.

The next part of the relay got cray. Up until this point, we had no issue with traffic whatsoever and honestly after a traffic-less Ragnar, I didn't think about traffic being an issue. I was wrong. After we passed off to van 1 for their last runs, we hit some serious traffic which almost made us late to the next van exchange. This was the theme for the rest of the race. There would be a back up of cars about a mile out from each exchange, so to get our next runner to the exchange in time for the pass off, the runner had to get out of the van in traffic and run up to the exchange. It made things a little stressful, but as a van we decided to "cross the bridge" and not stress about it. We'd try as hard as we could to get to the exchanges on time and if we were late, so be it. Luckily, we were never late. We were on it, organized and made it happen.

Traffic

My last leg was probably my most exciting. It was the 2nd to last leg of the entire relay, so I wanted to get Kelsey the baton as quickly as possible so she could finish it up for us. Talking with Sarah prior to starting, I told her I was nervous, blah, blah blah and she told me to focus on road kills (people you pass). She told me to make 11 people my goal. Never would I have thought I could pass 11 people - thanks for believing in me Mac Mac!

Done and Done. Double fisting with both kinds of Lemon Tea

It was a 7.2 mile leg the climbed gradually THE ENTIRE TIME and I failed to read that most of it was on a gravel road. I started out conservatively due to a steeper hill, but quickly felt the relay energy, so I picked it up. To my surprise, by mile 3 I had 10ish road kills already. What the what?! My IT band was acting up, but I just couldn't stop pushing it. Kills were the only thing I could think about from there on out. I'd eye my next kill and reel 'em in. 11, 12, 13, 14.... I got 30 road kills on that leg! Finishing up that leg, being done with my part of the relay, contributing to our road kill count - it was a pretty great feeling.

We made it to the beach and watched as Kelsey and the other last runners of the other Nuun teams crossed the finish line. Team Night finished in 28:xx hours which placed us 3rd in the Women's Open division.

Post relay activities put the icing on the cake. After the most glorious shower, we ate and drank in Nike's tent and watched fireworks. A few of us also found ourselves drinking beers on the beach, swimming in the ocean and hanging out by a beach fire... Couldn't have asked for a better ending to a 37 hour running party.

A big thanks to Nuun for asking me to fill in. Like I said in my Ragnar post, you all are so amazing. Can't wait for the next adventure with you guys and gals. Thank you to the ladies of Team Night - you all ran your hearts out, were so encouraging and I really enjoyed getting to know all of you. Last but not least, thank you to Ray, our driver extraordinaire! We made it to point B thanks to you!

Hood to Coast - you really are the Mother of all Relays. Let's do it again next year!