This past weekend I had the fortunate opportunity to run the Hood to Coast relay in Oregon. It is a 200 mile relay that goes from Mt. Hood to the Oregon Coast (seaside beach) over the course of approximately 30 hours. Our team was of 12 people, 6 in each van. I ran with several of the awesome women I teach with, we had a great time.
My adventure began with me arriving at PDX in the evening and then meeting up with a few teammates and driving 1.5 hours to a lodge in the middle of no-where for the night. The lodge had a "girls" sleeping quarters and one for the boys with about 20 bunk beds in each. By the time I got into bed it was around midnight and I had to tiptoe in and with the use of my headlamp locate a bed for the evening. An hour later the snoring began. I wish I were one of those people that can sleep whenever and wherever they want but sadly 11 years of parenting has made me the worlds lightest sleeper. I laid there listening to one of the other girls snoring as I tossed and turned and thought of a variety of things I could do to this fellow bunk mate...throw shoes at her? yell at her? put a pillow over her head?...you get the picture. At 3am some of the bunk mates began to arise and leave to begin their relay (they had earlier start times than we did). At 4am another batch left and I kept praying that the snoring girl would be amongst them...no luck. The snoring continued only this time accompanied with the LOUDEST thunder and lightning storm I have ever heard. The rain pelted down as I laid there praying for a few minutes of sleep. The rain stopped around 5:30 but the snoring continued. We got up at 6:30am only to find out that the "snorer" was one of my teammates that I had not yet met. I felt bad thinking those horrible thoughts of how I wanted to hurt her as I discovered that she is the most amazing, interesting and sweetest girl. I feel honored to have gotten to know her...even if she does snore :)
Our team name was "running time machine" so we dressed up in 80's garb and boy did we look sweet! I'm including a few pics of our rad outfits, please take note of the torn/woven t-shirts and my friends huge wig that won her more photo ops than we could shake a stick at. Half way through the race we began doing random "dance parties" on the side of the road in order to encourage our runner. Soon other vans approached us and asked if we would dance and cheer on their runners but making complete fools of ourselves...which of course we were happy to do. We made a lot of friends this way!
I have been wanting to do this race for over 4 years now but couldn't find anyone crazy enough to do it with me. I am so thrilled that I got the chance to run with these amazing women. We had so much fun, they are such great sports and the course was superbe. I only ran 17 miles of the 200 but I would definitely do this race again, not to mention ending at Seaside beach which is breathtaking and has the softest sand ever!
I will say that being the "token Mormon" had its drawbacks especially when you are the only one painfully aware in your sober state of what a fool you and your whole team are making of yourselves and your the only one that cares, oh and being designated driver when your exhausted and trying desperately to keep your eyes wide open. But it was a great experience for this girl on the run.
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