Hood To Coast 2013 - Slow Dip Ahead - Preparing for Battle

Team Slow Dip Ahead is gearing up for yet another Hood To Coast. This will be the 4th HTC as Slow Dip Ahead. Technically it's our 3rd as we were Team Under Domination one year (Underwhelm, Under Impress, Under Dominate). It's 36 days until the race and the team roster is set as of today. As with every HTC, we have strangers on board. Poor, poor, hapless strangers.

We are in the competitive category I would call "Proof Of Life". We run not to relive past glories (okay maybe a little) or to put in personal bests or roadkill other runners. We run to have fun. We run to support each other. We run, most of all, to prove to ourselves we can.

Slow Dip Ahead is, roughly, a family team. I have 4 siblings that run long distances. This is our 4th Hood To Coast as a family team. We've run 2007, 2009 and 2011 (some of us have run more but none have run less). So, the odd years. Which is fitting as we are an odd team. We fill out our team with significant others, friends, co-workers and poor bastards recruited through acquaintances. Through the years, a lot of those people have stuck around.

I really want people to experience Hood To Coast, I do. It's just that I feel I can't recruit someone into the sheer awesomeness of it without revealing the horror as well. We had a teammate one year who hated it and hated us from the beginning. It wasn't fun. She complained about us openly on her cell phone, had us remove everything from the van so she wouldn't have to sleep on the ground and then fell in a ditch and wrecked her ankle (right before the marathon she was training for so that sucks). We never saw her again. It was mutual. Maybe that's not the best example but it shows that the race is only fun if you make an effort to make it fun and truly join a team.

Every year we try to break up planning duties but, inevitably, our Portland contingent ends up with an unfair amount of the work. So our captain managed our entry, the beach housing and the vans and recruiting. No small tasks. Houses and vans get rented even before acceptances are sent out. Pro Tip: Pick up your rental as soon as you are able to avoid getting a lemon. Car rental agencies bring in tons of vans from wherever they can for Hood To Coast and some have... problems.

This year I took on the task of team running shirts. It was my year. This is a tough task because you are going to have to eat just about every penny of the costs. But I don't mind because I have at least 3 other team shirts that I doubt were ever recompensed.

With that, I present team Slow Dip Ahead's 2013 Hood To Coast race shirts:

I am also trying to keep excitement going and to motivate training. In the past we've tried google spreadsheets, Nike+ and emails. This year half of us are on Garmin watches and so we're using Garmin Connect for training. I'm a data geek so it is totally awesome for me to go through the data from my teammates' runs. You can see where people stopped at stoplights, ran up a brutally steep hill, flew like some kind of fast flying thing in circles around a track. Way cool. Wearing a brick strapped to my wrist is less cool but I would do it forever to never have to see the Nike+ website again.

Part of my personal plan to motivate myself is what my stylist calls The Donaldson. If you aren't an A's fan, I pity you and your foolish life choices. If you are an A's fan you know Josh Donaldson, 3rd baseman. I can't grow facial hair so an epic mountain man beard is out. I can grow head hair like a friggin' expert, however, so I will soon be rocking this:

Holy crap! That's my stylist! I'm in good hands, I guess.

Rock. I've been wanting a real mohawk for a while. Being a 36 year old man with a professional career, a mohawk is allowed but it's not really welcomed by the groaning machine churning through dead and dying souls 24 hours a day. So Hood To Coast is the perfect excuse for some impudence.

I had also planned on another secret motivational weapon of some kind. Maybe a speedo. Maybe a skirt. Possibly pool floaties. But then a discussion on Facebook about The Tour De France, no less, devolved remembrances of HTC costumes we'd seen in the past and before I knew it I was buying a hot pink tutu on Amazon. It's arriving today.

I ordered some Nuun too. I'm interested in trying it. As I've gotten old, I've gotten crampy. Unlike most running blogs that mention Nuun, I do not work for nor am I compensated by Nuun. Have you seen the number of stealth Nuun blogs out there? It's kind of sick. I understand wanting a social media presence but the fake blog is the most insidious and stupid form of online advertising. It just makes me hate the product. Still, runners like it and so I will try it.

I am certain that other tutus have been ordered, as well as fuzzy leg warmers and probably some sort of candy raver LED vest but I won't know for sure until race day.

Team Slow Dip Ahead: We may cry. We may barf. But, dammit, we'll do it in the best damned race in the world and in hot pink tutus.

Next Time: Matt's Hood To Coast Packing List (sneak peek: No Body Glide!)