a walk to the beach

Hello everyone!

I had a really crazy weekend...we walked to the coast! I did the Portland to Coast Walk for the first time ever. The course is 128 miles long and starts on the east bank esplanade of the Hawthorne Bridge in Portland, winds over the Coast Range and ends on the beach at Seaside, Oregon. Our team was divided into two vans with 6 people in each van. I was in Van 1 which started the race with Leanne walking in downtown Portland beginning at 4:45 Friday morning. After leaving the starting point we drove to pick up some supplies for decorating the van. (procrastinating just a bit no?). We then drove to the first exchange point where Leanne passed off to Domenica. The five of us drove to a Starbucks and had coffee and made signs to decorate our van. Our team name...The Fast & Nasty Hill Humpers! ahahahhhaaaaaaaaa

From there we drove to the next exchange point were Elena took over for a long leg. The legs vary widely in distance (3.3 miles to 7.9) and some are very flat while others go over hills with lots of elevation gain. We would stop to meet Elena along the way to give her some water as she continued walking to the next exchange. Elaine took over from there to walk her leg. Along the way it was fun to see people dressed up in costumes and all the crazily decorated vans. I had the fifth leg which was 5.7 miles along flat ground. I basically walked from the town of Scappoose along Hwy 30 to the town of St. Helens. I was on the left side of the road with traffic coming towards me. I didn't especially enjoy the big clouds of dirt that trucks would blow up or breathing in all the exhaust. It was really great to be able to listen to music. Elaine & Gina had just bought a super tiny MP3 player which we passed off from person to person. It wasn't the most scenic walk but I walked as fast as I could and I handed off to Gina. After leaving Gina we drove to the next exchange point where we gathered with the rest of our team from Van 2 who was about to start their portion of the race. I felt great to be done with my first leg and eat a little food and know that you have hours to go before you walk again. Gina passed off to Molly and our van was all done with their first legs.

We stopped at the high school in St. Helens where we showered and then drove on 45 minutes to the next exchange point where our van would take over again. It was just past the town of Mist but at this time of year it was certainly not misty. We parked in a giant, crunchy field and laid out our thermarests and sleeping bags. We laid in the shade and quickly drifted off to sleep. We were all pretty tired after waking up around 3 in the morning and doing the first half of the race. We woke up not too long later to the realization that our shade had gone away and we were all laying in the blazing sun. Some people retreated into the van, while I laid down in the one foot of shade immediately in front of the van. I've never slept so close to tires before. I got in a good hour nap though which was more than most people got so I felt pretty lucky. Everyone got up and we ate snacks and played Phase 10 in the grass.

In the evening our second van showed up as their last walker was just about done. We walked up to the exchange point and Rachelle passed off to Leanne and we started driving again. Van 2 had their rest time so they drove ahead to a nearby restaurant that was offering meals and mini massages for $20 bucks. Luckies! We drove ahead just a few miles and stopped to meet Leanne to pass off some water. The sun set completely during Domenica's leg and now we were all walking in the dark. Reflective vests and flashlights are required for all walkers. There also were motorcycle patrols that would drive back and forth along the course which were nicely reassuring. We also used walkie talkies since there was no cell phone service for much of the race. During Elaine's leg she tripped and fell on her knee. We were all worried because her knee was already swollen from a dancing mishap the week before. Elaine walked fast though and finished her leg.

I took over from there. It was midnight when I began walking. My second leg was only 6.0 miles but with over 1000 feet of elevation gain, which was the highest of any leg on the race. It really wasn't bad though. I really enjoyed walking at night. It was totally dark out as I was just walking through the woods with no houses or street lights around. I only saw 3 other walkers the whole time. I just scanned the road in front of me for potholes (there were many!) and hoped no oncoming traffic would force me onto the non-existent shoulder (there were steep drop offs on the side of the road for much of the leg). The cool, night air was a wonderful change from the hot, dusty, exhaust-filled air of my first leg and the great thing about walking up a hill in the dark is that you can't see the hill. I couldn't believe it when my team told me I was only .2 miles away from the crest of the hill. I then had several miles down hill and the van had to drive ahead to the next parking area to get Gina ready to take over. I passed to Gina and then walked back to the van with my team. This particular exchange point was poorly managed and had turned into a traffic/parking nightmare. Everyone had to drive half a mile down to a pit for parking but volunteers weren't coordinating things well and van began parking alongside the road to the parking lot. This turned the road into one lane only causing total gridlock between vans trying to get in to drop off their walkers and vans trying to get out (like us) to catch up with their walkers. One woman had to just stand at the exchange point waiting for her teammate to show up as the minutes kept ticking by.

We stopped several times for Gina along the way to make sure she was ok in the dark (she also loved walking at night) and to pass off water. We then met up with Van 2 at the next exchange point where they took over to do the final 6 legs. We stayed at that exchange point where we put up a couple small tents and crawled into bed at 3:00 AM (almost 24 hours after starting the race). We woke up about 4 hours later to get ready to drive the final bit to the beach. I got out of the tent to discover runners sleeping all around us the grass. The Portland to Coast Walk coincides at the same time and along the same route as the Hood to Coast Run. The difference is, besides running, that they start at Timbeline Lodge which is 6000 feet up the side of Mt Hood. The runners start their race later in the day than the walkers and have to go almost 70 miles before they get to Portland so I was curious as to when they would start lapping us. There is also an event at the same time (and same course) for high school students to run from Portland to the coast. Over all there's about 20,000 race participants in the 3 events!

We quickly packed up our stuff, stood in the giant line for porta-potties, set off the car alarm on the van and woke up a zillion sleeping people (it was a rental...c'mon! and...we weren't the only ones!). We drove on to Seaside where we parked, went to the bathroom and got some coffee. We met up with the rest of our team from Van 2 on the beach and knew that our last walker, Rachelle was approaching the finish line. We also met up with our volunteers: Dave, Terry & Andy. Each team is required to have three volunteers for the event. They aren't OUR volunteers but rather get some task assigned throughout the course. Our poor guys had to be in Mist at 3 AM for traffic control. I can't believe they gave Andy a megaphone.

Our team name was called out as our last walker approached so we could all cross the finish line together. Actually the guy said our name at least 7 times. I thinkIt felt great to be walking in the sand over the finish line. We did it! We had a group photo taken then walked to a nearby bar/restaurant to get some breakfast and drinks. We were famished, exhausted, happy, grumpy and delirious. We ate a big buffet breakfast and had bloody marys and beers. We then packed/unpacked a bunch of stuff from the vans into the appropriate vehicles (grumpy, tired girls don't like this step so much). Elaine, Dave, Gina & I were driving 12 miles north to a KOA campground where we had a site reserved. Seaside was really nutty with 95,000 people flooding the town for Hood to Coast/Portland to Coast festivities. We arrived at our campsite just wanting to sleep only to realize the KOA really is kamping with a "k". There was absolutely no privacy between the sites. It was a giant, dusty field. Our site had one sad little Charlie Brown Christmas tree which gave us 2 feet of shade. We were exhausted and decided that sleep was not possible in the blazing field before us. We piled back in the car and Elaine drove us home! I napped in the car and napped on their sofa for several hours. Later Gina & I went out for pho and then Baskin Robbins and then turned in early for sleep.

Sunday Elaine, Gina, Dave & I met up with our friends John Konekker and Shawn P. for some frisbee golf at Dabney. The 3 girls didn't really golf more but were there more for the walk to help with our stiff and sore muscles. We left for lunch while the guys stayed to play another round. We surprised them at hole 10 with lunch leftovers before heading back home. We picked up my grill and bought food for dinner. We lounged in the backyard with our feet in their little wading pool then prepared a huge, wonderful dinner of steak, tons of grilled veggies, baked potatoes, green beans & bacon & a giant salad. It's great to be eating things out of my garden! After dinner we played cards before sleep called and I went home.

Whew! What a weekend! I definitely will be doing the Portland to Coast again next year. Now we'll have a better idea of how to plan and what to do. It really was a lot of fun and unlike any other experience I've ever had. Thank you thank you for everyone on my team and especially the people in my van for being so supportive and fun! Thank you to Molly for suggesting the idea in the first place and organizing this craziness! Next year will be even more fun because we'll know what we're doing!!!

Please let me know what you've been up to & how you are! Next week's post will be late as I won't be back from Wisconsin until late Tuesday. I hope all is well!

xoxo,
carolyn