The Mother of All Relays

Before the start of Hood to Coast 2011

Galen Rupp's fearless kick during the last lap of the 10K. Poetry in motion.
Meb Keflezghi, 37, proving that he still can compete with the best of them. Downright inspiring.

For track and field fanatics, this summer's Olympic games lived up to the hype. Yet they still served as only a warm-up for what we all recognize as the biggest running event of the year.

"Hood to what??"

Well, maybe not everyone keeps Hood to Coast irremovably blocked off on their "running" Google Calendar in all caps. But for many of us, tomorrow marks the start of the "Mother of All Relays" (as the relay modestly refers to itself).

We'll do our best to keep the blog updated throughout the night to satiate the thirst of our loyal track and field-a-holic followers riveted to computer screens during the wee hours of the morn. Of course you can just read our final post on Saturday morning.

Either way, for now I leave you with a profound quote from Johann Blake, sprinter and teammate of Usain Bolt on the Jamaican Olympic team:


Basically, we are not human, we dropped from space like Mr Bean. Mr Bean is not a normal guy, he makes jokes. We are not normal guys. We are from space, I am from Mars.

While we may not be as fast as Blake and Bolt, we're certainly far from normal. After all, we're running an all night race from Mount Hood to a coastline 200 miles away -- for fun.

See you out there!

-MK10K

Blake and Matt hoisting L-Train after his final leg during Hood to Coast 2011.
1st place? No. From space? Perhaps