What kind of team does it take to win Hood to Coast?

If you are serious, then you will need to be a somewhat wealthy individual who wants to win it badly enough that you are willing to invest some cash in your team. This being said, you need to contact the OTC Elite and throw some serious cash and incentive money their way. That would be a good start.

12 consistent 222 to 225 marathoners

Not entirely true. For example, Jim howarth was on a Nike team that won one year. He had run sub 4, but had never done anything of note over a mile.

Let's say the winning team runs the 197 miles in 17 hrs. That comes out to a 5:11 pace on average.

Each leg (12 runners, 3 each) is approximately 5.5 miles. Let's round that up to a 10k for comparison sake...

So, you basically need 12 guys who can each run a 10k in the low 32s. Three times each. And sometimes at night, often up and over some serious hills.

You need some cash and you need some connections with stud runners.

A team from Univ. of Portland tried to put together a winning team amateur style a few years back and they got close but couldn't seal the deal.

12 31 flat guys would put up about 17:25, which would win it only in a weak year. To get to 17 flat you need 12 guys at 30:20. At 17 flat you would compete any year, but not be a shoe-in. To dominate with a 16 low-mid you are talking about 12 sub 30 guys.

This is going to be tough to find and get to Portland, fit, healthy, all at the same time. Practically speaking you need to find 3-4 28:xx type guys, 5-6 30:xx guys and the rest sub 32 for sure. 2 or even one slow guy can tank your team in a hurry. If you have even 1 34 guy you are better off with an 11 man rotation, with the studs taking 4 legs. Then you have the problem of being required to stack up your studs on legs 1-3 which is not the best location for them.

Anyway this is what you need to do. You'll never find that kind of talent just laying around Portland looking for a team, so you're going to have to import guys. Travel costs start adding up big time, plus there aren't a lot of 28 guys aching to risk their body on this race, so you need the mercenaries, and they require $$.

I'd say someone with connections to the 28 type guys and about 10-15 grand to bring people in, rent vans, beach houses, maybe entice guys with bonuses, etc could snag the win and really piss Nike off.

Sounds like a job for Hansons-Brooks.

Didn't Brooks win last year?

Didn't nike and adidas throw together some pretty (really) good teams a few years back? What were the winning times then?

You are a little off on your times. Sub-17 is 5:08 pace which is a hair under 32 pace for a 10K. Course is a net downhill and you can really fly the first 10 miles (Eddy Hellebuyck averaged 3:59 one year on leg 1). The are 3 really tough climbs and only one of those is the runners 3rd leg. First two are within the first half of the race.

Bowerman Athletic Club is made up of decent runners who are mostly Nike employees (a few non-Nike employees run for BAC at H2C) and they have won it at sub-17 pace. I am not aware of any of them being 28:xx guys or even having two 29:xx guys.

As for a single 34 guy tanking your team, it depends. If he is a beast on hills - up or down - it could be worth it. I can tell you from experience (27 Hood to Coasts) that a ultramarathoner on one of the early legs actually works well. He may not have been the fastest guy on the team but gravity sped him up for his first leg and all the ultras he had done meant he wasn't affected by the huge downhill of his first leg when he ran his second and third legs.

If you can get 12 guys who run anywhere from 30:30 to 32:00 you will be a favorite to win it. It is hard to get that many guys together for a relay.

You'll need a sponsor unless you all have deep pockets. Entry fee is over $100 per each runner before you add in van, lodging and of course the expense of traveling to the race. It would be easy for an out of town team to spend $500 per runner to do the race and most likely more.

Course Record is a Nike Team from '95 in 15:44:55.

My calculations show you'd need 12 28:10 guys to do that. At that point the pacing factors may differ from what I'm using, but that would be ball park anyway.

It is hard enough for the van to keep up with a 19 hour team, you would have some mighty challenges putting that time up.