Thursday, September 4th, 2008
The toughest race ever?…
“The Mother of all Relays” is by far the Nike Hood-to-Coast. This brute of race starts from the top of Mount Hood and ends at Seaside, OR. This is 197 miles of running.
Team Bramley consist of myself, Andy, Anjum, Ashish, Cole, Craig, Dan, Jamie, Julie, Kendra, Karen, Kevin and Pat. Our team was the dream team of runners. Jamie is a track star, Dan and Karen were destroyers, Ashish was a stud, Craig was the mentor, Anjum was Miss Consistent, Julie was brought there for her skills on the hills and comedy, Kevin was the local boy, Andy was Mr. Cool, Kendra was bringing up the rear with a mouth full of gum, Cole the Team Manager and Alex “quick out the gates” Omel.
Needless to say, this was the toughest race that any of us has run. We started the race at the top of Mount Hood at 4pm on Friday, August 22nd. I ran the third leg of the relay. My first leg was 3.98 miles downhill and I came out of the gates fast. I finished my first leg in just over 25 minutes.
This is where the race gets harder. Each of us started at different times, I started my first leg at 5:00pm on Friday. The 12th leg started at 12:00am on Saturday. After each of us finished our first leg we each had to wait roughly 6-7 hours to run again. This is why it is called the “Mother of all Relays”. Your body gets cold, your legs get stiff and you are trying to get as much sleep as you can before the next leg of the race in the back of a minivan.
My second leg was at 2:30am and it was the worst run of my life. 7.98 miles uphill. It took me forever to get my legs. Running in the middle of the night was not fun.
My third leg I was fired up, I wanted to run my heart out. My final leg was 6.54 miles of rolling hills. I ran hard but it was a very tough run because my legs were tired and I was ready for bed by this point.
Kendra ran the final leg of the race cross the finish line for Team Bramley in 26:33:28.
Team Bramley killed it! We averaged 8:05 miles for 197 miles.
Overall this race was the most difficult race I have ever run. The stopping and starting, running at 2:30am in the dark, no sleep for 26 hours takes its toll. This was the most grueling and most enjoyable race I have ever run. If you are a runner this race should be on the top of your list.
Needless to say the toughest race ever…
Link to the entire gallery:
http://picasaweb.google.com/OutsideAllDay/NikeHoodToCoast2008
Alex Omel
outsideallday.com
