WARNING!!!!!! This is the longest post ever. Proceed with caution!
Hood to Coast exceeded my expectations by far. It was awesome. Awesome awesome awesome. There were ups and downs, but I LOVED IT! Great team, great fun, great runs. I ran leg #2, which meant I had a 1,500 foot drop off Mt. Hood right off the bat. Although I intended to force myself to not die by not going less than 8's - you can see I didn't do that (as I feared!). Although I am suffering now (my quads and hamstrings are tiiighhhhttt!), I was good for the whole time luckily and that part didn't ruin me for later. We started at 12:15pm at Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood and ended 28.5 hours later at the beach in Seaside Oregon.
Leg #2 - 1:13pm on Friday - 5.67 miles - TT: 40:50 - AP: 7:12 Splits: 7:25, 7:38, 7:23, 7:06, 6:57, 6:31 The first leg was great! I was soooo pumped. We had driven down late the night before and I woke up at 6:15 and couldn't go back to sleep I was so excited. Picked everyone up, got the van decorated, and headed up to Mt. Hood. Laura started us off with the big 2,000 foot drop and then handed off to me. It was a little scary with the curves and semis flying by. A couple times (during each leg actually) I whispered a few prayers involving not getting run over. I passed 3 people and got passed by 4, and certainly felt that pounding from the steep decline! Although it was quite cold (40's) up on the mountain, it was beautiful weather coming down. And do you see those 6's up there????? My first 6's ever!! Do I care it had a 1,500 foot drop? NOPE! :-)
Leg #14 - 10:54pm on Friday - 5.49 miles - TT: 43:12 - AP: 7:52 Splits: 8:13, 8:10, 7:53, 7:47, 7:33, 7:26
This leg was dark and on the side of the road of a highway. It was pretty straight so I felt less like I was going to get hit by a car on this leg despite the darkness, and the LED lights helped a lot. There was a pretty steady uphill incline on this hill that the elevation map lied about (it showed flat!). But I powered up and passed 10 people! I think I only got passed by 1 person. I had forgotten my Garmin when I was waiting at the exchange so I ran back to the car to get it only to realize I didn't have the keys, to run back to get them to run back to the car and ended up having to sprint to beat Laura to the exchange. But the last thing I wanted was to be out in the middle of nowhere in the darkness and not know how much time was left! After we all finished the night legs it was 3am and we had to drive an hour on the windiest road ever that was pitch black, in the middle of nowhere, and not another car on the road. It was horrible and I thought we would never get there and was so tired. One of our teammates had been upset with herself and her knee hurt and had been crying in a port-a-potty, another was feeling horribly sick and was hanging her head out the window almost throwing-up, and I thought I was going to kill us all on this terrible road and just wanted to sleep. This hour was definitely the low-point of the whole race! Then we tried to sleep in a field and it was 37 degrees and so cold and I probably slept 30 minutes. We felt pretty bad when we had to get moving again, which was a frantic race to move because they walkied us they were ready sooner than we thought! Leg #26 - 8:00am on Saturday - 5.79 miles - TT: 44:53 - AP: 7:49 Splits: 8:05, 7:52, 7:45, 7:44, 8:13 (giant hill), 7:00 (downhill!) Although I had been feeling terribly tired and it was freezing outside (still 40) and I had forgotten my tights and we were all like "I don't want to run again I don't want to run again" once I started I felt sooo good. My hamstrings were tight by now, but it was just SO GREAT. This was my favorite leg. The sun had just come up, the sky was perfect blue with no clouds, the moon was still up, I crossed over some rivers, I saw some horses and cows with calves, and there was just rolling countryside meadows that were so beautiful and I felt so thankful that I was out there. After wanting to do H2C for years and not being able to do it last year because of the ankle I felt so thankful I was out there, had finished, and got to enjoy such a beautiful run. Then the hill came and my thankfulness passed. :-) The hill was hard, pretty long and steep, but I powered up and passed 8 people on this leg. I got passed by 2, one of which was on an elite team and just screamed by me, it was ridiculous how fast he was going! Then when I reached the peak of the hill it was downhill to the exchange and it was my last run so I decided I might as well thrash my legs, and I screamed down the hill. I tried to pass the last guy but he wouldn't let me and we both kept going faster and faster (my watch read 5:30 for the last quarter mile or so!) and we sprinted into the exchange, which was really fun. Then we went drove to Seaside, had some crappy pizza, and waited to run in the finish with the other van. We were sooooo tired afterwards that we ended up driving back to Portland instead of staying to sleep in real beds. I slept 11 hours last night and was pretty dead to the world! My hamstrings and quads are pretty sore today so I will take it pretty easy this week. Final Thoughts: I LOVED HOOD TO COAST! Such a great time with some of my best friends. Although there were obviously some low points and such snapping going on / frustration with things, I loved it. I will definitely be submitting for a team for next year! I'm also really happy with all of my legs. I feel like I am definitely improving and my hard work is paying off. I was really happy to see all of those 7's. Perhaps I'm moving into 8's being my easier pace and 7's being my race paces? That would be FANTASTIC! :-) THE WILD EAGLES ROCK!!
At the beginning at Timberline Lodge:
Murdering my quads by flying down my 1,500 foot drop on Mt. Hood: 
At the finish in 28:33:58 at the beach in Seaside: 
| 