Girls Gone Wildwood

Van 1 at the starting line Let's get this straight: I love Hood to Coast. It sounds crazy to take 12 runners in two vans 200 miles from Mt Hood to the coast, and it is. It's also raucous, exhausting, hilarious, challenging, illuminating, messy LONG event. You really get to know the people in your van. And when two of those people are my dad and my brother, and the rest are friends and/or rad new people, it's well worth the sleep deprivation and  muscle pain. Our "go crazy" pic. Not crazy yet. I ran leg 1 this year-- my ninth-- as I "collect all 12" to make my own full Hood to Coast. It was a great year for it, since #1's second leg had three miles added to it because of construction near the Hawthorne Bridge, which is the usual exchange between runners 12 and 1. I relished the extra distance in the otherwise short set of runs. Okay, let's actually go get ready now I was also pleasantly surprised by the first leg, which is known to...

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.  Everyon...