Portland to Coast

After three days home I feel like I’m finally getting my mojo back and functioning at my normal level. It probably would have been two days, but in my genius I decided to mow both the front and back lawn (about an hour pushing the mower for each portion) AND spray a backpack of 2-4D and two of Roundup (take that evil goatheads!). I’m back now though and have a weekend full of wonderful and hysterical memories. Most are probably only really funny if you were there or if you are in a severely sleep deprived state. I will never be able to think of Dick’s Sporting Goods the same way ever again and glow sticks also have new meaning.

In overview, the Hood to Coast/Portland to Coast run/walk relay event is considered the “Mother of all Relays” as it’s the largest event of it’s kind in the world. Our team, Team Slow Poke, did the walking relay. 132 miles starting under the Hawthorne Bridge in Portland and ending just down from the swing sets on the beach at Seaside, OR. There are twelve people per team divided into two vans of six (14 if you have designated drivers – our team had one so there were 13 team members overall). Each person completes two legs and you rotate through in a preset order. I was #6 in Van 1 so I got to do the “big” exchange at the Van transfers. Each team has a little slap bracelet and that is what gets handed off at each exchange.

Team Slow Poke start time was 3:15am so we were up by 2am on Friday morning making sure the vans were loaded and everyone had their stuff in the right van. At 3:15 we cheered Cheryl as she kicked off our first leg and head off toward the coast.

Coarse rules state anyone walking at dawn/dusk/nighttime has to wear a reflective vest, flashers on front and back, plus headlamp or flashlight. You also cannot have any speakers (i.e. headphones) above shoulder height. Out team was fortunate to have invested in reflective vests with speakers built in, so you just plugged in your iPod and rocked out in your own happy little music bubble – that is unless your iPod choose to get hung up right at the most annoying part of that Beyoncé’ song. (or was it Rihanna, Jill? I can’ remember )

Cheryl handed off to Libby, who passed to Dan who gave it to Jill who put it in the hands of Janet who delivered it to me, entrusting that I would give it to Kathy from Van 2 safely.

My first leg (18) was a warm one that started at St. Helen’s High School shot you west for a couple miles and then looped back around to the county fairgrounds. It was about 5.25miles total and around 80 degrees or so. I opted to skip carrying water which was a big decision given this leg is completely unsupported (i.e your van cannot drive by and give you water) but since I run this distance at home without water in this type of heat I figured I could do it. I did too! Though that first bottle of water at the end was the best I’ve ever tasted.

Once I was finished with my leg our van was done for awhile too so we went and grabbed some lunch then headed off to the next van exchange for a nap. Now, race rules prohibit sleeping next to your car for obvious safety reasons. For that reason Dick’s Sporting Goods set up a little ‘Slumber Village’ of 4-man sized tents in a grassy area in back of the exchange. Fantastic idea! Except that the sun was high in the sky (I’d completely lost track of time by this time) meaning no shade and there was little to no breeze. This meant Dick’s Slumber Village was really more like Dick’s Sauna. We tried adjusting the rainfly’s to provide shade while letting air though but it didn’t do much. Mostly we just spent 2 hours trying not to melt to the tent floor.

As dusk fell we began to prep for our next go-round and decked out in all manner of glow sticks and flashy LED’s as well as mustache tattoos. It was at this point running on 18hrs of no sleep that things started to get a little punchy around the van. Trust me, the van parked next to us thought we were nuts…..

 

 

 

We finally got to my second leg about 4am Saturday morning. Still only minimal sleeping of 15 minutes here – 10 there. This was a fun leg along Hwy 102 headed into Astoria. It was pitch black, the fog rolled in just after I started, there were no fog lines on the road (those are kind of nice since they reflect and make a line to follow) and there were times I could barely see within the distance of the glow of my headlamp. It was like walking in a tunnel. A girl in front of me actually asked her Van for her gloves because “It was dark and she was scared.” I’m still not actually sure what glove are going to do for you in that situation but whatever makes you feel better. I’m pretty sure any critters in the vicinity were chased off long ago.

My leg wrapped up sometime around 5am. I only know this because it was 5:30am when we stopped at the Pig ‘n’ Pancake in Astoria and we had to wait half an hour for it to open. So if you saw a bunch of people passed out in a GMC suburban in the parking lot on Saturday morning….that was us. Half an hour does very little for you when you haven’t slept in almost 30. We were so exhausted and giggly all through breakfast. There was one point when the waitress came by to ask if everything was alright and we were laughing so hard no one could answer.

From there we made it to the beach for showers, foot care, and a little sleep (like an hour or hour and a half maybe) before heading down to cross the finish line with the rest of our team. From there is kind of blurred for me. Team photo, lunch at American Cancer Society after party, walked over to get Saltwater Taffy, then I’m not sure at some point we ate dinner, then we waved at people on the boardwalk for awhile, walked down to the concert on the beach, and I threw in the towel about 10pm. Up around 9ish the next morning to clean up, load up and head home.

 

It was a long, exhausting, totally amazing and fun weekend with some old friends and many new ones. I’d really love to do this again next year if I can figure out a way to work it into the budget.