Hood To Coast

Ran the Hood to Coast relay race this weekend. It's a 197 mile relay with 12 person teams and each person does three legs. I was in van 2 this year and had leg eight. Started out by Sandy running towards Boring by some nurseries. I started good and passed some very cute girls and tried to keep a constant pace with some small rollers and only 4.55 miles. Came in with a low 8's pace. Then to Saint Helens where we got some Burger King (only thing open- yuck) and tried to sleep at a fairgrounds. It was way too noisy, I lay on top of the van and looked at the stars and listened to the exchange cheering and port-a-pottie doors slamming. After a couple hours of that it was back in the van and running leg 20, my second leg. it was somewhere around 3-4 in the morning, but a half moon gave pretty good light. This leg is called Pittsburgh hill and it goes up somewhere around 1100 feet in 5.75 miles. I just got in a good zen mode and ran up it at a 9:37 pace. Half-way up the road turns to dirt and the vans going by kicked up tons of dust.
The second rest area was out by the town of Mist in a field with tons of other vans. Couldn't sleep there either because it was morning and starting to heat up. It took 20 minutes or so to go through the porta-pottie line. Layed up on top of the van again and one jaw dropping gorgeous girl said "that looks like a good setup". I replied "perfect". I guess I should have said something about the van setup. My third leg was on the outskirts of Astoria on a pretty back road. We saw the girls Headhunters team van 2 and knew we would pass them soon. Everyone said I should slap her butt if I passed her, but at the two mile point I saw Juliette and as I passed her I touched her shoulder and said "you can draft me", but she couldn't go that fast. This leg had some rollers and I got to the point of wanting to throw up and stayed at that pace. 20 road kills on this leg- that's when you pass someone. 4.09 miles at an 8:23 pace. Then into Seaside and showers and to the beer garden. Last year we had a place to stay and partied. This year we had to drive back so we only did an hour and a half in the beer garden, not as fun. Then the long drive home.