Hood to Coast 2008

Ken's team finished the sub-200 mile relay race in 30 hours, 56 minutes and 39 seconds. They had a great time. There are 12 people on a team and they break into two groups/vans. Van 1 runs while Van 2 rests and vice versa. They started at 8:55 on Friday morning and arrived in Seaside, Oregon at 6:30ish on Saturday evening.

All of the runners play dodgeball with us, so they were the Dodgeball Run Kids (or DRUNKS for short). All of the photos are here, but here are a few to get you started.

Ken's van before the race on top of Mt Hood:


Here's Ken leaving the Timberline start on Friday morning:


Ken flying down Mt Hood at a 6:37 pace. Apparently he checked an incoming text message as he was running.


While one van runs, the other sleeps. Imagine this times thousands, scattered along the Oregon woods and roads.


Here is the finish line in Seaside. Kinley got to run around the beach and play fetch in the ocean while we were waiting for the runners to arrive.


And here is the team leaving with their medals of completion. It was a long day. Everyone should be very proud of themselves.



I watched Ken's transition under Portland's Hawthorne bridge on Friday night before driving to the coast with Kinley. We rented a house on the beach and a few of us went down early to go crabbing on Saturday morning. We woke up before 5 AM and hit the road. We rented a boat, traps and got bait (fish carcasses and chicken -- crabs looovvvee chicken) and were on the bay near Rockaway Beach shortly after 6 AM (high tide that day).

There were six of us and our first pull brought up at least 30 crabs, about 6 inches deep in the trap. Most were females or too small to keep. At the end of our 3 hours, we caught 7 Dungeness crabs. The boat outfitters cleaned and cooked the crabs for us on the spot. We ate for brunch and drank a beer by the fire while we dried our stinking wet clothes.



On our way back, we decided to do a shellfish tour. We went hunting for mussels and clams but there was a red tide advisory so we decided to not eat any mussels. And our clam hunt was a muddy bust.

Overall, we had a great time. Crabbing was great* and the trip was terrific. We got back around 4 pm. Ken watched a movie and I drywalled the basement some more since it was raining.


* I have washed my shoes out twice by hand and they've gone through the washing machine twice. Nasty crab water and clammy mud is a difficult smell to remove.