Part 1:
In hindsight I wish came up with nicknames. Even now I am not sure what they would be, but nicknames would have been a cool way to start this post. Instead, I will just list our van.
- Leg 7 – Amanda
- Leg 8 – Marc
- Leg 9 – Me
- Leg 10 – Ashley
- Leg 11 – Megan
- Leg 12 – Todd
- Driver – Ski
Our plan was to meet at Todd’s at 7am, which was perfect for me because Ashley, Mary and I took the train to Portland and got in around 9:30pm. I must have felt bad for Mary (who was staying with the Jacobson’s), because I woke up around 4am, a half hour before Tessie (Van 1) took off down Mt Hood.
As luck would have it, Todd had rented Prefontaine (Jared Leto version) to have at his place during Hood to Coast. Watched the movie and was ready to roll by the time everyone else woke up. We took off around 7:30am since Van 1 was pacing a head of schedule and went toward the first van exchange.
I wasn’t sure what to expect from Hood to Coast before we got to the first van exchange. What I saw was beyond any expectations I might have had. The Safeway parking lot in Sandy, OR doubled as the first exchange and was packed with vans and runners. Everyone was in high spirits as they cheered on their runners coming into the first exchange. While Van 1 had been apart of HTC for hours, this was our first experience. Within a half hour of arriving at the first van exchange, Amanda was off and running, we had said good-bye to Van 1, and headed on our way.
My first leg was Leg 9, a 7.04 flat run listed as “moderate” on the HTC site. My plan was to pace myself for around a 7:15 min/mile. I was pretty close that coming in at a 7:27 pace. To be honest, I was a little worried I would come out too fast and run myself out on the first leg. Surprisingly, even with all of runners and the cheering, it wasn’t too hard to keep a slower pace.
Back in the van after your first leg is interesting. Two others in my van had already run, so we had something in common to discuss. I also I had no idea how Marc had done, since he handed off to me. It was nice to catch-up and hear how his first run went. To be honest, I felt pretty bad for Megan and Todd at this point, because they still had to wait to run while watching everyone else.
The second van exchange was in Portland, below the Hawthorne Bridge. This was probably my favorite exchange because of the high energy…and because it was the longest stretch of time I got to see Mary in during the whole run.
With our first legs in the books, Van 2 headed to Todd’s place to crash, relax, and grab a shower (which was awesome). For anyone reading this who plans on running HTC someday, I would highly recommend finding a house along the route to crash at between one of your van exchanges.
Our team didn’t talk too much during this resting period. We put on Prefontaine and vegged out. I was able to grab about a 45 minute nap, but found it really hard to sleep with the excitement of the next run.
[...] Read Van 2 Part I [...]