Saturday, August 27, 2011

First place corporate division!

The unofficial results are in! (I think) we won the corporate division for the second year in a row! We all joined Craig, our anchor runner, in a ceremonial jog across the sandy finish line. Eddie, Blake and I jumped in the frigid waters after vacillating a bit in the shallows, only to watch an older lady jump right in with no hesitation. After the dip, we joined the others to relax a bit in the beer garden while a rock band played on a beach stage.

Despite a train crossing that held us up for 10 minutes in Portland and a few other minor logistical hiccups, we finished with a time very close to last year's. The official time and results will be available on the Hood to Coast site likely in the next few days.

Thank you Eddie for the many hours of hard work organizing. And thank you to Kerry and Megan for fearlessly piloting the ships and putting up with 12 smelly runners.

-MK10K

Friday, August 26, 2011

Pig Destroyer

Pepperoni, bacon, and meatballs


Pizza!


Van 2 is sitting down to a well deserved slice at Sizzle Pie in Portland. Good luck van 1!

Portland!

After a solid set of performances from van 2, Craig handed the snap bracelet baton off to Mary Liz, van 1's first runner, in Portland. Van 2 is off to track down a well-earned pie from a local pizza shop. For van 1, it's back to work. Headlamps, hills and 24 Hour Energy ahead.

-MK10K

Van 2 gets to work!

Clean hand off and van 2 is in business. It's really hot on the course and people are needing lots of water.

Latitude is up!

Follow us on Google Latitude! All night! Since it's Friday night and you probably have nothing else to do :)

Mary Liz, Blake, Gretchen and I were discussing how it would be cool to have an app so we can see our current status in the race.

Wow. We just picked up Eddie as he was skipping down the road in his knee-high compression socks. He'll probably say it's some sort of cool-down routine, but I think he just likes to skip.

-MK10K

Van one is DONE ... with Leg one

Big Cat Higgins just wrapped up van one's legs under a brutal late afternoon sun. Earlier, after their blisteringly fast downhill legs, Blake and Mary Liz talked strategy for dealing with the bottom of their feet, which were looking quite gnarly. To pop or not to pop? It's a tough question this early in the race. Luckily we just stopped at a Walgreen's to pick up some mole skin, since I believe they both elected the former.

We're actually not 100% sure if Nike Bowerman started with us. If so, we're not too far behind.

Since we've never started this early, the heat has been a new challenge to deal with. But the worst of it is over. And Eddie just pointed out that we will get awesome tans ... and Blake just suggested getting a Google tattoo on his chest for next relay.

-MK10K

Google1 go!

Google1 is off and running. Mary Liz, in her debut relay, kicked us off from the peak of Mount Hood, dropping ~2000 ft in 5.6 mi. She'll be feeling that in her quads in her third last leg.
She handed off to Blake, who's looking strong. Nike Bowerman, a team that started with us at 1:45 pm, is flying, quite a ways ahead.

-MK10K

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Portland. Gorgeous.

Google1 goes back to work

The last weekend in August means one thing for distance relay aficionadoes: Hood to Coast. The team will be heading to Portland tomorrow morning, reporting for our afternoon start. The goal this year is clear: defend the corporate crown.

We'll be posting updates to the blog as we run (as well as running Latitude over the course), so subscribe to the posts and feel free to use the Twitter feed to suggest which pump-up tunes we *need* in the vans for those difficult, early-morning third legs.