Ready to Run!!!!!

I was in a car accident at the end of November, and have spent the past five months in and out of doctor's offices and physical therapy trying to fix my back. I have been really limited in what I can do physically, and it has been a bit depressing at times. I got the go ahead yesterday from my therapist to start running again, so I ran two miles this morning and IT FELT GREAT!!!!! I have been worried that I wouldn't be able to run Hood to Coast this summer, but my therapist thinks that I may be able to do it after all. We'll see how things go. This will be my fifth year running the race, so I am going to start training and see what happens. I'm crossing my fingers!

Hood to Coast is a relay race that starts near the summit of Mt. Hood, and crosses 197 miles to the beach. 12 people are on each team, and you take turns running between about 3.5 and 8.5 miles at a time. Each person runs three times, often over difficult terrain, once through the night, and normally through some pretty severe heat with it being the end of August. It is an amazing experience -- you start on a Friday morning and finish sometime on Saturday, depending on how quickly everyone runs and whether or not you run into problems (knock on wood - we have had our share of injuries and sickness through the years-several times one person has ended up running four times because another runner is injured and can't run again). By the time we finish, we are very sore, sleep deprived, and absolutely thrilled to be finished! It is really an amazing experience, particularly being able to prove to yourself how strong you can be. Jared has run with us from the beginning, and Paul has run all but last year. We have also had Danielle, Dallin, and Sandy (Paul's dad's wife) run with us, and lots of friends. Here are some pictures from our run last year.

Jared, Roger, Tony, Dallin, Angie and Heather at Mt. Hood.
Angie, Tony, Heather, Jared, Dallin and Roger getting ready to start the race. I was the first runner, and had 6 miles to run with a 2000 foot drop in elevation. It sounds nice to be able to run all downhill, but it is really tough on the joints to have such a steep grade!

Here's out team sleeping between our second and third times running. Each team has two cars, and they alternate cycling through all of the runners once and then the other van steps in. We got about three hours of sleep, and then started again. There are hundreds of cars that park in an empty field and you just sleep the best you can. It's really crazy.
Here we are getting ready to run for the third time. It was about 4:00 am, and I was exhausted, and sore! Angie, Tony and Jared waited at the start of my leg with me to wait for the last runner from our other car to get to the exchange point. We had to wait about an hour, because once you get to the coastal mountains there is no cell phone coverage, so you don't know when the last runner from the other car will be arriving. We estimate, and then come a bit earlier in case they are running faster than projected.

Hood to Coast finish line and party at the beach Our 2007 Hood to Coast team--I am getting excited for August!

Video of me starting my first leg of the race - they have small groups start every 15 minutes for about 8 hours because there are so many runners. They roads still get really congested doing it this way, but they are a lot better than starting all of the teams at once! I am at the back of the group close to the camera, wearing blue shorts.