197 miles w/12 runners, 2 hardcore drivers, & 3 supportive volunteers. Absolutely amazing and worth every mile. It's actually difficult to describe the emotions, exhaustion, exhilaration, joy, and pain we experienced during this event. Our prayers
, tears, and thoughts go out to the female runner that went down on my 3rd leg, and was brought back to life after 8 minutes w/no pulse and no breath. She is currently in the hospital but will remain an inspiration to me. Another inspiration..... my sweet 
husband. He battled injury after injury and ran through the pain to run this relay with his family. He doesn't regret a minute of it as he hobbles around now. 
What a rush!! I had the privilege of starting the HTC for our team at 8:00 am. It was just under 6 miles. I ran a 7.46 minute mile. My favorite leg of the entire race. 2nd leg occured at 6:30 in downtown Portland. Good run - 9 minute mile - 4.1 miles. Across a bridge and under 6 more. Only negative was that I got motion sickness because I ran beside the water. Weird!! Last leg (run on about 2 hours sleep) began at 6 am. Again a 9 minute mile - just under 4 miles.
The hardest part is the starting and stopping. My leg muscles tightened up. Remedy, hydrate and constant stretching. Awesome! The only other weird thing was knowing how much water/Poweraide to drink, how much food and which foods to eat, and somehow figuring out when to eat so that I wouldn't end up in the HoneyBuckett (port-a-potty) when I needed to be running! I refuse to jump into the bushes to do my "business" during my run. I'm a potty snob!
We had a great van with 6 of our runners and an awesome driver. We managed a hot tub at the end of our last leg.Van 1 Rocked it! Van 2 was also amazing. Completely pushing themselves beyond all of their goals.
My kids were all okay while I was gone. No seizures for my youngest!! I have great friends that cared for my kids. I came home and crashed pretty hard a Sunday night!
I would run it again in a heartbeat! The bonding was immeasurable.
Had to include a picture if the beating my feet took! I gimped around after the run but felt tons better the next day. Pretty gross though. Blistered both feet!!
6 comments:
YEA! Hood to Coast! I loved doing with with you and being in the same van as you! Thank you so much for all your support! I just love you! :) Love the blister pic too! We definitely pushed it!
That is so awesome! Way to go, I am totally impressed!
I didn't know you guys had a blog. And now I am way impressed with this relay. Wow! I'll have to add you to our blog: therowdyrebers. This will be a great way for us to keep in touch with you.
Wow. I am super impressed! And your poor feet! I hope you've treated yourself to an incredible spa pedicure with an amazing foot massage - you definitely earned it! Way to go, Cathy!! :)
Looks like you passed through our neck of the woods! Congratulations of the Hood to Coast! That's pretty impressive.
Cath, I love reading about your family!!! It is so cool to read your experience about HTC. I loved doing it with all my family. It is so fun - to older I get the more I love my family! Does that even make sense? Sure love you guys!
Post a Comment