Have you ever wondered what OfficeMax would call their teams if they could have 3 Hood to Coast Relay teams? Wonder no more as Brad William's fills us in on his Hood to Coast experience...
I participated in the Hood-to-Coast relay this weekend and I have to say it was the most fun event I have ever done! Imagine 12,000 runners in 2000 wildly decorated vans over 36 hours without any sleep all going to the same destination via city streets, highways, through the mountains in the dark, country roads and even a few logging roads (the dynamic of 6 sweaty-stinky-tired-gassy runners stuffed into a van with all the stuff is a side story all to itself - suffice to say we finally opened a jar of Icy Hot as our air freshener). Have you ever seen the movie Rat Race? This is a running race/road rally fueled by powerbars-gatorade-peanut butter-french toast-Red Bull-Burgerville-terriyaki tube steaks-Denny's-coke-Red Robin-Power gels all chased down by LOTS of coffee (well that's how I washed it all down). The term "roadkill" now has a whole new meaning for me.
The team aspect was phenomenal. OfficeMax had 3 teams...the elite team was loaded with some ex-collegiate runners that are now working in our corporate office. There were then 2 teams (Rubberband Balls and mine was the Staple Removers) which were made up of ordinary runners of varying abilities but had been matched to finish at approximately the same time. Initially both teams were pretty friendly and supportive of each other and everyone was saying it didn't matter who finished first it was just for fun...I finally called BS on the rest of my team and said "you mean to tell me you are willing to give up bragging rights for a year and listen to the Rubber Band Ball team rub it in your face"? That seemed to fire them up and it was war...we even got to the point we were racing to see which van got to the next transistion area first and who had the best position in the port-a-potty line! There was almost a fist fight between van 1 and van 2 of my team when van 1 decided to try and get some extra sleep while we were running through the night (I discovered that running through the forest at 2am with a head lamp is something I really like). My van had built up 10 minute lead going into leg 25 which was when they were due to take over...they ended up being late by 25 minutes putting the Rubberband Ball team back in the lead. We had some tempers flying in van 2 and they were all over van 1...once things settled down, van 1 promised the extra sleep would allow them to catch back up and sure enough as they turned the baton back to us they had closed the gap and were in front by 2 minutes! The Rubberband Balls were also beginning to come unraveled with fatigue and injuries and we ultimately ended up beating them by about 40 minutes.
Our CEO has a home in Portland and he is the one that initiated the entry. It turns out that this race fills immediately every year with the teams from the previous year which are automatically grandfathered in and he wanted in...so OfficeMax is now a sponsor which got us 3 teams...Hooray! And the best part is that he signed up for a 3 year commitment so we will be going back the next 2 years. This was fun enough that I may have to get serious about run training next year to prepare for it! I ended up running 20 miles in 3 legs of the race at an average of 8:15...not stellar, but better than our 9:09 average. If you ever get a chance to get on a team...take it!
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