03 September 2009

Hood to Coast Report: Swift Justice

Hood to Coast is my most favorite race event of all time. I describe it as a slumber party without the slumber. It’s my 4th year to run with hubby's team Swift Justice and the team has been running HTC for more than 15 years.



I’ve always ran with Van 2 and this year my assigned legs were the same as last year’s: 7, 19, 31. Even though I ran these legs last year, I still got a bit surprised on how hilly the first two legs than what I remembered them to be. Me---no---like-y---hilly.


First Leg (7): I started running my first leg around 12:30 p.m. It was HOT like hell! I felt really good and nervous at the same time but my run went well. One of the two things I remember during this run was this 5 year-old-girl with her mom filling dixie cups with water and handing them to runners. Even though I have my own hydration bottle, I took one cup from the girl and she asked, "Do you want a refill?" I told her, "No, sweetie but thank you for asking." I thought that was very thoughtful and nice. The other one was the sprinklers were directed toward the road for the runners. Running briefly through the sprinklers was refreshing! I don't mind having my personal sprinkler guy running with me at that time. =P

It was around 6:30 p.m. by the time we finished running our first legs. We went to our place to shower, eat, and chillax and wait until we get a call from Van 1 to tell us it’s time for us to leave. Well, we didn’t receive the call until 9:30 p.m. so, we were late at the exchange point.


Second Leg (19): Since we left our place a little late, I was 12 minutes late from the hand-off. Ugggh!!! It’s the worst thing to be late at the exchange point. It was around 10:30 p.m. by the time I started running. I thought it coolish enough that I wore my light long sleeved shirt... bad idea. I flagged my van & quickly changed to a tank top. I was truly sweating like a pig! I felt really good before, during and after the run. It was probably around 3:30 a.m. by the time we finished our second legs, so we head down to the next exchange point and rested there.

Third Leg (31): After my 2nd leg, I ate a little too much of salt & vinegar flavored potato chips... another bad idea. My stomach got upset and I was dry heaving. I told my friend, I don't want to run my 3rd leg. I had a few bites of bagel and water to settle my stomach. It was 9:30 a.m. by the time I started running my last leg. It was drizzling heavily (not quite a rain) during my run and I just loved it! As it turned out, it was my best leg!


My total mileage at the end of the day was 15.54 and total time was 2:38. I got another HTC medal to add to my bling collection plus a neon shirt that's so bright that I can easily be spotted through Google earth. Swift Justice placed 227 out of 313 in the Mixed Corporate Open and finished in 30:17:33.

8 comments:

  1. Sounds like a challenging race, you did a great job!! I love the shirt.

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  2. Loved the report. Happy you hoofed it even though you didn't think you could. Super inspiring! :) :)

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  3. Sounds like a great day out.

    Well done

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  4. Great job and great report. It brings back memories of a couple of years ago. When I did it in 2007, I was runner #7 on my team as well, and also was late to the 2nd exchange too...oops. I remember the legs being hilly as well. I also did #2 in 2006 (with the big 1500' drop) and #10 in 2008 with the same team. Hope I'll be able to do HTC again soon. :)

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  5. REALLY nice job. Sounds like you guys have a great group. Thanks for sharing the report. One of these days, I'd love to do the relay again.

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  6. AWESOME! I so want to do this race next year.

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  7. Nice job my friend... next year me too. :)

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