wow, what a fun event; i have to say that just like labduck, i loved the hood 2 coast!

running summary: (legs 5, 17, 29)
first leg: 6.08mi rolling at 6:41 pace
second leg: 5.69mi flat at 6:10 pace
third leg: 6.14mi hilly at 6:48 pace

i want to shout out thanks! to soundrunner for the invite to join her team, stop whining crybabies.
sound had the unfortunate luck to come down with an injury pre-race, but she did not whine at all,
and instead joined us to provide companionship, inspiration and some threats of whipping if we slacked off
our paces.

our van 1 driver vickie, don, sound, laura and sans souchi picked me up early friday morning...
ok, friday morning... ok, early friday afternooon, and we headed down the coast. we picked up aaron
and john2635 and we were off to mt. hood. we took a pic of half of our team, the runners from van 1,
at the starting point at 6000 foot mark: left to right is john2635, sound, laura, don, aaron and seated
sans souchi and me.


the team to take their pic after us made us look like a bunch of conservative boomers...


our running order was don, aaron, laura, john2635, me and sans souchi. don flew down the side of
the mountain, dropping 2000 vertical feet in the first leg! meanwhile in the van....

...then i got out and did about 2 miles of warmup. it was lovely weather, cool by az standards
and nice an humid. the first leg 5 had a 200 foot drop for 3 miles, then 400 foot climb over
the last 3 or so. after 400m i got passed by a guy who was just cruising. i hung with him for
3 miles and we chatted, but he dropped me on the hill. i passed a lot of people, i didn't
count my roadkills... just not in the mood, sorry. first leg: 6.08mi at 6:41 pace. i saw the
wonderous site of sans souchi at the next exchange, and made my first pass at her. i mean to her.
i mean i gave her the wrist bracelet baton, and off she flew. i did a only a few strides
of cool down and hopped back in the van. i was hot and sweaty, so i stripped down; turns out
most everyone else had too and we...

...and i got out of the van with a huge grin on my face. we chatted with the van 2 group; then
sans souchi and labduck came through the crowd. it was great to meet lab, and i hugged him out of
sheer joy! sans had run hard, and seeemed a little dazed (probably from meeting lab) so i took
advantage of the moment and asked her to share some underwear with me. immediately i knew i was in
trouble, as sans took off running laughing maniacally; and the waist-band elastic pulling me along,
cartoon style. and i wasn't the one who strategically positioned the pretzel bag for this shot...


then we got into the van. at this point everyone was aglow after having run a leg, and we were looking
forward to some food and rest. we got to portland, got a sandwich, and drove to the next major
exchange to wait for van 2 to finish. while we were waiting in the van...

...but she was able to work out my cramp with "the stick" and i got out of the van. limped around a
little, embarrassed but with that big smile on my face, and the cramp eventually disappeared.
i jogged another warmup, but needed to hit the portapotties. did i mention how nice people are at h2c?
the couple in front of me asked if i was running the next leg, and let me cut in front of them. we saw a
blind runner with his guide navigate the portajohn and head out on the course. i heard a girl from another
team puking her dinner and not having fun, but her teammates were trying to comfort her as best as
they could.

that whole portajohn stop made me realize that i was really lucky, and feeling pretty good, and surrounded by
caring, quality people. i smiled as i waited in the chute. john2635 gave me the baton, and i hammered. one
guy came close to me after 400m again, but i got mentally tougher, and hammered harder. he dropped back. i got
passed by three really fast guys, nothing i could do, they were screaming, and they disappeared ahead out of my
flashlight circle. but it was dark. it was cool (high 50's?). and i was in the zone. a fourth guy passed me,
but he didn't disappear into the blackness, i hung with him. my splits were in the high 6-flats, splits i have
had a hard time maintaining for mile repeat workouts, let alone for a 10k type distance; but i just stopped
thinking, turned on the afterburners and hammered. i caught that guy going up a little hill, and i dropped him.
just to make sure, i ran the final 400m, scared, in about 78 seconds, up on my toes and sprinting like i haven't
sprinted in years. turned the corner and sprinted towards the lovely and graceful sans souchi, made my second
pass at her, and finished the leg: 5.69mi at 6:10 pace. i was just overwhelmed, and i mixed a few joyful tears
with the sweat pouring off of my body as i walked around cooling down. the feeling i had after running that
leg was worth the pain and suffering of an entire summer of tucson training.

after souchi finished her second leg, our second van was no where to be found. we waited 15 minutes as they
the traffic to get to the exchange spot, and the runner took the baton and ran off. we got into our van and
drove through the traffic; in the mess we spotted our van #2, and cut in front of them as a little display of our
being miffed. hey, maybe we should moon them, i said, crawling over the bags of gear to the back window...

...and we got out of the van and spread out our sleeping backs in the hay field in mist, oregon. the town
lived up to its name as i caught an hour or so of sleep in the lovely pine-scented veil of moisture. before
i knew it, don was off running his leg and we were back in the van heading down the road...

...and i got out of the van about 3/4mi from the exchange. i warmed up running down the shoulder, passing all
the vans in the traffic jam, thinking about the next leg. another big hill. very hard rating. this is the reason
i came here, to run this leg feeling as crappy as i feel right now! i said to myself. it worked. i got amped;
not the teenage high-intensity amped, but a background feeling, an undercurrent of strength. i was hungry, tired,
stiff and smelly, and i was smiling knowing that i would run this leg hard and well out of my comfort zone.

got the baton from john and the hills started almost immediately. going up i got passed by three guys, but i was
passing a lot of tired runners. one guy, on hearing my footsteps, turned around and grunted "how do you guys do
it?" i smiled, grunted back, "don't think so much, stay strong" and ran with a little more spring, enjoying the
unwarranted comparison with the three guys who blew past me. i passed a guy who stopped running and was walking on
the side of the road; i patted his back and said "keep at it." i tried to say something to everyone
that i passed, although in the last miles of each leg i couldn't talk much, so maybe i only encouraged half the
people that i encountered. one guy i passed hung with me for about the last 3/4 mile of climbing. i tried to make
a few comments to encourage him, knowing that i was running harder because i wanted to stay ahead of him. he
crested the hill not far behind me, but then didn't hammer the downhill so hard.

runner number eight passed me on the way down, but i was picking off just as many people going down as i did
going up. until the last 1/2 mile. i passed a strong looking guy and said "just 1/2 mile to go, let's get it"
and he stayed with me. rats, should have said "a mile to go" i thought in my head. then over the last 200m i
tried to get another guy in front of me, but he hung on, and before i knew it i was next to sans souchi, fumbling
with the baton, for my third pass at her. third leg: 6.14 6:48 avg.

team relays aren't just about the running, they're about the friendship, struggle, adventure, and fun.
there's just so much more to talk about, but it would take a novel. one last scene was waking up at 6am
the next morning and
sans souchi and i tip-toed out of the rental house, jogged to the beach, and ran barefoot on cold, hard sand;
trading splashes through tide pools, looking at shells and anenome, and watching the sun rise over seaside
oregon. we jogged back towards the house, but walked up the hill, eating blackberries from the side of
the road. walked into the house and we were both handed a plate of french toast with cherries. i won't be
able to top that run for a long long time. well, at least until hood to coast '08.