From the Hood to the Coast

This weekend marked the 12th Hood to Coast I've taken part in. Hood to Coast, for those who don't know is a 197 mile relay race that starts on Mt. Hood (Timberline Lodge) and ends at the coast in Seaside, OR. It is a 12 person team which divides up into 2 vans. It takes anywhere from 17 hours for the freakishly fast to 30 something hours for the slower, more sensible souls.

My team this year was the Stumbo's Prayer Warriors. This was our second year together, with a couple of minor changes to the roster. The most important component to our team is that we're named for John Stumbo and we pray for him and tell other teams about him during our race. When I first put in for a Salem Alliance team 2 years ago, my thought was to have a team of all staff. John was the first to commit that year, before we even knew if we got a team. You apply for a team in October and don't find out until November if you made the lottery. A couple of weeks after I sent in the forms in 2008, John was stricken with an illness that has wracked his body ever since and nearly took his life in November of '08. In fact, the day I found out we got in was a day I had just heard that John had taken a turn for the better. I took it as a good sign that day.

Well, John has fought this disease and made great strides in getting better, but he didn't get to run with us last year and unfortunately wasn't healthy enough to this year either. If you would like to read more about John and his journey you can check out his blog at johnstumbo.org/blog. This year we tagged other vans with magnets that said "You've been prayed for!" Then it had our team name and John's blog info. We actually did pray for them. It was good.

Some highlights of this year:

1. Kara Brown Sound. For those of you who know Kara, you needn't read on, if you don't... suffice to say she is the tiniest little ball of energy that packs the biggest punch ever! She whoops and hollers and shrieks... let's just say. During the first leg, maybe the second, I said, "Hey Kara, we don't have to actually scream for every runner we see, we're gonna pass like 8000 during the race, if we narrow it down to maybe just our runner as we pass, maybe we can visit here in the van with each other." She adjusted, although she doesn't have a voice as of the writing of this blog, so yeah, there was a lot of "Brown Sound"
2. Kara in the window:Relating to the #1 of this blog, Kara was hanging out the window to yell at Melissa as we passed her on her second leg. Bruce was driving and not so good with the buttons on the van, started putting a window up. It happened to be the one Kara was hanging out of. Melissa said she heard Kara yelling and then she heard "Ow, Ow Ow!" Yeah, Bruce rolled her up in the window.
3. Granola Chronicles: Erik (w/a K) the famous one, was in our van and brought, among other things a giant bag of bulk granola, became the joke because he offered it up so much. Randomly, one of us would say, "If only I had some granola" Turned out, around leg 3 one of us dug in and it was really good. At one of the big stops, I think the St. Helens fairgrounds, me and Melissa and Shannon were talking about various world problems and very deep conversations, solved a LOT of issues. Melissa grabs the bag, quite violently, and granola explodes as if a pinata has just been busted. I was not amused. Melissa was horrified. After the clean up ensued, it turned out that the "bulk" of the bulk granola had landed in Erik's crap he'd left out anyway, so I guess Karma w/a K bit Erik right in the...oh you get my drift.
4. Quote of the trip: Early in the race, the best quote emerged. It was my son who said it, but Erik agreed, so I can take nepotism out of the equation. Scenario: Jerry had been giving Trent a hard time saying that he couldn't run so as not to make our van too fast and the times uneven. Later, we were talking about it and Trent pipes up "Nobody puts Baby in the corner" We laughed profusely and later declared that "Baby" road killed 103 people so was our unofficial mass murderer.
5. Hogging the Honey Bucket: All is fair in HTC and fellow runners, so I can freely share that Erik was having some tummy troubles... precisely, well, he had enough Imodium on board to keep a herd of elephants from pooping for a week. At one point in the race, Erik looked over and said "I gotta stop" We stopped and of course the line was a mile long. I stood in it with him, because I had to go #1. He goes in and I do shortly after. I get out and decide to wait and walk him back to the van. I wait... and I wait... I finally start keeping track of which door doesn't open of the dozen Honey Buckets in the line. It quickly becomes quite evident which one Erik occupies. The others have a steady flow to and fro of happy runners. And the one stands there, almost lifting off the ground like a space shuttle. Finally, Erik comes out and looks like he's got no cares in the world. I ask him "Did you have lift off?" He gives me a little smirk and says "Oh yeah" THAT, marks one of the funniest things ever, in my HTC memory book. Poop happens folks and at Hood to Coast, your race revolves around it.
6. Prayer Times: As I mentioned, we are the Prayer Warriors and this year in addition to praying for John, we also added praying for other teams we had tagged with our magnets. Erik wrote down people he was praying for on his arm. We had kept track of team names who we'd tagged so he wrote them down plus others he had. We were walking to the start of his last leg and saw a van with a Stumbo Prayer Warrior magnet on it. Erik said, "Oh, they're on my list to pray for this leg" I told him he should tell them that and show them. He went up to their window and told them. The guy said "So, are you coming for us?" Real defensive like. Erik said, "No, I'm praying for you, see, I wrote it on my arm" He said, "Oh, thanks" Then, of course I had to add, "But we're coming for you too"
7. Paging Van 1: It's hard to explain all the ins and outs of HTC, but at the big exchange points, that is to say, the ones where van 1 meets van 2 and visa versa, it gets a bit tricky. At one this race, though, we were actually behind our van going in and we were the "running van" and they were the "handing off to van". We used the walkie talkie to call them and say that we were right behind them. That sounds innocent enough, except that Erik (w/a K) of course took the helm. He took on the character of some sort of southern gent, perhaps Louisiana or Texas or Arkansas. Doesn't really matter, but he went into a series of radio messages that we thought were hilarious! The other van stopped responding. Well, they were only a few yards in front of us, so Erik took the radio up and got into their van and talked to them. They were a bit groggy and not as pumped on adrenaline as us and well, when Erik came back he said "They weren't as receptive to the message as we might have thought" Note to self: Remember how you are when you've just woken up and have to run... not nearly as energetic as when you are just ending up your runs. (Sorry Van 1) My abs still hurt though, from laughing.
8. Road Kills vs. Road Killed: Bruce had this bright idea to keep track of, not only our road kills which are how many people you pass on your run. This is a very common thing that HTC people do on their vans. Bruce thought to also keep track of how many times you were road killed. Great theory, I like how you're thinking, but quickly we were becoming mass murdered. Ugh, I hate losing. We did it, though, cuz we started it. We were down a bunch. Then Trent ran a leg, he's my boy and an amazing runner. He killed 31 in his first leg. Awesome, we were almost back up to even. His last leg was an awful 7.3 mile beast where no van could give you aid and it was the heat of the day. He resisted to wear a water belt and took off. We went to the next exchange and when he finished, we got his time. 6:18 per mile pace. He said "I killed 72 people" We were all like "Trent, you avenged all of our kills!" It was awesome. So fun.
9. Prayer Running: Of all the great memories of this race, I think the one that stands out to me the most is the leg I ran, probably because it's about me!!!! Just kidding, but some truth to that. I only ran one leg, following the orders of my PT. I ran the night run of Leg 9 which is only 5 miles, but a pretty decent hill and a gravel road which is dusty. I haven't been training as much as usual, so when I pushed it my lungs were crying out. The dust only added to that. At first, adrenaline was pumping, I was booking along and felt great, plus I love running at night. Then the dust and the fact that I was running faster than I had been kicked in. My lungs were burning. My internal voice was talking to me. "Why are you struggling right now?" "Focus on something else." I thought, "Pray, dummy, that's the name of your team, pray for something" Then it hit me... "Your lungs are hurting, gee, pray for John's lungs," which I had just learned about the day before. I did, I prayed for John's lungs and for the spots to go away or be nothing. I segued into praying for muscle strength and complete healing and for him to run again. It got me through. It's amazing how focusing on someone else can get you through. By the way, there was a runner behind me from like 1.5 to 2 miles from the finish, just hanging there. I didn't mind. We passed a bunch of people together. We got to the little sign that says we're approaching the handoff, so we have like 150 meters to the end and I hear this speed up of feet behind me... immediately my mind says "Heck to the no!" I shall not let this person who has used me for the last 2 miles to out kick me. I had this thought in my head that Stumbo would NOT let someone beat him in the last little bit. I freaking started sprinting and so did they and I ran into that exchange point at full speed and handed off to Erik... btw, I won. That wasn't the best part though, the best part was God talking to me through my lungs. I love running at night and He met me there in the dust. I couldn't see, my head lamp just reflected off the dust and I was blinded, but I could see and hear and I knew what to pray for. Thanks God for meeting me there.

So, I think that completes my memories of HTC 2010. Stumbo's Prayer Warriors represented well. There are talks of next year already... my captain heart is weary. I said to Bruce today, "I don't know if I want to put in for it next year, it's so much work" He replied "What if you didn't, and John could run, how would you feel?" Ok, I guess I'm putting in for it... after all "Run John Run" is our statement of faith right?