Oh Hood to Coast, how I love to hate you. I really have mixed feelings about Hood to Coast, but Susan loves it so being a good friend and running partner I agreed to do it again this year. Besides running on the road, getting no sleeping, sitting in traffic jams and inhaling exhaust, Hood to Coast is awesome! Seriously the thing I really love about Hood to Coast is getting to be part of an awesome team of your friends and family and all sharing the running experience together. Unfortunately vans 1 and 2 don't get to spend a lot of time together, so make sure you get all the good people in your van. ;)
I started to get anxious about not sleeping and being in charge of the van a week before Hood to Coast, so to help my anxiety I created daily memes and posted them on Facebook.
I was in van 2 this year, the previous time I was in van 1. I prefer van 2 because you get to run on more back roads, van 1 you run more on Highway 26 and 30.
Everyone in our van got along great, Rick even serenaded us! Sally switched a leg with Rick when his calf started to hurt, she traded my longer leg with me when my stomach got upset. I traded my dad's "hilly" leg with him, since I love hills and he doesn't. I know this is against the rules, but I thought it was awesome as a team we were able to make adjustments to make sure everyone was comfortable with what they were running.
Running on the roads isn't too bad when you average an 8:20 pace.
Maybe next year I can convince Susan to do the Cascade Lakes Relay , if not we better be in the same Hood to Coast van.
Me and Rick in front of the Honey Buckets - Our team name is Honey Bucks and Buckettes
Relay hand off with Dad
Susan and Melinda doing a hand off. A rare moment between van 1 and van 2.
Our family hiking trip this year was to the Dolomites, more specifically Alta Via 1. John and I have done several hut to hut hiking trips in the Alps and planned them all ourselves, we never had any problems. As I started to plan our trip to the Dolomites, it became clear to me that it might be easier if we used a local company to help us book our accommodations and transportation. That way when questions came up from family members there was someone we could ask. Also letting the ultrarunner of the group plan the daily hiking itinerary probably isn't the best idea.
I ended up contacting Dolomite Mountains, I sent them my itinerary, the places I had already booked and a few other specifications and Monica created an agenda pretty similar to the one I already had in mind. As much as I like to plan things myself, it was nice to have someone local and not feel responsible for 5 other people's vacation. Plus if they thought the hike was too hard they couldn't blame me.
Susan wanted to start Mother's Day off with a run so Cedar and I gave her a new 22 mile route for Mother's Day. We wanted to make it a memorable route so we made sure to give her a nice climb all the way up Saltzman, which actually was quite pleasant since it was at the beginning of the route.
The nice thing about running on Mother's Day is there isn't a lot of people out, since most people are probably having brunch celebrating, but us trail runners are a different breed.
After our nice long run, I got to go celebrate Mother's Day with my 2 moms. Moms are the best!
"Let's sign up for Orcas," she said. "It'll be fun," she said.
No matter that's not at all what Ann said when she ran it six years ago. Part of being a runner-- and I'd say most especially an ultrarunner-- is foolish optimism. As soon as it's over, sometimes even while it's happening, you're dreaming about your next adventure and the pain is forgotten.
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