197 Miles of Pure Running Joy

Hood to Coast. Mount Hood to Seaside, OR equals 12 people sharing 197 miles for 24 hours. Each person runs 3 legs of the race, rain, shine and pitch black. You've read my relay posts before, you know the drill. Team name of choice: Road-Ents of Unusual Size. Classic.This race however, will be one to remember... Shannon decided on a pedicure the week before the race. This meant no more callouses on her feet and A LOT of blisters after running. She wins team rockstar for running with these things. I can't even imagine that kind of pain. Dan decided to dress up for the occasion, mullet, sweat band, belly shirt and all. Notice the road-ent hand drawn on his cut off wife beater. Dan wins best costume, for sure! Please note the mullet hair blowing in the wind.I was super stoked about my first leg. I typically don't talk about my race times, honestly it doesn't usually matter to me. But this first leg I averaged a 7.4 minute mile for the 6 miles I ran. That definitely has never happened before, something was just right that day! This is my tired celebration face.Jon is warming up for his first leg. I can't decide if this is a sumo stance or a monkey, but he wins best way to warm up for an 8 mile run.Mike was joking about giving him Pringles instead of water during his 2nd run. Dan followed through with the request. Mike takes home the prize for eating the most disgusting thing while running.I've learned from Chris Provost (via Wasatch Back Relay) that crazy dance moves are the best way to cheer on your fellow runner. I believe this is the running man in action, I can never be sure what moves I will bust out though. Shannon brought her didgeridoo all the way from Australia to cheer on the runners! She really is getting good at playing it too. I think it was just what we needed for that extra motivation. I really am serious when I say run through the night... this is Angela, Emily and I at about 10pm. Our van was finishing up our legs to pass the slap bracelet on to their van for a few hours. This would be about 3am. I always wanted a picture of me running at night and my wish was granted. I rolled my ankle on this run - ha maybe running at 3am on a forest road with potholes isn't the smartest idea?!After the 3am run, when I thought the running party was over and my legs were completed I did what any normal person would do. I began gorging myself with beef jerky and pretzles. The problem with this was as we went down to meet Dan (the last runner in our van) at the exchange point the next van of teammates were no where to be found. "Oh crap" we all thought standing on the side of the road, as visions of disqualification danced through our heads, we knew Dan would be there to meet the next runner any second. I looked around at all of our feet and realized I was the only idiot (for lack of a better word) with running shoes still on. I looked at Shannon as I started taking off my outer layer of sweats and said, "Well I guess I'm running again." When Dan got to the exchange which wasn't but 30 seconds later he looked at me very confused, but passed the prized slap bracelet onto me and off I went. I only had to run 3 of the 5 miles of the leg as my van hurried to find our team and the next runner. Turns out it was just a little timing miscommunication and I like to believe the 3 extra miles burned up all those calories I ate when I originally thought I was done. Here I am after the 4th leg. Just for clarification, I am flexing NOT attempting to punch my fist through the window. :) After we were really done with our legs we headed to Seaside for the FINISH! Here is our van of runners. And our whole team together. Until next time peeps!