The Mother of all Relays

Oh, Hood to Coast. Where do I even start? How can I possibly describe you? The Hood to Coast Relay is this thing almost everyone in Portland, or Oregon for that matter, has done at least once in their life. You get 11 of your friends together and then over the course of 28 hours or so, you run from Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood to Seaside, at the Oregon coast. It's madness, absolutely lunacy, but it was so. much. fun.

My HTC team was dreamed up over a year ago during a slightly drunk installment of the Hotel Emanuel Book Club. We all decided we would run and also talk some of the husbands into doing it too. Well, over the course of the year before the run, three of the girls got pregnant. So, we found some more friends to replace them and then found more friends to replace some of those friends who got injured and finally, we had our team. Van #1: Steve, Pat, Rhiannon, Chris, John and Jessica. Van #2: Chris, Emily, Nandi, Alisa, Katie and me. With another Katie along for the ride in Van #2 as our driver and all-around cheerleader extraordinaire. And on Friday, after long months of running, we finally set out on our relay.

Here is my Hood to Coast experience by the numbers:

Distance: 197 miles

Start time: 8/27/10, 7:15am

Number of teams: 1,000

Number of runners: 12,000

Distance of leg #11, my first leg: 4.39 miles

Time: 37:51

Number of minutes of rest we got at the second van exchange before van #1 radioed that they were on the way: approx. 30

Times van #1 locked the keys in the car: 1

Times we had to have van #2 jump-started: 1

Times Emily and Nandi thought they were going to die on their second legs: numerous.

Quote of the race, from Nandi as we drove by her on her second leg: "It's like the f***in' Blair Witch Project out here!"

Time of day Nandi was running: 12:30am. (deep in the coast range, on a gravel forest road.)

Distance of leg #23, my second leg: 4.18 miles

Time: 37:15

Hours of sleep we got during the fourth van exchange: 2

Hours of sleep during the entire relay: 2

Distance of leg #35, my third and last leg: 7.28

Leg conditions: uphill, in full sun, 11am in the morning, on gravel. i.e. major suck.

Time: 72:51 (Go me!)

Final time: 28 hrs, 46 minutes. Success, full success.

Van #2 Awards (as nominated and awarded by me!):

Spirit Award: Katie D. She was our driver and our cheerleader, meeting every runner at every exchange. It was so nice to see her smiling face as we came into the exchange zone!

M.V.P.: Chris D. for running Emily's third leg for her as her knee was kaputt.

Team Captain Award: Katie A. She herded cats to get us all on the same page for this crazy thing. Her patience should be admired by all.

Hard-core-bad-ass Award: Nandi. She ran all of her legs on gravel, including that horrific leg #21 in the coast range. She's amazing.

Tiny Dancer Award: Alisa. Before her last leg, she was standing in the parking lot, jamming out to some hip-hop. She was tired, she was hungry, she wanted to be done, but most importantly, she wanted to dance.

The "I Survived the Pittsburgh Hill" Award: Emily. For just that, surviving the Pittsburgh hill. It's leg #20 and it's the worst, absolute worst. Em, you're a trooper.

I took some photos, but in the chaos that was "hey, they're coming!" and "you forgot your number!" and "where are my blinky flashers?" I forgot to take very many. To get an idea of what running Hood to Coast would be like, check out the trailer for the upcoming movie "Hood to Coast", due out on 1/11/11.

So, is it weird to say that I want to do it again?

Alone on a Saturday Night

B is shooting a wedding tonight and I had so many fun things at my fingertips to do:

• Movies in the park
• Riverfest
• Baconfest 2010
• More movies in the park

However, I decided to be lame, stay home and watch this movie instead.

So, sign up for Netflix, watch this movie too, be inspired, go on an adventure.

Day Trippin' in the S-dub-dub

Southwest Washington is an interesting place. And by interesting, I don't mean "interesting". I mean "interesting". You know what I'm talking about. You know you do.

Dacia, Aurelie and I spent today driving around on crazy forest roads looking for the trailhead to hike up Silver Star Mountain, a hike that I tried to find with Craig and Bridget way back in April. We ended up on the wrong road, ran across some serious K.A. (i.e. knuckle-head action, i.e. crazy kids out shootin' sh*t), turned around, drove back the way we came, found the road we missed and, three hours later, ended

up at the trailhead.

The rest was awesome.

A Night at the Races

Everyone loves a bike race. The Twilight Criterium last Friday.

My fellow bike racing fans, Katie and Julia. If anyone knows the really tall guy with nice quads that was in first for a couple of laps, please forward his number to Katie. Thank you.

The Party Planner

Just a few short years ago, I used to not be a "planner." Making plans used to exhaust me. I would much rather just "decide on Friday about the weekend." I planned our wedding in about three months just because I kept putting everything off.

However, my current position at work has changed all of that. I now plan events, schedule events and always look ahead at least two months on the calendar. I am obsessive about the date. I have an online email calendar and a written planner that I highlight and organize. So really, I shouldn't have been surprised when the managers at work asked me to plan a party for the store. Turns out, I'm kind of good at it.

So just how did REI Tualatin celebrate being named 2009 Store of the Year? With a BBQ picnic from Bamboo Grove Hawaiian Grill and a guided paddle trip along the Tualatin River.

My view from the back seat of the canoe-- my friend Linda doing the work while I snap photos.

The Evolution of the Party

When I was a kid, the kind of partying I did mainly consisted of birthday parties and slumber parties, making lip sync music videos and staying up as late as possible. As I got older, boy/girl parties were the norm and we'd all roam the streets together looking for something to do. Then I went to college and discovered a new level of partying that mainly consisted of kegs, beer pong, flippy cup and of-course, the inevitable hangover. I think it is fair to say that once I moved to Oregon, my partying got a little bit more low key--instead of kegs, there was always a couple of bottles of wine and while we still occasionally had a house crammed with people, you'd more likely find us with a few close friends around the table. It seems though that the evolution of my party career has taken a new step. B and I hosted our first party at our new house and officially ushered ourselves into an age where we always have to have something non-alcoholic on hand and we can expect our friends to leave by 9:30pm. That's right folks, we threw a party for our friends and they brought their kids.

Last Friday was the First Annual Hoybook Ice Cream Social and Blongoball Tournament. B spent the better part of the week churning homemade ice cream: Rosemary Honey, Triple Dutch Chocolate, Toasted Coconut Lime and Bacon Habanero. I made a Blongoball bracket and we constructed a trophy. And when I looked around, the kids and babies almost outnumbered the adults.

It's sometimes funny how your life changes. How one year, you're hosting a party and making homemade sangria, and the next, you're pouring lemonade and cream soda. But it's also awesome how your life changes. Because these kids and babies are going to need someone to show them how to party and I might just be qualified.

Dinner with the Cabin People

What started out as a simple invitation to have dinner with my aunt turned into this...

A great night out with members of our West Coast family at one of our favorite restaurants, Nuestra Cocina.

What aren't they telling us?

When I moved to Oregon, I moved with my good friend Kristina. We came here and lived with my good friends Jody and Travis. Then, I got a job at REI and met my good friend Jen. At that job, I met my good friend Drew and his wife Katie. Things were great for awhile.

I think Jen left first. She moved to St. Louis to be with her now husband Ben. Then, it was Drew and Katie, who moved to L.A. for a job Katie got at Biola University. Jody and Travis left about 18 months ago as Travis' company transferred him to the Bay area. And finally, just last week, Kristina left. She and her fiance Douglas are in the long, cross-country process of moving to Bar Harbor, Maine.

I miss them all, tremendously. B and I have many good friends now, but it's been hard to watch the people that got me settled into life in Oregon leave one by one. Makes me wonder: what aren't they telling us? Is the grass really greener? Well, at least we have four great places to visit now...

Kristina and I after one last meet up for happy hour. We'll miss you!