It’s Okay to Not Run Marathons

Hood to Coast It’s Okay to Not Run Marathons relay, a 197 mile relay race starting at Mt. Hood and finishing at, you guessed it, the coast (the town of Seaside, Oregon, to be more specific). Although I had run a few similar relays before, I'd never run "The Mother of All Relays," – a name which Mark Remy poked some fun at here – and didn't know exactly what to expect. Would it be fun? Exhausting? Beautiful?

Yes.

Each of the runners on a twelve person team is assigned three chunks of the race (also known as legs) to run. Being either dumb or ambitious, I volunteered to be runner #5, which meant that I got three of the toughest legs.

My first came just a few hours after we started and was pretty much all uphill. It was warm in the afternoon sun, but I kept a pretty decent pace and passed several other runners.

The second one was, on paper, the easiest – a relatively flat, straight eight miles – but it was just after dark on the shoulder of a crowded highway, which made it the opposite of relaxing. I actually ended up running a second per mile slower than during the first leg, which seemed alarming.

By the time my third and final leg rolled around, the sun had risen again and we were in the midst of an amazing old growth Oregon forest. There was a bit of mist and conditions for running were just about perfect. This leg included another big climb, but even so, I should have been able to run it hard in the cool morning temps. Instead, I was 20 seconds per mile slower than the previous leg. Even so, this was definitely my favorite run of the trip – and my favorite run in a really long time, actually – because of the beautiful surroundings I was running through.

If you ever get a chance to run this race, jump on it. It's a wonderful running adventure, and I hope to get a chance to go back someday.