Hood to Coast Run

Yeah, I know! This post is a long time coming. Sorry, but sometimes life just goes too fast to have time to slow down and rewrite about it:) However, I'm excited to share some fun stories. Last November Travis was asked if he wanted to run the Hood to Coast with some co-workers and after much deliberation he decided he was in. The Hood to Coast run is the largest relay race in the world. There are over 1000 teams and each team has 12 people. They start running at the top of Mount Hood and finishes in Seaside Oregon, and each person has 3 legs anywhere from 4-8 miles. It's intense, crazy, hard on your body, and looks like so much fun:)

We all went down to cheer daddy on and grandma even came to help mommy out with the kids. On Friday morning Travis met the rest of his team for breakfast and they talked about the race and what to expect. Then shortly after, the first half of the team got in a van and drove up to Mount Hood and started the race around 2:00pm. Travis was the second person in the relay so he ran around 3:00. All of his legs were about 5.5 miles each. He was mostly running downhill and was so pumped ran quite quickly. After the 6th person ran their leg, his van went down into Portland and grabbed dinner at a friends and a few hours of sleep. Then at 10:00pm they were up again to start the next leg. Travis ran through downtown Portland at midnight! He said that leg was the hardest because he was already so tired and then his body is screaming at him to go to sleep. After his van finished, they parked at a stopping point and they actually all layed out their sleeping bags in a field and got a few hours of sleep. At around 9:00am Travis ran his last leg and we were there to cheer him in at the end! He was exhausted, but he did the whole thing without stopping and pushed his body more than he thought it could ever go.

We were all so proud of him and inspired by amazing people we saw running the race. We saw a blind man running with a leader, a woman who was in remission from breast cancer, and a man who had a prosthetic leg. We saw skinny runner-built men sprinting their whole legs, and larger women who were walking. It was so inspiring! The race finished in Seaside Oregon and Travis' whole team ran over the finish line. They all ran 197 miles together in a little over 24 hours. It was amazing! Since then, we have been inspired to run more races, why not? They are fun, they are healthy, they push our bodies, the training is a great way to force workouts, and it's such an amazing sense of accomplishment when you cross over that finish line! Way to go Travis!

The kids, grandma and I had a fun time while daddy was running too. We took a trip to the Portland zoo, took the kids swimming and got to cheer daddy on which was definitely the best part. The worst part was when we were on side roads trying to meet up with daddy and Peyton got car sick and threw up all over the car:( It was yucky! Luckily I had grandma there to help me, but I never wish that upon any mom ever! I loved that the kids got to watch daddy do this important feat in his life. Hopefully they'll remember how daddy is able to push himself and do anything he puts his mind to. After he was done with the race, I asked him if he was going to do it again next year and he couldn't answer me. He said he's so glad he did it once and will see if he wants to do it again. Although, last week he asked if I wanted to join him next year....:)

He did it!

His team running over the finish line

Cheering daddy in after his last run

Brayden was so excited to hold this sign for daddy!