Hood To Coast Recap-My Runs

My Leg 1 started at approx. 1300ft and ended at approx. 800 ft through Sandy, OR. It's rolling downhill where I dropped 100ft over the first 4 miles then 400ft over the next 3.42 miles. It really didn't seem like that. I distinctly remember a couple of pretty good uphills in there. Overall the leg went very smoothly. The pressure was really on since the other 5 runners in front of me had managed to get a 20 minute lead on our projected time. Tim handed off to me around 6pm and I ran 7.42 miles in 1:00:55. That's an 8:13 pace per mile which is pretty impressive for me considering my fastest half marathon is at a 8:51 pace. I started about 6pm and passed several people over the 7.42 miles even uphill. There was a Garmin team from Canada who's leg 6 runner and I kept passing each other, but I took him on a hill and just kept on going. He found me afterwards and we congratulated each other on a good leg. I managed to keep our 20 minute lead. Woo Hoo!!

My Leg 2 started at approx. 50ft in Warren, OR and ended at approx. 290ft in St. Helens, OR. It was a steady uphill climb to approx. 215ft for 2.2 miles then I had a small downhill for .5 mile where I dropped down to 130ft then back uphill 1.45 miles for 165 foot climb. The pressure was still on. Van 2 had managed to keep our 20 minute lead and the rest of my van had as well. It was around 3:20am when I started my run. I was tired, it was pitch black even with my headlamp on and I was running uphill on back roads sweating my butt off. I think it was hotter at 3:20 in the morning than it was at 7pm. I ran my 4.15 miles in 36:39. That's an 8:50 pace per mile. Not great since it was only 4 miles. I should have been able to run it much faster than that. I was pretty disappointed with that run, but I still managed to be under my time and we remained 20 minutes ahead of schedule. Like I said, it was pitch black even in the transition. The runner I was supposed to hand off to had taken another runners bracelet, so I was standing there wondering if I was going to have to run the next leg as well when I hear a guy running toward the transition yelling, "I took someone else bracelet." You know how hard it is to see anyone even with a head lamp on? HARD!

My last leg started at approx. 790ft and ended at approx. 280ft through Astoria, OR. It was a rolling downhill course for the first 1.8 miles where I dropped 180 ft then a steep uphill for .6 miles where I climbed 140ft then straight downhill for 1.3 miles dropping 360ft then a 10ft roller for 0.4 miles and a 1.25 mile downhill finish dropping 120ft. Really not bad at all. I was glad that it was my last leg because I knew my quads would be shot after all that downhill. I ran the 5.35 miles in 43:09 for an 8:03 pace per mile. WAY COOL! If only I could run that fast on a flat course. It has been misting since 5am with a few breaks here and there. As I was running the mist turned into a light rain that was pelting me in the face. There was no rain predicted, so I didn't bring my hat. It really wasn't bad because it last maybe 2 miles and it was really refreshing.

Overall our team did awesome. We all managed to keep our 20 minute lead on the predicted finish time until van 2 took over for the last time. They didn't lose much. We still finished 12 minutes ahead of our predicted time, I think, or maybe we finished right on time, I'm not sure. Either way we all did awesome. This is how we ended up:

Time: 27:18:02
Pace: 8:19 (overall team which is also my avg.)
Division Rank: 96 / 243 (mens open although not sure why since we had 5 girls)
Gender Rank: 284 / 941 (i'm guessing men)
Overall Rank: 304 / 1004