Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Here are Eddie's photos from Hood to Coast. Enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/eddie.higgins/HoodToCoast2008#

Monday, August 25, 2008

9th Place!

We ran our hearts out all night long through the Oregon back country and finished a tremendous 9th place overall! http://www.racecenter.com/results/2008/htc08.htm

And now, my top 9 memories of Hood to Coast 2008:

9) Finishing 30 minutes ahead of our target.
8) Finishing my last leg. So glad the pain was over and the binge eating could begin.
7) Fearing for a little bird's life as it tried to eat two whole goldfish at a time.
6) Eddie's exclamation that he had 86 kills on one of his legs. (I'm not sure what shocked me more, the number of kills, or that he actually kept count.)
5) The ginormous beach party in Seaside, Oregon.
4) Clearing out the van when the effects of flax seed oil peanut butter came to a culmination.
3) Fearing for our lives while riding in the Death Van. (Note: The "Death Van" attribution is referring to the van itself, not our highly skilled driver, Kerry. Please reference Eddie's post for further details.)
2) Welcoming rookies to the insane relay experience.
1) Seeing the team back together again.

Until next time... radio silence.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

dear enterprise rentacar

a letter I've drafted to enterprise rentacar, the agency that provided our (overpriced) vans.

"To whom it may concern: there were several deficiencies we noticed in our vans rented for the h2c race.

To begin, the child safety lock would not disengage. This is akward when we're using the vans to drop off and pick up runners-36 times. Your support staff was less than helpful in finding a workaround.

Beyond this, other complaints include, in no particular order: The lighter plugs would not work, the winshield sprayer was out of fluid (which we had to replace ourselves), the gas guage would vary depending on factors of elevation, slope of surface, and how many people were in the van.

Also, who doesn't gas up rental cars? And really, check your engines and turn off the check engine light when you do. This check should include whether the car rattles uncontrolably when the gas pedal is depressed.

I don't mean to tell you how to do your job, but with the highway robbery you call your 24 hour h2c rental agreement, we expected a little more."

All finished up

Enjoying the fine weather and refreshments at the beach.

van 1 update

Much like the moon landings in the 60s, van 1 is emerging from radio silence through the back woods of oregon. Provisions lasted, the weather held (its sunny and gorgeous), the running was superb, and were heading to seaside, OR now to rendezvous with van 2. Two questions remain: what will we place and will we make our flight back to sfo?

Car Wash!

These kids are awesome!!!

Car Wash at the DQ

Llama or alpaca?

Beerllenium Falcon

Scappoose Hwy

Van 1 gettin it done. Started off leg 2 at around 11 minutes ahead of
pace, finished up around 14 minutes ahead of pace. Not too shabby.

Good morning

I can't think of a better way to start my Saturday. At 2am in a
parking lot in the middle of downtown Portland, knowing I'll be
running in the next 2 hours. Oh yeah!

Big Cat & Lil K

portland or, 2 am

1.5 hours of restless sleep later...and van 1 is back. Were a few more mins up on our splits.ed took a dive running through the docklands of portland. Urban night running is hazardous.

very very late at night...or early in the morning

It's 1:30 and we're awake-ish from our brief in-car naps. Ed is about to start Van 1's second set. It's also cold and there's some sort of rally going on under the bridge. We're 16 minutes ahead of pace!

Poptarts

To the viewers of this blog: we've had several discussions surrounding the relative merits of Poptarts during the relay. Here's a topic for discussion that I'd like to solicit thoughts on:
"Resolved; poptarts are the the greatest food ever"

Food for thought: Only in America could we take a danish, make it more portable, more non-perishable (second next to twinkies-which don't have the benefit of foil), and more delicious. They come in all flavors for people in all walks of life--what's not more liberty-loving than that? Poptarts are, in a word, terrific.

Thoughts? Favorite Poptarts memories? Frosted or unfrosted? Toasted or untoasted? I put it to the people--share away.

PS-a history of Poptarts can be found here.

Friday, August 22, 2008

Midnight Rest

Me: Crosby, you want to play a game with me?
Crosby: Is it called Drink The Beer?
Me: No.
Crosby: Then no.

We drove through a town outside of Portland called Boring, or as I like to call it, Boregon.

All there is to eat is flax seed oil peanut butter and our van smells like a high school locker room.

Running again in 2 hours or so. Enterprise Rent-A-Car is the worst.

finished with leg 1

Van 1 is done with our legs and handed the batton to van 2. After subway (mmmm), were driving to portland for the 12 exchange (should happen around 1:45). Were 16 minutes ahead of schedule and rolling-i picked up 21 people over 7.5 miles. Good night!

exchange 1

Were waiting for ed at the base of timberline road on hwy 26. Total elevation dropped so far: 2000+ feet in 5.6 miles.

And they're off!

Shotblocks and goldfish

Truly the food of champions. And poptarts. Can't forget poptarts

On 8/22/08, Eddie Higgins <eddie.higgins@gmail.com> wrote:
> Testing out mobile posting, because laptops and sweaty guys really
> don't mix. We just arrived in portland.
>
> --
> Sent from Gmail for mobile | mobile.google.com
>

--
Sent from Gmail for mobile | mobile.google.com

The Hood in Hood to Coast

Child lock is permanently enabled

Eddie is pissed.

Poptarts

To the viewers of this blog: we've just learned that there will be no
poptarts purchased on this relay. Here's a topic for discussion:
"Resolved; poptarts are the the greatest food ever"

Only in america could we take a danish, make it more portable, more
non-perishable (second next to twinkies-which don't have the benefit
of foil), and more delicious. They come in all flavors. In a word:
terrific.

Thoughts? Shouldn't we have some of these on hand for the miles ahead.

--
Sent from Gmail for mobile | mobile.google.com

We just set a record at the Portland Quiznos

According to the guy working the register, no one has ever spent $108.02 at once at this particular Quiznos. I bet even Michael Phelps can't claim that.

We will attempt to break the record on the return trip. Stay tuned...

Quiznos Record

We're setting records and the race hasn't even started. $108 bill.
We'll double that tomorrow.

Picking up the vans

I keep lobbying for stretch Hummers but Tom likes to stick with the 15-
passenger vans. Someday I'll make it happen.

"Biohazard" forces us to evacuate Portland lightrail train

They don't mess around here.

Test

Testing out mobile posting, because laptops and sweaty guys really
don't mix. We just arrived in portland.

--
Sent from Gmail for mobile | mobile.google.com

Prepping for the flight north

Boarding passes are printed and we're ready to go through airport security. Mike left his bowstaff at home this time.

SFO Airport

We've already lost Matt.

Trying to finish up work...

...so that I can get to bed. We fly out of San Francisco at 11:00 AM tomorrow.