2011 Hood To Coast Relay - Oregon
2011 marked my second year running the Hood to Coast Relay, dubbed "The MOTHER of All Relays". The Hood to Coast is a 200 mile multi-day relay consisting of 1,250 twelve-member teams which begins at Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood, Oregon and finishes at Seaside on the Oregon Coast. Each team normally has two vans of six runners. 2011 was the 30th anniversary of the Hood to Coast Relay, and it is the largest running relay in the world. Each team member typically runs three legs varying in length from about 4 to 8 miles for a total of 36 legs per team.
The Hood to Coast Relay started on August 7th, 1982 with a group of 8 teams with 10 members each. Race founder Bob Foote came up with the idea of running a relay from the beautiful Mount Hood to the equally beautiful Oregon Coast. The original relay finished in Pacific City until the size outgrew the city in 1989 and moved to Seaside. Currently the race is capped at 1,250 teams (15,000 runners) and is made possible with the help of 4,100 volunteers.
Download Hood To Coast relay route as shown in map above in Keyhole Markup Language (KML) format for use with Google Earth, GPS units, and other mapping programs. Disclaimer.
Like last year, I again ran for the "Nuclear Yellow P" Hood to Coast team #1214. This was the fifth year for this team, made up of an amazing group of men and women. Many members are returning runners from previous years, although we had a few new faces as well. We started from Timberline Lodge at 6,000 feet in elevation at 5:15 PM on Friday. We were in the third to last wave of the race which began sending runners off at 3:30 AM Friday. Normally they release 20-25 runners per wave every 15 minutes, but our wave had only 9 runners and was spaced 30 minutes apart from the previous and next wave.
I was runner #1 this year (van 1), so I had the honor of starting the race from Timberline Lodge and running 5.64 miles, loosing 2,000 feet of elevation. Leg #1 is rated very hard because of the steep descent. I started behind the other eight runners in my wave and quickly blew by all eight in the first 100 yards. I had an advantage, as I had practiced this leg twice in the previous month, knowing how brutal the steep downhill can be. I finished my leg in 32 minutes and 59 seconds which is an average pace of 5:50 per mile (8 seconds slower than my practice run two weeks earlier). I felt great, but wished there had been more runners to help push me.
There is a tradition in the Hood to Coast Relay of counting the number of runners you pass as "road kills." We got off to a slow start because of our late start time and the 30 minute separation between waves. All of our runners ran really strong first legs, beating their projected times. We were off to a great start.
There was one team, the London Squid Squad, who we played leap frog with the entire race. We would be ahead one leg and then they would catch up and be ahead on another. They were great competition and a good group of runners. One of them even wore an elaborate squid costume that should win best costume in my opinion.
Once all six of us in my van finished our legs (legs 1-6) and handed off to runner #7 in van two, we drove to the house of one of our runners (Joe, who also did most of the driving which we were all thankful for) to eat dinner, shower and try to sleep for an hour or two. After this short break (about 4 hours), we proceeded to the next van exchange at exchange #12. At this point it was about 2:00 AM on Saturday morning. It was again my turn to run. My second leg was Leg #13 of the Hood to Coast Relay. This leg (rated easy) starts near the Hawthorne bridge and runs through Downtown Portland over a distance of 4.18 miles. I felt good starting off, but soon started feeling weaker than usual after the first mile. I pushed through it and managed four more road kills and a time of 27 minutes 42 seconds (pace of 6:37 per mile). It was nice to finally start seeing other runners as we hadn't really seen any during the previous legs. It was a real change from past years with all the crowded exchange points. It seemed more like a ghost town this year thanks to our late start time.
After our van finished our second legs (legs 13-18), we proceeded to the next van exchange in the Hood to Coast Relay at exchange #24 near Mist, Oregon. Most of us slept during the drive even though the sun was starting to rise. Once we arrived at the exchange, the sun was shinning brightly, but partly masked by a layer of fog. A couple of us (myself included) tried to sleep on the ground for a couple hours while others stayed in the van. Soon, it was too hot to sleep and we prepared for the hand off from runner #12 in van two. It was my turn to run again, this time Hood to Coast Relay leg #25. This leg (rated easy) is only 3.75 miles, which I was thankful for as I was pretty sore from my first two legs of the relay. I started running at about 10:45 AM Saturday morning. I managed to finish my leg in 25 minutes 14 seconds (pace of 6:43 per mile) and grab 17 more road kills.
Our van finished our third legs strong and handed off to van two at Hood to Coast Relay exchange #30. Our van managed 77 net road kills in all which is fantastic considering how late our start time was. All of our exchanges went smoothly this year unlike last year where van one (my van) overslept at exchange #24 causing runner #12 to have to wait 45 minutes for runner #1. At this point our van proceeded to Seaside while van two ran their last legs.
We rented a house right on the beach within walking distance of the finish line. It was great to be able to take showers and enjoy a beer before running across the finish line as a team. Van two was stuck in traffic, so the six of us from van one walked over to the finish area to watch our runner #12 jump across the official finish line. We were done! We finished the Hood to Coast Relay in 25 hours 49 minutes and 30 seconds, just ahead of our rivals the London Squid Squad. A few minutes later van two arrived and all twelve of us ran through the finish line together and proceeded to the picture area for team photos. We ended up placing 7th in the Men's Submasters division and 105th overall.
Nuclear Yellow P had another great year running the Hood to Coast Relay. Even though we were physically exhausted and sleep deprived, we hung out together at the beach house, enjoying food and beer and reminiscing about the race. Everyone but I spent the night at the house including our three wonderful volunteers. I needed to get home, so my amazing wife drove all the way to the coast to see us finish and drive me home.
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1 comment
Congrats
Congrats this year!!! Was a ton of fun running next to you all. It was definitely a ghost town at least the first two legs - hoping for an earlier start again next year. I liked the chaos of previous years and earlier starts!
Impressed on a full write-up, I've barely recovered.
- Squid guy
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