Anyone ever run the Hood to Coast relay, or any other relay race for that matter? Sounds super fun, but I'm wondering how hard it would be to organize a team? Here's a great article about a team that won Hood to Coast in 1990 and then went back this year! It's amazing what it took them to get back in the race...
I have captained a team several times. My team was never sponsored so we paid our own way (air travel, rental vans, food, lodging, etc).
If you are going there, the challenge is to get a commitment from 11 other people roughly 1 year out since you must submit your application and fee in October for the following year (it is a lottery). So if you take the plunge and send in the $1K+ you are betting that you can get a team together.
Here was my scheme.
I did a budget and then tried to find 5 other people to commit and give me a deposit of $200 each. That covered the registration fee.
I go ahead and reserve 2 mini-vans/large SUVs the first date I can. (They go fast after teams find out they got in).
You find out in early November if you get in.
Then you have a lot of time to recruit. Get the other folks to help you recruit as well. Every year there would be someone (or several) that were friends of friends I had never met. Actually that kinda makes it fun. This year we picked up a woman very late from the HTC message board. None of us had ever even seen her.
Some of this depends on how serious you are. If you want a competitive team(capable of finishing in top 6 in its division), then it can become a bit more challenging. I typically aimed for a top 6 mixed team (open or submasters) which meant having an avg 10K time of about 41 minutes. So I would have some guys who were 36:xx capable and the women could be 44:XX capable.
Get money up front from people. At least enough to cover deposits. Get the final payment up front as well. Then I used that money to pay for everything. If money was leftover, I refunded money. If more money was needed, I hit them up for the difference. (It ended up being around $350 per person for lodging, reg fee, rentals, gas and team food).
Very fun experience. I really got into it and it became a running (ha ha) joke with my wife and running friends about how obsessed I could become. My goal as captain was to make it as easy as possible. I would now delegate more, but it became a serious obsession, but a very fun one.
Hood to Coast is a lot of fun. If you seriously race it, it is extemely physically demanding. For me the recovery was at least as bad as any marathon I've done.
Beyond the details of putting together a team, the race itself is rather complex. It is pretty difficult to make sure the right van is at the right place at the right time. With all the traffic, a fast team can easily outrun the vans if you aren't really on the ball. There are places were if the van waits for the exchange, you will miss the next exchange. It is very helpful to have a veteran driving each van, and carefully plan the driving routes and expected exchange times. Cell phone coverage is spotty, so don't count on being able to contact your other van.
But Hood to Coast is one of those races every runner should try to do at some point.
Thanks so much for the detailed response that helps a lot. Seems super fun, but definitely a lot of planning and a long way out too. Thanks again!
Did Reach The Beach this year. About half as big as HTC. (425 teams). It was a blast. But you have to plan early and it is best to collect entry money up front. Reserve vans as early as possible. You'll get no sleep, eat like crap. You legs will take longer to warm up each leg.
I'm doing two relays next year and would love to do HTC in the future.
Another long-winded account of what it's like. And as proof of what a small society this sport is, John Dimoff captained the team that beat us in 2000.
e2 wrote:
Hood to Coast is a lot of fun. If you seriously race it, it is extemely physically demanding. For me the recovery was at least as bad as any marathon I've done.
Beyond the details of putting together a team, the race itself is rather complex. It is pretty difficult to make sure the right van is at the right place at the right time. With all the traffic, a fast team can easily outrun the vans if you aren't really on the ball. There are places were if the van waits for the exchange, you will miss the next exchange. It is very helpful to have a veteran driving each van, and carefully plan the driving routes and expected exchange times. Cell phone coverage is spotty, so don't count on being able to contact your other van.
But Hood to Coast is one of those races every runner should try to do at some point.
Spot on. Heck you do not even have to be superfast to get stuck in traffic going to exchange 30. For that one, I would use a strategy of dumping the runner and heading to the next exchange. The runner who finishes then hitch hikes to the exchange. (Everyone is going that way so it is not that hard).
I've done the wild west realy (200 miles - 6 people, Ft. collins to Steamboat springs) and 100 on 100 (100 miles - 6 people Vermont - I think burlington to stowe)...both a lot of fun, but its a lot of work and planning. the recovery is tough as well.
never done HTC, but would like to one day. that one seems to be the most popular and harder to get in to.
I'm doing one in PA later this spring. not sure the name of it.
There's a movie about the race coming out--
http://www.hoodtocoastmovie.com/
Looks like it might be good.
I was a Coordinator on the Hood to Coast movie.
Check it out if you want to get a glimpse of the experience that is Hood to Coast. Whether you have serious goals, or are just looking for a fun running experience.
That's a great story and Joe even edited out some of the more entertaining parts of the 1990 adventure, like where the pole, the flag, and the mask came from.
The first time I ran HTC was 1996 with a team of 11 other people I'd never met before in my life. Got picked up by a team that had two of their guys go lame at the last minute (VERY common occurrence BTW).
My mother-in-law lived in Seattle so my wife and I headed out for a family visit. I was to meet two of the guys who would be driving a white van at a fast-food place in Seattle for the drive to Portland. Explaining to the mother-in-law the wisdom of meeting up with strange men driving a white van to run through the darkness in Oregon proved quite a challenge. It got even more exciting when we discovered how many white vans were driving through that parking lot. Neither I nor the van drivers knew what each other looked like in any detail. We finally met up and though my mother-in-law though I was totally insane and that her daughter would soon be a widow, we took off for Portland.
We arrived a few hours before the start and had to assemble the two vans and make sure everyone was good with their running position. Three of us were late members to the team, with one late member someone's girlfriend that was filling in for someone that pulled a hammy the week before. It was decided to shuffle things so boyfriend/girlfriend were together and give me the longest set of legs (18.x miles) because I was in the middle of marathon training.
That year they took everyone that planned to run under 24 hours and put them in the last two starts, putting us in the last start going off with the elites. We were DFL for the first 5 exchanges and fortunately started to catch more people by the time our van #2 started, until the first guy in our van followed someone else off-course and went an extra two miles. We all started studying our maps harder.
Running race pace in the dark down an unmarked suburban road proved to be a bigger challenge that I expected. I could occasionally see the flash of a vest but the people I was catching were running considerably slower so it's basically running in the dark by yourself trying to push the pace.
After the van exchange we found a school that was renting floor space in the gym to sleep. A few bucks was a bargain to get stretched out on a gymnastics mat instead of leaning against the wall of a van.
By dawn we were in a mass of team vans going stop and go down the road. After we did our 2nd legs we charged forward and found a field to park in where we slept in a grassy ditch. You learn to make do. We when we got to the 3rd and last 1-2 van exchange traffic was so bad we left our #7 guy and the exchange and kept driving. Teams were getting stuck at the last van exchange and not getting their #8 guy forward in time. Sickening situation to watch your runner pass you while you're stuck in traffic.
At the finish we all gathered and ran in with our last guy. It was amazing. We were all hot, smelly, and exhausted but we hung at the party then went to find the condo we'd rented in Seaside. The condo with one bed and a couch. On the way one of the late-comers ran into some friends and wanted to stop and chat for a bit. We told him where we thought the condo was, where we planned to get dinner and left.
After we dropped our stuff off we found out the dinner place was jam packed and we couldn't get in. We found a "plan B' nearby and some of us took turns going back to find our lost teammate. No sign of him. We hunted for him after dinner, he's not at the condo, we don't have a cell number. The team captain has his home number, no one home. We hunt some more but have to get some sleep.
In the morning we remember his stuff is still in the van and call his home number again. BINGO! Turns out he couldn't figure out which condo, or find the van in the sea of white vans, so he called his Dad who drove down from Portland to pick him up. We met up with him on the way back to Seattle and gave him his duffle-bag.
Never saw any of the people again.