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.
Courtney and I spent last weekend in Austin and after reading a lot of how to spend a weekend in Austin guides, we thought we'd share how we spent a weekend in January in Austin. Overall we had a wonderful time, I think our only regret was not buy tickets to the show we wanted to go to before hand, but we ended up a cool bar instead. Friday night Beers at Craft Pride - a nice surprise that it was fairly chilled. They only carry beers from Texas, so it’s a good place to go if you want to sample a lot of local beers. They also have a big patio for live music and a pizza truck.
Tacos at a Sirena Taco Truck on Rainey Street - pretty good and cheap.
Sleeping: The W Hotel is in a central spot in downtown, lots of good places within walking distance.
I needed a short run because I had a guest in town. Ann wanted a bit longer. So I created this ~10 mile loop with a ~5 mile add-on. It's nice to have options!
I signed up for the Orcas Island 50k as a solo run months ago when it looked like Susan wasn't going to be able to come to New Zealand to run the Tarawera 60k with me. I felt that mentally I needed to run a 50k by myself, so I wouldn't be as anxious about running Tarawera solo. The timing of the Orcas Island 50k was perfect, just a little over a month before Tarawera, plus it was being put on by Rainshadow Running. James and his team from Rainshadow Running put on some of the best trail races in the Pacfic Northwest.
Oh me of little faith, Susan as able to get work, a family vacation and New Zealand all to line up and work out. But by this time that Orcas Island 50k was sold out, so she couldn't join me, and we had also changed from the Tarawera 60k to the 85k, I knew the 8400 feet of elevation gain on the Orcas Island 50k was going to be good training for Tarawera, but it still didn't make it any easier mentally knowing she wouldn't be joining me. I know people …
Yassine of Animal Athletics decided to do one last long training run in preparation for his 3rd HURT 100 and invited a lot of the Portland trail running community to join him. His route was 4 loops of the "North Nasty", which is ~11 miles and 3000 feet of elevation gain.
Last year Animal Athletics did several group runs they called the "Nasty Series", for one reason or another Susan and I weren't able to make any of the runs, well technically we tried to make one, but we were late. This time since Yassine was doing loops, we knew we could start any time and he would eventuallycatch up to (pass) us.
We decided to do 1 loop of the North Nasty and add on an extra "easier" 9 miles to give us a good 20 miler.
We really enjoyed seeing so many people running the route and chatting with everyone, even if was just passing and saying, "are you doing the Nasty?". Yassine and several other fast runners eventually did catch up and pass us, but not before…
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