A Hood-to-Coast Prelude

Self tagged "the Mother of all Relays," Hood-to-Coast is less relay or race and more a great human event. That was my experience as a first-timer last year. Ten teams depart the lodge perched on Mt. Hood every 15 minutes from about 7am to 7pm to cover the 197 miles to the beach in Seaside, OR. One-thousand teams, made up of twelve thousand runners, carry a timing chip as they run 36 legs, but for the vast majority time only matters when it comes to knowing when to get your next runner to the exchange on time.

Found our first "Coasters" at the gas station this morning

For many these are the only two days a year friends spend together. They do so packed into a smelly van driving at speeds more typical of LA freeways than Oregon country roads. Imagine what debauchery twelve thousand friends reunited for 24 hours and egged on by thirty-six hundred volunteers get into when freed from their work, their kids, their lives for about 24 hours.

Assuming we find some connectivity here and there along the route we'll let you know how the 29th running of this great human event unfolds.