Traveling by Foot

I ran Hood to Coast again this weekend. Last year I ran it because when I was asked by my coworker Elizabeth to run it, I hadn't started working at Nike yet, and I thought it would be a good way to see Oregon and to get to know my coworkers. It was indeed a good chance to do both, but I didn't know that I'd be doing it while runninng on 45 minutes of sleep in the middle of the night and through the middle of nowhere.

So this year, I somehow decided to do it again, and signed up to be the 11th runner, driving along in van 2. My legs were 4.1, 4.1, and 7.4 miles long.

I started my day, Friday, 25 August 2006 at work. I did the usual work things, then met my team in the Mia Hamm parking lot next to our white rented Dodge Grand Caravan. We piled in our stuff, and got ready to drive out to Sandy, Oregon, where we would meet the first van of runners. Packing for this adventure consisted for me of: 1 pair of running shoes, 3 sets of running clothes, 2 PBJ sandwiches, fruit, 2 20oz bottles of diet coke, some vitamin water, water, peanut M&M's, and granola bars. That all got in the van, along everyone else's stuff, and we were off.

We pulled up into the Fred Meyer (local grocery store, also sponsor of the race) in Sandy, found a parking spot, and waited. Elizabeth was runner 7, then Mike, then Shelley, then Christina, then me, then Peter. We were waiting for Rochelle, the 6th runner in the first van to come along. I ate my usual lunch of a sandwich, fruit, and diet coke, as we waited. At around 12:45, Elizabeth started running, and we piled into the van to meet her at the next exchange.

My first run was at 5pm, in 85 degree heat, along a boring trail, and in no shade. I thought about going fast, but soon realized that I would probably die from melting in the hot sun. So I ran my leg in a reasonable 9:45 minute mile pace, and was grateful that our van had air conditioning. We ended out running undernath the Hawthorne bridge around 6:20pm on Friday. We said hello to Van 1 again, and then drove to Elizabeth's house in Beaverton.

It was nice to take a shower after the run, and to eat a hot meal of delicious tortallina soup. I sat around for about an hour, when we realized that it was 10pm and we had to ddrive out to St. Helens, which is about 1 hour away. The first van was already on their 5th runner. Great. So, we hurriedly packed our things into the white van, and drove out to St. Helens. We met the first van in the parking lot of the Columbia County fairgrounds, and Elizabeth was off and running again.

Between Mike, Shelley, Christina, and Peter, we ran trhough gravel roads, hills, trails, and two lane highways through the middle of western Oregon. Mike had to breathe the dust awakened by the vans that drove along him on the gravel road up a hill...ew..... By the time I ran it was 3am, and I ended up running with the nice headlamp and reflective vest. I passed a few runners, but wanted to be close to some just because I was afraid of being eaten my a mountain lion or being tackled by a snake rustling alongside the road. I would look up on occasion to a sky full of stars. It was really nice to just look up and see the stars at 4am without any man-made light, save my headlamp. We finally handed off to the 1st van at 5:30am, and then carefully drove the course to the next place where we would have to start running. We got there around 6:00, busted out blankets and sleep bags (I forgot to mention that among the things I had packed), and fell asleep.

2 hours later, we were awake, preparing to meet the next van. In this remote part of oregon, there was very little cell phone coverage, so there was no real way to communicate with them. We figured they would be rolling in about 10am. By now the exchange point was bustling with vans and we walked over to a house that had become a makeshift roadside cafe, serving up french toast and coffee, among other breakfast items. Our van was now a weird grayish, brownish color. It was completely coated with the gravel scum and road dust from 2 hours earlier. Gross... Eventually, we saw Rochelle come running her bright pink skirt with a sign saying "how many more miles til the beer?" Then Elizabeth was off and running. We said good bye to the first van, saying "see you at the coast."

I ran my 7.4 miles on the Lewis and Clark Trail, and then along side major powerlines on a gravel road. Once again, in the middle of the day underneath the blazing sun. I now have a bright red nose because the sunscreen managed to drip off there first. And I plodded along at a 10:15 mile pace, and thought it could be worse...but at least there was a cool ocean like breeze coming through...although from looking around, it didn't seem as though there could be an ocean 5 miles away.

But after my run, I discovered that there was, and we met up with the other van at the beach, and ran in as a team together. So basically, it took a team of 12 people 30 hours and 26 minutes (I know this since I was one of several time keepers) to travel 197 miles, from Mt. Hood to Seaside Oregon. To get from Seaside back home to Beaverton, it took us 1 hour and 15 minutes. Running is the most inefficient way to travel that distance in my opinion. So, I will say this now, but I don't think I will do this inefficient crazy travel adventure again....but then, one knows what will happen next year...