I am on the Hood To Coast team and my first half!!!!

I am almost caught up on my blog! Yeah! I am up to this month, April. Although I have a lot of blogging for April, its been a busy month.

But before I continue catching up I have to share some exciting news that just happened yesterday! You see I have been an alternate on a HOOD TO COAST team for the past several months. Yesterday my friend and team captain, Rachel, called and told me that one of the other girls had to drop out for this year and that I am on the team! She sent me the official invite e-mail last night and I went to the link to officially sign up on her team! I am now a member of the "Miss Fits" HOOD TO COAST team! Yahoooooo!!!!!!

If you are wondering what HOOD TO COAST is, let me tell you! It is called the mother of all relays and is the largest relay race in the WORLD! It is 197 miles long! The race starts at the Timberline Ski Lodge on beautiful Mount Hood, east of Portland, and goes through Portland, through countryside, over the coastal mountain range, and ends at Seaside on the Oregon Coast! Once you get to Seaside they claim that is the biggest beach party on the west coast. It has been going on for 30 years. There are 15,000 runners! Each team has 12 members. There are two vans with 6 members in each van and they frog hop each other down the course. There are 36 "legs" in the race. Each runner runs 3 legs and they vary from 3.7 miles to 7.4 miles long. Some are VERY steep. Some you have to run at 2:ooAM. You do not sleep for two days, just run, ride in a van, cheer on your team, run some more. The BEST part is that it raises money for the AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY! Last year they raised $500,000!!! It is going to be SO GREAT!!!! I am so EXCITED!!!!

If you want to learn more about my upcoming adventure, here is the official website. You should check out the trailer to the movie, if you get a chance to rent it (it is coming out soon) then I recommend it, I've seen it twice! http://www.hoodtocoast.com/

Other running news is that I ran my first half marathon this past Saturday, April 23rd! It was a beautiful course around Hagg Lake (almost 2 hours norht of here). The weather was perfect, sunny, cool, with no wind. On the way up there, I drove my friend Rachel (yes, the HTC captain), we were following my GPS and it was taking us on the back roads. We came up to a spot and actually rode a ferry boat across the river! I knew there was a ferry boat close to where we live, but we found out that there is actually 3 ferry boats along the Willamette river! Hmm, you learn something new everyday. It was a funny thing that made my first half all the more memorable. I did pretty good on my time too. I ran the 13.1 mile course in 2 hours and 8 minutes. I would have loved to break 2 hours, but it was SO HILLY and some parts were very steep. I am use to training on hills, but not at race pace. It was AWESOME! Now I cannot wait for my next one! I actually messed up and missed my turn around and ran to the full marathon turn around spot so I ran about 14 miles, oh well. I'll get it right next time. Just another memorable moment to add to my experience! After we crossed the finish line there was a Hamburger lunch waiting for us. It was delicious! After running that hard, I have never tasted a better burger!

The race was called "Running For Risa". It was to benifit a 19 year old girl who had been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. The sad part is that Risa died a couple weeks before the race. Her funeral was to be that afternoon. She had LOTS of family there. The family is members of our church and they live up near Portland. There were a lot of BYU shirts everywhere! It was still a fun and exciting race, but there was also a subdued sense of reverence. I cannot imagine how emotional the family must have felt. Losing Risa, then seeing the big turn out in support of their daughter. I am crying even know thinking about it. I am so honored that it was my first half marathon. And it was a beautiful day too, we kept saying that "the sun was shining for Risa".