Week 6: Speedy Turtles & The Mother of All Relays

It's my blog and I'll do what I want - even if that means doing stuff out of order. ;-)


The prompt for Week 6 "All About Me" was "whatever tickles your fancy." This is my excuse to share our Hood to Coast story. I know ya'll have been dying to know, despite its passing three weeks a couple months ago...


On Thursday, August 26, eleven runners, two drivers, and a volunteer descended on Pastini's Pastaria in Cedar Hills shopping center. Their mission? To get to know each other before they spent 33+ hours in a vehicle together. Oh, and to load up on carbs. Two runners were complete strangers (thank you H2C forum). One only the Team Captain and her husband had met four days before (again, yay H2C forum). They ate, they laughed, and they talked/asked questions. A lot.

It's 3:45am, it's dark outside and we have running suits on... Hit it!

Turtle Shell 1 hit the road at 4:00 am with their Captain's blessing. They were not blessing her when they arrived on the Mountain before anything was set up. Whatever, they got over it.

Turtle Shell 1 drivers and runners. Recognize two faces? Yeah, that's my family. *so proud*

While Turtle Shell 1 was at the Mountain, running down the mountain, and participating in general awesomeness, Turtle Shell 2 was chilling at the meeting house and eating pancakes.

Heck yeah that's a turtle. Runner 10, Leslie, rocks the griddle.

Eventually, Turtle Shell 2 also had to hit the road. After a pit stop in Clackamas to pick up a runner and a quick photo-op....

One of the drivers and six runners. Turtle Shell 2 power.

Due to their later start, the Turtle Shell 2 peeps were pretty antsy. They arrived at the Sandy Fred Meyer with an hour-plus to spare before runner 6 hit the exchange. This gave the drivers plenty of time to collect some swag and van decorating.

The DH (he injured himself the week before the race, so was relegated to driver) and my cousin. Aren't they adorable?

After some minor incidents (hello dead car battery), Turtle Shell 2 hit the road and started their first set. 

Christy, runner 8, hands of to Julie

One of the Team Captain's goals was to find the Iron Mullets. Find them she did... 

They had a garage sale the TC found on craigslist. They were delightful And fast.

The Speedy Turtles ran at sunset, in the dark, and slept in fields... 

Calvin (Daddy) and Nike at Exchange 12

Hand-off between Shelby (left, runner 7) and Christy at Exchange 25

The one moment the TC took a nap. Until she heard, "Stop stop there's a person!" (She wasn't the person, Runner 9 was)

Turtle Shell 1 provided one of the Team Captain's favorite moments. Runner 6, Crystal, came running into Exchange 31 all smiles and yelled, "I'm beating Jason!" TC turned to see J. Hall booking it after Crystal with the clipboard. TC yelled, "Go Jason, go!" just as Bentley (also a Jason) was pulled into the race for the clipboard hand off. 

Crystal running in her last leg

My last leg was a 7.25, mostly on gravel, and was not my favorite. Here's the hand off that set me off to my finish... 

Loved handing off with my best friend of 14 years - was terrified moment before this she would be run over by the Honey Bucket truck. Didn't love that.

All in all, the race was one of the most incredible experiences I've ever had. Everyone pulled together at the end and got the job done and had fun doing it. There were times of crying, times of laughing, and times of awkward silence, but it was a worthwhile event. 

Turtle Shell II walking to the beach to meet up with Runner 12 and Turtle Shell 1 (photobombed by white hat guy)

It was great to meet up with the rest of the team on the beach and "run" to the finish. The run was supposed to be more of a light jog, but Runner 12 took off. Team Captain fail. 

Most of the team could barely walk at this point. Awesome.

2010 Speedy Turtles - mostly novices and they rocked it

2011 application is in the mail. Looking forward to an even more awesome event. It really was "like Woodstock on wheels." Loved every minute of it.