Hood To Coast 2011 Race Report - Race Errata

Since blogging about my most recent experience with the Hood To Coast team relay in Oregon, I've gotten a lot of great feedback. Some if it was along the lines of "Hey, great blog!" which is awesome to hear and "I like Oregon!" which is also awesome to hear. Mostly the feedback I got was long the lines of "I don't get it. What did you do exactly and why?". Hmmmm. Right. It's my blog and I wrote about my experience from my perspective but from my perspective, I already know a lot about Hood To Coast.

What is Hood To Coast / What is a team relay race?
Hood To Coast calls itself "The Mother of All Relays". I have no idea if that's true. I know it is not the only long distance team relay race out there but they very well may have started the model. There's on very near where I live in California called The Relay that runs from Calistoga to Santa Cruz and we've talked about doing it. We haven't mostly because we consider Hood To Coast our event.

The way it works is you are a runner on a team of 12 runners. You will each run 3 legs of a 36 leg relay race that covers about 200 miles. You run in a rotating order so if you run Leg 1, you also run legs 13 and 25. In order to "pass the baton" to the next runner, you ride ahead in a van. Instead of everyone riding in one van, you split your team between two vans. As a runner is on the road, a van drives ahead to the next baton exchange to drop off the next runner in the lineup order. The other van drives ahead and rests and prepares. You cycle runners and vans like until you reach the finish line.

Is there more too it than that?
Yeah, but not too much more. While your runner is on the road you might, if you are able, drive part way ahead and pull over to offer them water and cheer them on and check on their well-being. This is really important. Even if the runner doesn't need water or cheering or help, necessarily, as a part of a team this support is vital to morale. In many cases, it's vital to runner health as well. Many times I've seen runners say "don't stop for me" (including myself) just to find that they needed something half way through and were very glad that you did stop.

And this is supposed to be fun?
It is supposed to be fun! And it has been every time. Not only that but every time we do it we have teammates we've either all never met before or who only one or two of us has met. Not only do they have fun but at the end of the event we have new friends. After spending 29 hours in a cramped van with sweaty, cramped, exhausted people, sleeping on the ground, eating weird foods, trying to stay hydrated, sane, alive, you bond.

To me, that is the joy, the beauty, the irresistible allure of this event: teamwork. It starts before the race, decorating the vans to celebrate your teammates and your team and the event. One of our teammates this year brought a ton of sparkly temp tattoos (unicorns, hearts, rainbows, dolphins, oh my!) and we spent the waiting time plastering them all over our bodies and laughing. Everyone is in it together. Everyone is going to have their own needs and times when they aren't so happy. Being able to rely on a team makes it that much easier to get back out on the road. This is absent of every other race of the non-relay variety. When you start your 3rd 10k leg in 24 hours with no sleep and, about a mile or two in, a van load of cheering, delirious lunatics drives by with the windows down, screaming their heads off, it makes a difference to how you feel.

I've seen some amazing feats of team support. The first year I ran it, my entire van jumped out to run with our exhausted runner in to the finish line; running extra miles on top of our own to lend any bit of energy, strength, spirit we had left to our anchor runner. The second year a twisted ankle left a teammate running an extra leg. The third year it was me being unable to keep food and water down that had a teammate running one of my legs and then, later, another twisted ankle had me picking up a leg despite my own problems. I've documented the feats of team spirit in my most recent race experience in my race reports. It's an amazing thing when people who have already pushed themselves to their physical and mental limits find that they have even more to give, if it means helping a teammate and the team reach the finish line.

I love this race because it shows me that I can accomplish amazing things (even if I'm hurting and begging to quit) and that I can help others accomplish amazing things. I love this race because it shows me what amazing, strong, resilient, superhuman people my family and friends are. Every year we say "never again" but that's just for a day or two. Even now we are talking about splitting duties for 2012's event... if we make it through the lottery...