Portland to Coast

Wow! This was a fun weekend for me! Thanks to my sweet husband! I was on a walking relay team. The walk started in Portland under the Hawthorn Bridge and ended in Seaside Oregon, by the sea. It was 127 miles. The running teams started at Mt. Hood and ended in Seaside. We had 12 people on a team, six people in a van. How it goes, is van 1 starts off the race at 5:15 am Friday morning. Chelsea was are first walker. She walked about 5 miles, then she passes the torch to the next walker and so on until all six walkers take their turn. Then when everyone in our van has walked their leg, we pass the torch to the people in the second van. While van 1 was walking van 2 went out for breakfast and hopefully found a place to rest. When van 1 was finished walking we had about 7 or 8 hourse break until we walked again. We found a subway for some food, then parked in a field designated by the race as a "sleeping field". Basically, people park their cars, get out the tarps and sleeping bags and stretch out and sleep. That's what we did anyway. Then we started walking our second legs around 8:00pm. I walked my second leg from 3am to 4am. My first leg was 6.5 miles and was VERY HARD, very hilly and steep. My second leg was only 4 miles and mostly level with 1 little hill at the end. It may sound silly to walk a race, but let me tell you, there are some very fast walkers out there! I am not one of them, in fact I was reminded of how out of shape I am by my sore muscles. Two years ago when I did this I had been training for a marathon and was in very good shape and I was still very,very, sore the next day. Two years ago, I averaged an 11 minute mile. This year I averaged a 13 minute mile. Of course, I did have a baby 4 months ago.... that's my excuse. I think speed walking would be a very effective exercise. I might try it again and learn some technique.

Any way, this was all thanks to Chad. He was supposed to go on a boy scout training weekend called "Wood Badge". But he realized I needed a break from the kids or I was probably going to lose my mind! So he stayed home and let me go. He had to brave giving Phoebe her first bottle and formula! She didn't like the formula but she ate enough to stay happy. She was very good for Chad the whole time. I had to pump and dump while I was away. I missed her happy smile, but it was nice to only have to take care of myself for a few days.

This picture is of Phoebe having her first bottle before I left. She didn't really like it.

Here is a picture of the potties, the girl with the vest on is Natalie from my team. She was getting ready to walk her leg of the race. The girl in the blue shirt is Megan from my team. At each exchange there was a long row of porta potties. they were actually pretty clean, as far as porta potties go, still stinky after 18,000 people passed through. (That's the number of people I heard that were in the race.)

Here is a picture of our van provided by Kristyn Morgan. Our team name was "The Coast Busters". This van is awesome! and Huge! We had plenty of room to spread out and relax.

Becky and Duprena stretching their legs. A beautiful day for a race!

Here we are in Seaside. These people are the backs of some of my team. I didn't do to well at taking pictures. These are a few of the ones I managed to take.