Mary Zoe and Trevor's Blog

Post Race

Pre Race

I thought about writing this post the Monday after I completed the , but in hindsight I’m happy I didn’t. Because I didn’t finish the race under my four hour goal, I was a little let down. But given the eight days I’ve had to reflect, I feel much better about the fact that I finished the race.

The good thing about this outlook is it allows me find success in finishing my first marathon, while making realistic goals for the next. Yes, believe it or not I do plan on running another marathon.

Some of the key things I learned:

• Rest the day before
  • We traveled to Vancouver and wanted to see some sites. Walked around more the day before the race than I should have
• Don’t get caught up in the hype
  • It is really easy to get excited before the race and start out too fast.
• Stick with your game plan

  Following an ankle injury suffered I had to get realistic about how fast I would run. Initially I thought I would about an 8:15 pace (3 hour 36 minute finish). Due to a couple weeks of not being able to run, I pushed this back and decided to aim for a 9:15 pace for the first 13.1 miles and a 8:45 pace for the last 13.1 miles (3 hour 55 minute finish).

  Being caught up in the hype I started out too fast (some miles in the low 7 minute range). This killed me later on the race

• Have a cheerleader
  • I knew Mary was going to meet me on the other side of a bridge at Mile 18. I didn’t want her to see me struggling, so I picked things up and kept my eyes peeled as I crossed the bridge. Seeing her then and toward the finish line was a definite boost, one I really needed.
• Be happy with finishing
  • This is more advice for a first marathon. I’ll be less happy if I don’t improve on my time in future races

Overall the race was a great experience. For anyone planning to travel for a race I highly recommend Vancouver. Well-organized, great staff, and an awesome course.

I got a little carried away with my first post, and given I’m writing this a month after we finished, I’ll try to wrap this up.

This image at the beginning of the post is of vans arriving to Exchange 18 at the Columbia Country Fairgrounds. We arrived to the exchange fresh from our break at Todd’s place and ready to run. I think this set of legs was the most exciting for everyone because we would be running at night. We readied our night gear (head light, front and back blinkers, and reflective vests) and wished Amanda good luck on her leg. Good thing a few of us brought some night gear, almost every leg resulted in the loss of some blinkers.

The night run was my favorite run by far. It was crazy to take off from the exchange and start running into the woods (I had finished with a 6:52 pace). Even with the head light, you couldn’t really see much. Every now and then I would see the back blinkers on a runner in front of me and all I thought was “roadkill” – which I think helped with the quicker pace time.

Following Todd’s second leg we decided to skip the available showers at the next exchange and continue to the next van exchange. This decision, while keeping my dad up all night driving, proved to be key in keeping us on time. We pulled into the van exchange around 3:30 – 4:00am (I’m not really sure on the time since I actually managed to catch some sleep on the drive out). We laid out a tarp, set our alarms, and fell asleep. Next year I’ll be sure to bring a sleeping bag and not just a blanket. It was cold so I put on my running tights, long sleeve running shirt, long sleeve t-shirt, sweatshirt, and socks. If it weren’t for my ear plugs, I’m not sure if I would have slept well (vans coming and going all night).

Now my favorite non-running part of the event happened on Saturday. I was completely passed out when all of a sudden Marc shakes me awake, “TREVOR! GET UP! WE HAVE TO GO!” I’m in a total daze and slowly start gathering my stuff. It is about 6:45am and we haven’t heard from Van 1. Our walkie-talkies we had been using weren’t working for some reason and we had no mobile reception. We start packing up the van and Marc goes, “Great, I’ve lost a shoe. Where’s my shoe?” I’m not sure why, but this seemed like the funniest thing to me. Maybe it is because this was the first time I witnessed Marc as something other than calm and collected. We packed up, sent our runner down to the exchange where they met up with Van 1 and off we went.

We also learned that many Van 2 vans were not able to make this exchange after sleeping and shower at the earlier exchange. Traffic congestion from having Van 1 and Van 2 on the road caused hour long back-ups. Lack of sleep paid off for us.

My last leg was . My pace dropped significantly on this one (7:59) partially due to being tired, but I also started out slow and picked up my pace too early. At one point in the run I heard another van tell their runner, “You’re halfway there.” Assuming they were telling the truth I kicked things up. Instead, I was more like 40% through, which meant I gassed myself out.

Following an episode of wondering whether or not we would beat Todd to the beach (we did), we met up with Van 1, ran through the finish line and enjoyed some celebratory beers.

Registration is almost here for the 2012 Hood to Coast and I’ve already planned on running again.

Team 2 Legit 2 Quit

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.