First relay ever for me. I've been in the roster for this race two times and had to cancel days before. This year we had such an exceptional team of masters I would have died before missing it. Not so much for the pace I thought we could run but for the chance to spend two days with these guys. It is tremendous effort to just make a Hood to Coast come together these days with 13,000 runners and this weekend The Oregon coast was hit with a huge storm. It ended up bringing 50mph winds and rain to Saturday's part of the 200 miles and destroyed the finish line and post race party.
Flew into Portland early Friday morning with Walter and had a detailed team meeting with everyone. After what happened to this team last year we needed contingency plans so traffic didn't wreck everything again We swapped out some legs putting the fastest guys on the uphill and long legs Steve and I swapped legs so I'd be running the suicide start I was hoping to get a good downhill because I was a week and half out if getting stitches removed from the ankle and knew I was one of the slower guys on the team we were van one which meant we had to get our butts up to the start for a 4pm start I loved the time in the van immediately, our group was just a lot of fun. We were the only masters team in the final fast heat, because we were the only masters team predicting sub 20 hour finish. This put us in with the Bowerman Nike, Portland Track, Google, and General Electric teams though. Exactly half our age. The first leg was six miles and lost 2,000 feet and I was surprised when the pace began at slower than 5 min pace. So I went into the lead and increased the pace to around 4:47. Three guys immediately fell in behind me and we rolled through the first three miles like an old Alta Peruvian. My feet were burning and I knew I'd be paying later for the pace so I let off a little, the three swung around me and I just focused on holding the gap. With Walter and Steve on the next downhill legs after me, our average pace of the first 16 miles was 5:06.
But now we were out of the fun and into the rollers and hills. Scott had a particularly tough 7 mile leg with a long hill that he just charged through. With two vans rotating we would have about 2.5 hours to rest after our six legs but as it turned out you are working like crazy to get to the next exchange point so there was only a few minutes of quick rest. By midnight the storms hit hard and we sat in a field in the cramped van while the other van ran the rain and sleet for two hours. I stumbled out of the van into the rain at 5:15am and made it to the exchange seconds before the other van runner. This leg sucked! I couldn't believe how hard it was to get leg turnover. Relays are such a different animal and trail running at snail pace is no way to prep for decent road running. Our pace chart called for me to run at least 6:18 here and I barely managed. Humble pie.
By mile 75 we were at average 5:43 pace. Exchanges were our biggest issue, getting a guy out with hundred of vans, and the other guy back to the van. What I expected to be filled with 15 or 20 minute rests were just frantic scrambling. All night long. At midpoint 100 miles we were at 5:53 pace, three minutes ahead of our goal chart. The other van was nailing their pace through crazy weather and I was amazed to pick up my last exchange without any cell coverage and again in light rain, right on schedule. I had the shortest legs and basically now just needed to not bleed time while our strong guys put in the work on the long legs. We made our last exchange to the other van just as the weather hit in force. Horizontal rain, branches all over the roads. Glad we were done and they were running. We headed to the finish line and hotel to wait it out. With up to 50mph winds the beach finish line was destroyed. Tents ripped apart and blown everywhere. The party was cancelled and the finish line shifted into the city. The other van runners held on amazing strong, Jeff ran one leg of 7 miles in this wind and rain at 6:18 pace. We finished barely under the coveted 20 hour mark by three seconds. 6:02 average pace. First masters but as of Sunday morning still unsure of overall. Fifth or sixth.
http://www.kgw.com/story/news/local/2015/08/28/wind-storm-expected-lash-ore-coast-saturday/71337596/
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