Reach the Beach and Hood to Coast

Hilly, if you're the weakest link, good Lord, ATC will win going away. Who's on Leg 5? John Korir?

Sorry JAM, you are correct in that you did school Granger, not once but twice. No operating any heavy machinery after leaving McMinnamin's

Leg 3 is all downhill. not as steep as 1 or 2 but enough to thrash the quads a bit. The tough thing about this series of legs is that each run is longer than the previous one.

Leg 15 is pretty flat but 27 is more rolling than the book says.

I ran leg 1 the year Eddie was on it, he was gone before I took 2 steps. I heard he was sub 7:30 something at 2 miles. Nike was amazing that year.

I don't think there are any easy legs, i think that you can group the legs into 3 groups with 3, 10, 12 and 4 being the least difficult, 1, 5, 6 and 9 being the most difficult and the others in between.

I am wishing we were going to be there this year, maybe next year if we can't get everyone (Allegra/NJ'ers; ATC; PRC) to come to New Hampshire

Brian

Thanks for the info, gents. As a H2C virgin I am always looking for some insight from the veterans - and it sounds as though spot #3 is not quite as brutal as many of the other legs. Don't worry, Mr. McVeigh, I really am going to be the weakest link - the ol' brain doc says that I'm not allowed to run too hard (whatever that means), so training has been SLOW.

Joe A McVeigh...... post a link to the article you wrote about your HTC experience in '00. That should be mandatory reading for all HTC runners. For visualization purposes, I literally read it every night for 2 weeks leading up to the race last year. Great stuff!

Also, will you be in Central Park on saturday AM? if so, you should join me, bronfenbrenner, and fullem for post race lunch and beers somewhere.

HTC rookie.......have a blast. last year was my only experience out there and it was phenomenal. a few quick memories. had a great discussion with Joe McVeigh at the 12 to 13 exchange/past party around 1am. just a good state of the union address from an elder, wiser HTV veteran.... i believe he'd also just learned of another team allegra wrong turn.

Also...the sight at the 24 to 25 exchange was phenomenal. about 5am with low lying fog....tents and bodies everywhere made it look like a civil war battle field. i hadn't slept in 22 hours, had raced 2 legs already, and was downing Coke and caffinated power gel like it was my job.

Can't wait for the RTB experience. 3 full bucknell teams with support staff will make for quite a party. those of you who will be there, don't be shy.....feel free to join in the fun. just get 5 friends after the race, walk up to any six of us, and ask the magical question, "So who wants to chug?!"

If I remember correctly, Eddy averaged 4:00-4:01 per mile on that first leg. Five miles in just over 20 minutes-unreal.

There have been some substantial course changes at HTC this year. I have received leg rankings from what I believe is a reliable source (taking into account the course changes), but I am interested in hearing other opinions on which grouping of legs are most difficult. I am the team captain of a competitive Mixed team and I am strategically trying to maximize our line-up. Where are the top teams like ATC and others putting their strongest runners and where are they putting the weaker links. Any help would be appreciated.

I too am interested in getting some ranking for the leg groups from some experienced and fast H2C runners. Anyone with experience please help.

Jeez, I wish I was going to be there this year.

The 24-25 exchange is incredible..... the civil war battlefield is a very apt description.

My advice to virgins, rookies, etc.:

1) Don't sandbag your first leg trying to "save" something for the end. Teams that win or run well run hard from the gun -- we learned this our first year out there when we got our asses kicked.

2) Don't get too much sleep -- it is hard enough to "get up" for a leg at 4 a.m. without having to come out of deep REM.

3) Do your warm ups and cool downs. It is oh-so-tempting to not do these with the rushing to the vans, etc. Do them before and after every leg, at least a mile on the cool down.

Have fun out there!

Seems like legs 5,6,9 and 10 are really tough and that's probably where our stronger runners will go. Ah, what the hell am I talking about - they all look really tough!!

I heard Mal C is going for the atc squad.

What leg is he going? Or is it legs.

I saw Granger two weeks ago at a race in his hometown.......judging by the size of his belly, I think it be not wise for anyone to attempt to outdrink him now.

Scotty, I will be at Club Teams, but can't make it to the social gathering -- I have to head out immediately to a gig in NJ -- may of my Allegra teammates will also be at Club Teams, but they better not hit the bottle --

Thanks for the kind words, the URL for the race story is

http://www.nyrrc.org/nyrrc/org/stories/hood2coast.html

I don't think the photos load any more, oh well.

And as for leg toughness, my back-of-the-envelope guess goes approximately like this (toughest to easiest)

9 -- 5 -- 2 --10 -- 6 -- 4 -- 7 -- 11 -- 8 -- 12 -- 3 -- 1

Tho I see many as interchangeable. They are all tough at some point.

has anyone ever tried to use 10 runners? we might have to with our mixed open team.

If Bucknell needs another runner for their RTB squad, I'm for hire - just pay the entry fee. I'd be honored to rip it up with Dave Granger, Terry Shea and co. I'm a 2 year veteran of H2C and I guarantee I can hold my own. Only problem is, I'm not a Bucknell Alumni...

Al

Your only problem, not being an alum, dq's you from consideration. We are a true alumni team. We ran 7 years at Hood to Coast and have never used someone that did not have a Bucknell degree. Only one runner that whole time did not run for the team as an undergrad, Gary Dennis ran as an emergency last minute replacement one year. Gary has a Bucknell grad degree.

Thanks for the offer, we need all the help we can get this year.

BF

10 runners is going to be tough, that means 6 people have to run 4 times. My advice would be to add 2 runners before the race. If someone gets hurt during the race then that would really bust your team up. At the very least get 2 runners to run one leg. You can go to the H2C website or the website for Oregon runners to post a want ad or answer a want ad.

McVeigh was a real man and ran 4 times the year they kicked our ass in 2000 and he ran as fast as our guy running a 3rd time on the anchor.

Don't believe JAM's ranking of the legs, leg 1 deserves to be top 4 in difficulty due to the thrashing it does to your legs and feet.

Brian

Al -

The offer to help out on the relay is much appreciated. Its too bad you didnt go to Bucknell, we could certainly use you. Perhaps another one of these relays events sometime ... sounds like the one in Nova Scotia in May is pretty cool.

Not sure if you are still in the UNH area, but if you happen to be in the opposite end of the state this weekend you should join me for a long run Sunday. Ill be in Hanover. Something in the 20-23 range.

t.shea

I've wound up running it several times (I'm on a mixed team and it's traditionally a "girls" leg) and never when I've been the "weakest" link, though.

It's a fun set with no major uphills. Leg is a quick downhill, just enough so you can really fast (figure about 50 sec./mi or so faster than your typical 10k pace). If you have a late start it's awfully dark (you can't see a thing and the trucks are coming from *behind* you). Try to keep your form smooth and relaxed because if you "brake" at all, your quads will get hammered. Look for the DQ sign -- the exchange is just past it -- that's the only milepost you'll see.

Leg 15 is another straight shot (no turns on the set of legs) with a few rollers, but nothing horrible. There's a bunch of lit intersections so you'll be able to figure out how far you've run. The finish is on top of a small hill -- you'll see the light of the generators about a half mile out.

Leg 27's challenge is that it's the longest leg of the 3, almost 6 miles. Gently rolling. If you are out doing it in the afternoon, it WILL be warm, but the tradeoff is that you can see where you are going. At the end, you won't be able to see the exchange, but you'll cross a bridge and then run 1/8 mile maybe and then the exchange will be right around the corner.

What time do you start -- maybe I'll race you. ;-)

I believe we are starting out at 7:45pm. Unfortunatly as a Jerseygirl your sympathies should lie with Team Allegra (after your own team - of course) composed of all (nearly all?) runners from the great state of NJ. That said, I am sure hilly would be glad to challenge you to a race - careful though he looked good on Tuesday's workout. Good luck and have a great time.