Hood to Coast 2011

Erica Schramm's August 26-27, Hood to Coast Race Recap:

Hood to Coast is a 200 mile race that starts in Mt. Hood, Oregon and ends in Seaside, Oregon. There are about 1000 teams and they start at 3:30 a.m. with about 15 teams and go every 15 minutes until 6 p.m. that Friday night.

 

I was asked to join team Baba Yaga 5 days before race day. One of their runners got injured the week before and I was fortunate to be the #1 alternate. Josh was awesome and sponsored our team at the last minute. Thank you!

 

Robin, my old college cross country and track coach is the race organizer for Baba Yaga and I was honored to finally join their all women's team. They have an awesome reputation at this event and have made submasters and masters records over the years. Their team had a featured article in the Portland paper the day before as they made the Master's record the year prior. This would be their 16th year running. Most of the women are from Minnesota.

 

I ran in a co-ed team from 2005-2008, thanks to Robin's invite then too. I had to take the last two years off, so I was no longer apart of my old co-ed team, Puke-N-Rally. Also on our team were three of my old teammates from CSB so I was looking forward to seeing them too!

 

Once I received the e-mail from Robin, I knew I had no choice but to run since this is one of the most awesome racing experiences I do. I booked my flight, and left on Thursday afternoon. I arrived around 7:30 p.m. and we ate out at a pasta restaurant. 
We stayed at Robin's friend's home in Portland. Our team was set to start at 10 a.m. I was in van 2. This was the earliest the team had ever started, so we did not have time to make it to the start for van 1, since we had to pick up three of our teammates at the airport.

 

We made it to exchange 1 and stocked up on grocery items for the next 20 hours. There were 6 runners in the van, two drivers and the runner I replaced also joined to watch. I was leg 11. Our van started running around 2 p.m. It was hot and only getting hotter. By the time I started it was around 4:30 p.m. and 93 degrees out. My first leg was 4.85 miles on a bike trail, gradual down hill. It was pretty miserable in the heat. I went out hard. The unfortunate thing about this leg is that there are about 5-7 cross walks and I got stopped three times. At one stop I had to wait 80 seconds which was extremly annoying as other runners caught up to me. I averaged 6:40 with the stops so I was ok with that, considering how hot it was.

 

After our last runner we headed to exchange two. We ate at Subway and chilled out for a couple of hours. I tried to sleep, but really just rested. I was looking forward to my next leg that would be in cooler temps. I started around midnight and it was probably 60 degrees, much better. I ran 4.1 miles, gradual downhill on a dark country road. We all have to have lights and reflector vests, but they don't work too well, as one of our runners fell pretty hard. I averaged 6:08 so I was much happier with this leg. We then headed to exchange 3 and again tried to sleep. We had a 12 passenger van, and I shared the first row with Laurie, leg 12. We tried to sleep but it was hard to get comfortable. I was really  not looking forward to my last leg which was 8.1 miles and gradual uphill the whole way. I didn't know what to expect but wanted to try and break 7 minute pace.

 

I started around 6:30 a.m. The temps were again great. I started out feeling really good. I averaged 6:30's the first 6 miles. I was very happy. This leg was beautiful on a country road with lots of rolling hills. I was starting to feel fatigued around mile 6 and just hit the wall with lack of sleep and no food in me. Mile 7 was all uphill and I ran 7:50, ouch...I just tried to hang on for the last mile. I was trying to catch a girl in front of me that started several minutes in front of me, and I closed the gap to about 20 seconds, so I was happy about that. I ended up averaging 6:47 for this leg. I was very happy to be done. Laurie then finished the race up and we were done and ready to celebrate! We ended up at 22:18 total time, for an average of 6:47 per mile over the 200 miles. We placed first in the sub-masters division (everyone over age 30) and 2nd overall. We ate an awesome breakfast and took a well needed nap before we went to the awards ceremony. We stayed in a beautiful beach house with plenty of room for the whole team and our four drivers. We walked around Seaside, ate pizza and ice cream and called it a night at 9 p.m. The next morning we ran along the beach very slowly, had another great breakfast and headed home.

I had yet again an awesome time at Hood to Coast, spending time with old friends and new friends, who all have the same passion!