The Countdown Begins: Hood to Coast Relay

Three weeks from now I'll be sitting on an airplane on my way to Portland, Oregon for the largest relay race in North America, Hood to Coast. I think I mentioned several months back that I was doing this but as it gets closer & I'm getting more details about the actual race itself, I'm getting very very excited. It's a 12-person, 197 mile race from Mount Hood near Portland, Oregon to the coast in Seaside, Oregon. Each person runs 3 legs of the race, anywhere from 3.5-7.5 miles. Despite the fact I only know one other person on my team, the Honey Bucket Harriers, I know it'll be a race to remember.

Yes, our team name is from the porta-potties that are on parts of the course

I just found out the other day the actual legs of the race I will be running and the distances & difficulty of each leg. I'm taking on leg 3 which means I'm running legs 3, 15, and 27.

Leg 3: 3.93 miles, easy, all downhill

Leg 15: 7.25 miles, hard, rolling hills

Leg 27: 5.79 miles, moderate, rolling hills

Overall, I will be running a total of 16.97 miles in a little over 24 hours. Out of the 12 legs, my leg (leg 3) has a mileage ranking of 4 and a difficulty ranking of 6. This means, out of the 12 people on my team, my total mileage of 16.97 is the 4th highest and the difficulty of all three of my legs is 6th highest, so right in the middle.

Based on our 10K times each of my team members submitted, it's decided what time we will start the race on Friday, August 27. Teams will start anywhere from around 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM. We are starting right in the middle, at 12:45 PM. Based on this, I'll be running my first leg of the race early in the afternoon, my second leg shortly after midnight, and my final leg mid-morning. Not a bad draw if you ask me, my biggest fear was having to run at 2:30 AM so let's hope I'm done well before then on my second leg. Our predicted finish time is 29 hours and 16 minutes putting us in Seaside, Oregon right around 5:00 PM, just in time to join the celebration party on the beach!