29.08.06
Hood to Coast Relay
A while ago Art had convinced me that I wanted to do a crazy ride with him for some reason i said yes, punished myself over 250 kilometers of hell, swore a lot and told him I’d never let him talk me into anything ever again. A few days past when he reminded me of what i had said and told me to make sure I keep training for the upcoming Hood to Coast Relay.
Yes Art Boileau had talked me into joining his family’s team for the annual 197 mile Mt Hood to Coast mile road running relay in Oregon. The Hood to Coast is the world’s largest Relay. 1000 teams, each with 12 runners per team take on the journey each year. Truth be told Art didn’t really talk me into it, he had hardly finished asking me when I said yes. It meant forgoing a trip to Penticton to watch Ironman Canada, but when you get the chance to be on a team with a two time Olympian and 2:11 marathon runner, you can’t say no. Also joining the team was Nicole Knapp, who represented Canada at the 1990 Auckland Commonwealth Games, and suddenly i was feeling a little underdone.
The Hood to Coast has 36 legs so each runner does three. The shortest leg is 3.3 miles, the longest 7.4 miles, the hardest is leg 1 which drops 2000 feet over 6 miles. We had 11 and one third runners so there were to legs which needed to be covered by people running a fourth leg.
Our team had been alloted a 5:45pm start on the Friday afternoon. The group heading down from Vancouver (Art, Nikki, Joel, Jen and Ian and myself) were on the road at 7am. True to the non-training mentality that i was in at the moment i had been out to 2am for a quick drink with a friend who finished work at 11:30pm. Needless to say it wasn’t the best start to the day and knowing from 24 hour mountain bike races how one feels later in the event i was sure it would come back to haunt me.
After stopping enroute to Oregon for lunch in a safeway carpark…
we rolled into edgefield where we would meet the Oregon crew containing the other 5 1/3 members of the team. After some logistics and planning…
Van 1 containing the first 6 runners headed for Mt Hood. Van 2 containing Art and Paul Boileau, Nikki, Joel and Myself rested up as our van was not due to start until leg 7 at 10:30pm.
Welcome to Boring, Oregon…
I was first up for Van 2 and just after 10:40 headed out with torchlight in hand and reflective vest on for my first leg of 5.4 miles. It took me a while to get into a rhythm a lot of which had to do with being mega tired. Getting my leg in first in the van 2 rotation meant i was able to rest while the others went about there legs and wasn’t forced to wait around waiting. Art, Nikki, Paul and Joel ran there legs, it was time to jump ahead to the end of leg 18 where we would pick up after Van 1 did there second turn.
Art after his first leg at night…
Runners getting it done at night.
Art attempts to look professional.
About half a mile from the end of leg 18 was a St Helen’s School which had opened it’s Gym and laid out the wrestling mats for sleeping and the changerooms for people who wanted to shower. When i have raced 24 hour mountain bike races, i have always debated whether sleeping is beneficial or not, as coming out of the sleep always seems worse than not sleeping at all. For a while it seemed like it wouldn’t matter as some guy in the Gym was snoring like a chainsaw. It was so bad the wrestling mats were shaking. I reckon he was putting out a 5.0 on the Richter Scale, which was rather fitting given we were at St Helen’s High School. Finally with the Help of my iPod i was able to get some sleep.
I awoke at about 5:45 knowing that the next leg at about 7:00 was mine. A 5.9 journey with a killer uphill for the whole last mile. However this leg was my strongest and i was able to settle into a routine pretty quickly and got things ticking over. After this the discussion in Van two turned to who would run leg number 24 to make up for the missing 2/3 of a runner. Art had already been delegated leg 36, this left Nikki and I as the two in contention for the leg. Unfortunately it was me that had to go out for the 4.9 miles.
Joel and Nikki discuss race tactics…
Resting at the last big exchange before the arrival of van 1.
I don’t know whether it was a good thing or not but at this leg was rated as easy and was 4.9 miles pretty much dead flat. However by this time it was really starting to heat up and my 625x was measuring 32C. It felt like a sauna out there and i was grateful to one of the other teams who gave me some water out there on the course.
My final leg, number, 30 was 4.1 miles mostly slight downhill with about a 700m climb right at the end. By this time it was mid afternoon and pushing 35C. All i cared about was that i had 6.5km to run and in 30 minutes i could crack the beers. I went out pretty quickly, well quickly for a forth leg, using the downhill to keep my legs turning over. It was obvious, however, that when i got to that last climb that i hadn’t been running much lately as the last 700m turned into barely a shuffle up the small climb as my quads decided that they had had enough. At the end of the 4 legs i had run 20.45 miles, or just over 32km.
The local boys in blue look for Art after he goes missing.
but we found him in the bushes…
It was a hell of a lot of fun, and reminded me a lot of the Mont 24 Hour Mountain Bike Race, with the exception that this one was a travelling side show rather than the camp site. At the end of the day our team took 25:2x to complete the 197 miles which placed us 154 out of 1052 teams. Maybe one year we’ll have to get 12 members from the triathlon club to go for a winter escape.
Following the even the team headed for Rockaway Beach on the Beautiful Oregon Coast and two nights at a beach house for relaxing and celebrating.
Members of the team enjoy the view from the rooftop patio.
And sitting aroung the Beach Fire: Tyler, Aaron, Joel
As i write this I am on a flight from Vancouver to New York 3 days after we finished and i am still struggling to walk down stairs! I don’t want to see Power Bars, Gu’s or Peanut Butter and Jam sandwiches for a long time!! As i said after RAMROD… Damn you Boileau!!!!
Thanks to the Portland based Boileau’s for putting on one hell of a show.