Hood to Coast Race Report Part 6—party on the beach AND a thanks to our sponsors

Ah yes… you thought you were done with Hood to Coast recaps.  Well, almost.  I would be remiss if I didn’t finish the story.

Once I was done running, we hopped into the van and headed toward the beach. We all had thought we would shower, nap etc., but we were too excited. This was the “biggest beach party on the West Coast.”

 
The beach was slightly cool and breezy. It was nice.


We stalked famous people.  The above picture is the Heart –n- Sole team from the Hood to Coast Movie.  Below is Bob Foote, the founder of Hood to Coast. I really enjoyed talking with him! He is a runner’s runner.


Then it was time for a little revelry!  I think we earned those beers!

After a few beers, it was time to head to the finish line to cheer on our teams.  Unfortunately, the rest of Nuun Platuun hadn’t made it to the beach due to crazy traffic. It was up to us to give XLMIC a huge welcome.

As usual, she was giving it all she had.  You can read her own version HERE. She ran that last leg as fast as she possibly could.  She anchored our team beautifully.

Nuun Platuun did better than anyone expected.  While we did great on the first two legs, each one of us dug deeper for that last leg.  Our team finished 200 grueling miles in 27:59:17!!!   We finished 7th in the Women’s Open Division!  That was an hour faster than our 10K PRs predicted.  We were all more than thrilled at our stellar finish.

Thirteen minutes later, Megan finished.  She was injured and hurting, but she finished strong with a huge smile on her face (pictured above).  You can read about her runs HERE.

There were a lot of emotions.  Hood to Coast was over and both teams had highs and lows and did GREAT.


Van 2 finally made it to the beach.  We received our medals, took some pictures, then there was more partying. The entire team had a fun time. It was everything I had hoped it would be. It was more than a race, more than a blogger meetup. It was something hard to put into words (yet I used thousands of words to try). I would do it again in a heartbeat!





Here is a video that briefly portrays the Hood to Coast experience:




And now a word about our incredibly generous sponsors…


Of course, the number one sponsor to thank goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyway). Nuun was FANTASTIC in putting this entire thing together.  I still pinch myself when I think about how lucky I was to have been involved.

Running Skirts generously donated some awesome camo running skirts to the team. How great do we look?

Road ID gave us some killer dog tags. I love mine and wore it the entire time during HTC. 


Moving Comfort was kind enough to give us some bras. I LOVE my Juno bra.
Looking back, I should have run in just my bra during HTC.  Jess did that and looked awesome.


Tommie Copper sent us a bunch of compression gear. I have worn the ankle sleeves several times (to help with some tendonitis I get on the top of my foot), the knee sleeve (after my first leg when my IT band got a bit angry) and the calf sleeves.  They are all super comfortable!


Buildasign.com provided signs for our vans. They did a great job! Not only did the magnets look good, but they stayed on the vans.  Four vans, multiple signs and no sign loss.

2Toms provided some great Sport Shield to keep us from chafing.  I am taking this stuff with me to St. George! It goes on like roll-on deodorant and dries so you don’t even know it is there.


Jack Black cosmetics supplied us with a great sample pack of lotions, sunscreens and lip balms. This is another product I will be taking with me to St. George. They have an SPF 45 sunscreen that I really like and the lip balm saved me!

We spent a day and a half in a van and snack foods were important. Jamba Juice provided the team with some coconut water juice.  They were a hit!

Jenny Craig also sent us some Oatmeal Breakfast Squares. They really hit the spot at odd times during the day.  They were perfect as a breakfast snack even when breakfast was at 2 in the morning.

And we also were given some Gu, a key ingredient of any race. While the flavors weren’t my personal favorite, Gu is my gel of choice. It will be fueling me on Saturday during the marathon.

It was wonderful for all these companies to support our adventure in such a big way. It just shows how admired all the women are and how they conduct themselves out in the blogosphere. Everyone represented these sponsors well and appreciated all the products more than the sponsors will know. It was just the added touch that made the entire experience a bit surreal.

Thanks again to everyone for all your support.

Happy Running…

Don’t forget to enter my giveaways for free Gymboss Interval Timers.  Today is the last day.  You can find the blog giveaway HERE. And my Facebook giveaway HERE.

New mid-run snack

I have tried a lot of things to eat during long runs.  Most of the gels are way too sweet.  Most of the chews are, well.... too chewy.  I like Sport Beans, but since Costco stopped selling them, they are more difficult to find (not to mention more expensive now).

I have settled on two flavors of Gu.  I use the Just Plain and the Espresso Love flavors.  I usually eat Just Plain in the earlier miles and then the 2X caffeine Espresso Love later on.   With most of my runs, two is all I really need.  But now my runs are getting longer.  I need to eat more than two Gu's during runs over fifteen miles.   Frankly, eating more than a couple is NOT appealing.  Also, Gu is BORING.

I think I found some food that makes me smile during a run.  It isn't a "sport" food.  They don't have electrolytes or any other fancy stuff to help performance, but they are yummy and seem to give me a little boost, even if it is only mental.  I tried these for the first time on Sunday and will try again next week to make sure they work for me.

Yes... I am a big kid at heart.   :-)

Happy Running.

I'm hosting my very own giveaway!!

I still haven't figured out how to get people to send me free stuff, but I do have something to give away to two of my readers. OK... it isn't anything super fabulous, but someone may really enjoy it.

I have nineteen packs of Orange Burst Gu* that my husband was given through his former work. My generosity is not entirely altruistic. I can't stand Orange Burst and I am sick of going into my basket of running supplements and grabbing one instead of my Just Plain or Espresso Love. I thought it would be fun to give eight each to two different readers. Because of his expressed love of Orange Gu, I will send OzRunner three of them (if he wants them) just because I told him I would**. *wink*

Leave a comment telling me about your favorite gel, chew or food for running (it doesn't have to be Orange Gu or other Gu). In the interest of expanding readership, if you link my blog in a post, you'll get one more entry. Just post another comment saying that you linked. Lastly, if you become a follower of my blog on Facebook, you'll get another entry (post another comment to let me know).

I'll use a random number generator to choose a winner on June 10 in the evening.

*In the interest of full disclosure, these Gu's are technically "expired." They are about a year old. I have been eating the Espresso Love and Just Plain from the same batch and haven't noticed anything odd about them. Honestly, I am not too worried about a sugary substance packaged in a foil container going bad. But I needed to let you know. I am pretty sure I know why we were able to score so many Gu's for free. *wink*
**Oz, if you are interested, send me your address at pslisarg at hotmail dot com.

Am I ready for next week???

I think so, but I am not sure.

Laura and I had a great run this morning. But, by the end, I was TOAST. We ran eight miles at just over 9 minutes per mile, but I am not so sure I could keep that pace up for five more miles in order to finish the half marathon in under two hours.

However, we had some pretty good splits today. We ran mile six, which is almost completely uphill, in 8:56 (although my Garmin beeped at me telling me that lap 6 was 9:13; either way is good). We ran mile seven, which has the hardest part of the hill, under 9 minutes too! After that, I was hurting. Laura ran on ahead of me while we ran the last mile. I still did that last mile in 9:06 so I know she was flying.

At around four miles or so, I started feeling weak and a bit sick to my stomach. I ate a Gu (plain flavor for me--those sweet ones just make me gag). It seemed to do the trick. I usually don't need a Gu until mile six or so. I don't think I ate enough last night. We had grilled salmon, rice and broccoli which might not have been enough fuel to get me through a run. But I did have a bowl of oatmeal this morning, so I don't know. Like a lot of you, I still haven't figured out this fuel thing completely.

Next week's race is the first race where I have a plan (in my huge five race career LOL). Since the race ends with a pretty long hill (the same hill we ran today), I am going to try to push it early. This means I should do a warm-up run, which I have never done. I want to run the first couple of miles around 9:00 minutes each. Miles 2, 3 and 4 look to be consistently downhill, so I want to push it to 8:40 or so (yikes). If I am hurting, I will slow a bit during the flat part around the bay to gather my strength before the hills at the end. If I run a smart race, I think I have a chance of finishing in two hours (hopefully just under). I need to average 9:09 to do it. I ran that hill this morning at a pretty fast pace. With a good start, I can slow down to 9:30 up the hill so I can finish strong going into the park.

I think having a plan makes me even more nervous. Shouldn't it give me confidence? The one thing I learned in my marathon was that plans don't always work. You don't plan on needing the porta potty (twice); you don't plan on feeling like crap. Cross your fingers that all goes well....