Hood to Coast 2023 Race Report and Takeaways

It’s really hard to put this event in a box. In all technicalities, it’s a 200ish mile relay race with 36 stages. And due to its nature, it really can't be compared to any other "standard" race distances, such as a Marathon, a 10km, or a 5km race. To some, it’s a fun run. To others, it’s the highlight race of the year. And maybe for a team of 12 runners with 12 different viewpoints and expectations, it’s going to be a little different for everyone. 

This year is my 7th year running it in a row (6 if you exclude the virtual hood to coast from 2020). As I get a little older and get more miles underneath my feet, my own viewpoint of the race has changed as well. At first, the sheer distance seemed insurmountable. As I grew as a runner, it turned more into a fun run. Now after doing it several times and seeing it from the perspective of both Vans multiple times, I take on more of an ambassador role. Of course I'm still going to try to run fast, but that's going to be secondary to making sure everyone else is safe and having a good time. I feel like HTC is a good way to introduce more people into running and to grow the sport :)

 But I digress, let’s get straight to the race report. 

From the top of Mt Hood (Exchange 1)

The first leg of the HTC is always the most exciting and selfishly I assign myself to Van 1 in order to be a part of it every year. (Well not *just* selfishly, i live pretty close to the first major exchange so my house naturally becomes a logical spot for Van 1 to sleep after their first legs wrap up) The race *knows* that getting people to show up before 6 AM is going to be a challenge, so they have a DJ at the start to get the runners pumped up for the start of the race.

For our heat they started playing the cha cha shuffle so we danced prior to our start time.

Once we saw our runner off, we started running back to the van as well. The first three legs feature pretty steep declines, so runners always run much faster than their self reported race paces. This year was no different. The mountain air is cool, its still early in the morning, and the adrenaline gets pumping as soon you see other runners on the course. It definitely juiced the times of our first three runners, but it also set them up for really high expectations for their 2nd leg. It also pushed the expectations of runners 4-6 to go a little bit faster.

By the time it got to the later legs, the temperature warmed up to the 70s and the legs themselves flattened out and turned into rolling hills. The weather forecast had the portland metro area going into the low 90s and we were definitely beginning to feel the heat as we approached noon.

Running leg 6, i only was able to go 2 miles before my heart rate shot up into the 180s. I had also ran out of water. Considering my previous history of syncope, I didn't want to push it so I slowed to a walk until my heart rate went down to the 150s. Then I would run until it got back up to over 180 bpm. I'd repeat this until I got into downtown Sandy. Along the way, a few good samaritans gave me a few water bottles for which I was very grateful. I probably still would have have finished my leg, but it would have been a bigger struggle without the water.

As i turned the corner and saw the high school, I knew I was in the home stretch. From there I picked up the pace and ran it in to pass it over to Liddiea (Runner #7) 

The First Major Stop (Exchange 6) 

I always feel a little bad at Sandy High School because as a Van #1 runner, I don't get to chit chat too much. Van #2 has maybe been getting excited for over an hour and the second the handoff occurs, we take off as fast as possible to eat, shower, and sleep.

And for good reason. It will take about 30 minutes to get to my house and then we have to plan to leave my house ~ 90 minutes prior to Van #2's estimated time of arrival at the OMSI parking lot. I think we estimated the time to be 6 hours, so practically speaking, we only had 4 hours to get in as much recovery as possible -- it was going to be the last time we'd be able to shower and sleep in a house until the end of the race.

And of course that's what we did. I had prepped some rice, bacon, eggs, bananas, watermelon, and coconut water for my team so they can replenish their electrolytes. Everything was ready to go when we arrived. As people were eating and getting ready to nap, i took the opportunity to clean up the van a bit too and make sure I had my camping gear packed and ready to go.

In total, I probably got about 90 minutes of sleep before i was up again to wake up the rest of the team and start heading out to OMSI.

Meeting Up At The Waterfront (Exchange 12) 

As fate would have it, we get there around 6 PM and that's when the evening news starts their broadcast. Being how energetic Amanda, our captain, is, it was no surprise that she caught the camera's attention and again we made the news.

We got to do to the west side of the river out to Scappoose. But it felt like a tale of two legs. Whereas legs 1-3 were net downhill and early in the morning, legs 4-6 were flatter and much MUCH warmer, so the back half of the van struggled. (at least i struggled). As the temperatures cooled, i feel like the roles reversed a bit. Legs 13-15 where much flatter AND much longer, which came as a bit of a shock for runners 1-3. As for the back half of the van, it felt like runners 4-6 found their legs (no pun intended). Jonathan had to run a 7 mile leg in the heat during leg 4, but leg 16 was at night and just a little over half that distance (4 miles). So of course he crushed it. Sprinted right into the exchange.

Rebekah likewise appreciated the cool weather and the fact that her assigned leg (17) was both shorter and had less elevation gain. Her previous leg (5) was in the heat, plus had a net uphill of 400', and that uphill was saved for the last 2 miles or so of her leg. By comparison 17 was a cake walk.

Wrapping Up the First Day (Exchange 18) 

 My second leg was a similar story. Leg 6 was 7 miles in the heat, but leg 18 was not even 4 miles in the cool of the evening. I redeemed myself a bit by averaging about 8 min/miles the entire time. I was also swinging around a lightsaber -- I had never gotten the opportunity to do it before and figured i try it at least once... and that's the last time i'll do it. It just gets heavy after about 5 minutes and there's not much else you can do with it. On the practical side, it was easy for the next runner to spot me. In fact, i had gotten to the exchange so quick that my van mates hadn't caught up to me. They were supposed to meet me at the exchange in order to walk me back to the van but I had already passed on the slap bracelet to runner 7. I even had time to start eating a bagel that the Van 2 runners had handed me :)

Camping On a Farm (its the funnest part!) (Exchange 24) 

 After about 5 minutes we got everything sorted out and we made our way out to the next major exchange (24). This was near a small little hamlet called Mist. Being about 40 miles away, it took us basically an hour to get there. By the time we arrive, its just about 2 am, so now the impetus was to settle down as quick as possible in order to maximize sleep time. Van 2 had finished their first set of legs in about 6 hours, so i predicted something similar for their second set of legs. If they started at 1 am, then that means the projected arrival time of runner 12 would be around 7 am. Working backwards, that means I needed to wake up and contact van 2 at around 6 am. In the event that everyone finds their 2nd wind and absolutely goes beast mode, we can still be ready to take the slap bracelet back from them.

I got about 3 hours of sleep that night and woke up at around 6 am. Van 2 did indeed arrive at my projected time so now it was all about getting all my runners up so we can close up camp and get our runner #1 ready to go again. We were a bit slow getting everything together but everyone got into position right on time.

Being that getting in and out of exchanges is always a little difficult and also being that leg 25 is shorter (about 4 miles), we decided to leave runner 1 behind at exchange 24 and leave a few minutes early. The risk is that our runner would be half way done with their leg before we even got out of the parking lot. Fortunately that didn’t come to pass and we had maybe 20 minutes he finished his final leg.

 Van 1's Last Legs

Speaking of final legs, the mood of the van shifted noticeably. Yes everyone was exhausted, but as everyone wrapped up their final legs, everyone was also much more relaxed. The focus was no longer on trying to “survive” a leg but rather it was just cheering everyone else on. It was nice to see and probably the highlight of the race for me.

Of course being that my leg was the last, so I was cheering people on while I could but also in the back of my mind I still had one leg left.

Rebekah, my number 5 runner was in the same boat. She had the second to last leg which also happens to be (in my opinion) one of the hardest legs of the whole race. It’s a 6 mile leg with over a 600 foot hill. This means it’s a 100% climb for the first half and then you can cruise down during the second half.

Despite being difficult, it’s also one of my favorite legs since everyone knows it’s difficult. So more often than not vans driving by will honk, play music, and in general will give you a lot of love.

That was my experience in previous years so I try to do the same in kind to the runners doing it this year. We honked and yelled and blasted “born to run” by Springsteen while driving up and down the entire hill.

The parking situation at exchange 29 is pretty horrendous — it’s a one way dirt road up about a quarter mile before you can even park. The volunteers there have to radio each other in order to direct traffic and to inform vans when their runner is approaching.

I was getting anxious and sitting in a van wasn’t helping. I decided to step out of the van, walk down to the exchange and warm up down there.

I only had to wait about 15-20 minutes or so before Rebekah finished up. She handed me the slap bracelet and off I went!

The leg itself was about 6 miles of rolling hills with a slight downhill for the last mile or so. My plan was to keep it steady and at around mile 5 I’d use up the rest of my energy to sprint to the finish.

From there Van 1 was finished. We did a little celebration and then drove out to Warrenton to eat, shower, and sleep at a friends house. I call this the hangover phase as our excitement level peaked somewhere around legs 29 or 30. Now everyone is exhausted. I feel that’s the trade off between Van 1 and Van 2.

Van 1 Finishes And "Race Hangover"  (Exchange 30) 

 Van 1 gets to kick things off but they have 4-5 hours of race hangover before trying to get their energy up again to run to the finish line with the whole team. Van 2 on the other hand, keeps their energy levels up and peaks right as they cross the finish line at the final exchange.

We clean up in time to meet Van 2 and that’s exactly what happens. We cross and celebrate with everyone before we go our separate ways.

Takeaways 

I’m happy to be a part of it, but I'm also happy to be done. The build up to the race, then the race itself takes a lot out of me, so I'm also happy it only happens once a year. For those who are hooked and want to do it again, then we’ll see you next August. For those who gave it a shot and in the end, feel that once is enough, we want you all the same. Honestly couldn’t do it without you.

I took the next few days to reflect on the experience and came away with some takeaways (in no particular order):

•  Respect the Distance. Plenty of people run it without training - it’s quite possible. But unless you already have an athletic background, your body is going to pay for it. Put in the work, preferably starting in the spring so you have a solid 18 weeks to build up your miles. The more you sweat in practice, the less you bleed in battle.

• Unless you're on a competitive team (i.e. you are looking to place top 10 in your age group/category), let go of your expectations. A lot of people will be newer and will be excited to experience the spectacle. Celebrate their legs with them since for many it will open their eyes to what they can accomplish.
• You’re probably going to gas out. If and when you do, its OK. You can usually avoid this by taking it easy on the first leg. But even then it’s no guarantee. When it happens, don’t be too hard on yourself. Help your team mates remember this point. Definitely disappointing, acknowledge that. But also help them get out of the pit of despair (it happens to all of us)
• Listen to everyone’s stories. You’re gonna spend the next 30 hours with them. You will learn a lot. And will laugh. And Cry. And someone will probably overshare something and it will be hilarious. There will be inside jokes for years to come (you had to be there).
• Help to grow the sport. Running is only a punishment when people see it that way. It can be a very wonderful sport once they see how big it really is. HTC seems insurmountable to most, but surprisingly achievable as long as they put their minds (and legs) to it and commit.

Well I think that’s it. I might post some more info about training in the next few days, thanks for reading!