After 7 months of waiting and looking forward to the Hood to Coast run, it finally arrived, and it lived up to all of the hype and anticipation. The race is a 197 mile relay in which 12 team members run 3 legs each. My team consisted of myself, 3 other people from Katten and 8 of their friends. We flew out to Portland, Oregon, late Thursday night and were up at the crack of dawn to drive up to Mt. Hood. The starting line was located at the mid-mountain point of Timberline ski resort. For those of you who don't know, Timberline resort is a year round ski resort with summer ski camps on Mr. Hood's glaciers. I knew this before the run, but it still kind of blew my mind when I got there. The high in Portland on Friday was about 80 (and over 100 the week before), but it was 39 in the ski lodge parking lot for the start of the race. I really wanted to rent some skis and hit the slopes when I saw all of the skiers milling around the lodge all geeked up. That being said, I was really excited to run. Our first team member set out at 9:45 Friday morning. 29 hours and 30 minutes later, our last team member crossed the finish line. I ran legs 5, 17 and 29, which totaled just under 18 miles and was ranked as the 2nd hardest of the 12 running slots due to legs 5 and 29 both containing 3 mile hill climbs of over 500 feet.
As you can see from the previous post, Natalie had our camera in Saugatuck for the weekend, so here are some pictures taken by others on my team.
Here is team member Mark (in the hooded sweatshirt) getting ready for the first leg along with Bananaman. I don't know why that guy was wearing that ridiculous yellow spandex suit, but I know he was not joking. I held a banana out of the minivan window and yelled "Alright Bananaman" when we drove past him as he ran down the mountain.
Mt. Hood looms in the distance. The scale of Mt. Hood is really amazing. Even at the mid-mountain starting line, the summit lay almost 5400 feet above (and 6500 feet from the chairlift base). This combined with a treeline of only 6000 feet gives great views of the whole mountain.
This view of Portland really reminded me of Grand Rapids looking east over the Grand River. There is a hill to the left and downtown is to the right. 
And just like Grand Rapids, the heart of downtown Portland lies on one side of the river. 
The parking lots at the exchange points gave off a Shakedown Street vibe, but runners' high seemed to be the sole route to a psychedelic experience. My iPod was stocked with Allman Brothers, Jerry Garcia Band, Willie Nelson, John Denver and Phish. That being said, the second best moment of my runs was during my second leg. It was about midnight, I was coming off 4 hours of sleep the night before. I was getting tired but I wanted to keep haulin. Just then, like a bolt of lightning from above, my iPod kicked out Anyway You Want It by Journey. As Al Cervik said in Caddyshack, "So what? So let's dance." The top moment occurred as I took the hand-off for my final leg. It was over 6 miles and, as I alluded to before, contained a 700 foot climb over a mountain pass. As I turned on my iPod shuffle, of all of the songs that could have been next, the unmistakable beginning of Mountain Jam streamed from my headphones. Sure the 8 minute drum and bass solo in the middle tested me, but I nearly floated the rest of the way to the peak when the sounds of Richard Forest Betts and Duane Allman chimed back in. Those creeps could really lay it down (I am going to see the Allman Brothers this Thursday, unfortunately Duane died in the early 1970's and Dickey pulled off the nearly impossible, namely, he is became such a big drunk country bumpkin that he was kicked out of the band). 
Our attempt at sleeping in the grass in the town of Mist was near fruitless as the town lived up to its name. It was like sleeping underwater (or so I imagine). And in case you were wondering, tents were not allowed in the sleeping areas. Go figure. In fact, putting up a tent would get you disqualified just as quickly as peeing or defecating along the race coarse. 
The one downer of the trip was getting up close with all of the clear cut logging in the area. My 3rd leg was a 6 mile run up 700 feet to the top of a mountain pass. The whole way up was a checkerboard of clear cut sections 100 X 100 yards followed by uncut forest of similar dimension. Some of the remaining stumps had to be a 10 feet in diameter and only one of the cut zones I saw had been replanted with saplings. 
The race ended at the beach in Seaside, Oregon. There was music, drinks, and most importantly, hot pretzels filled with jalepeno cheese.
Here is the view from our hotel deck in Astoria overlooking the Columbia River estuary. The bridge in the background is almost 4 mile long Astoria Bridge linking Washington and Oregon. Overall, it was a great time and I would do it again tomorrow (literally).
