Summer Camp! er, I mean Hood to Coast!

The day has finally arrived.  Hood to Coast day!  Woohoo!  In case you haven't noticed, I love Hood to Coast.  Wait, no, I LOVE Hood to Coast!  I don't know what it is about it that I love so much.  Try explaining it to anyone who doesn't know or write it down on paper and it just sounds horrendous.  Thirty plus hours in a van, running three different distances ranging from just over three to just over eight miles, no sleep, bad food, Honey Buckets, I could go on. And on.

And yet, Hood to Coast is one of the highlights of my year.  And it starts today!

This year, my preparations started a couple of days earlier.  I had to give Della a bath before I bundled her off to my sister's house and, apparently, it has been sufficiently warm enough in Portland for Della to finally start shedding her winter coat.  Except she wasn't shedding it, she was blowing it.  In the tub.  I swear, she left a third of her coat in the tub.  Next morning, she was still one giant scruffy fluff.  I was actually a little late for work because I was brushing her down.  Another third of her coat off later, she looked better and a little more comfortable.  But when I got home, I was still pulling tufts of fur off her.  She is now at my sister's where, hopefully, she will behave herself and not leave too much fur behind.

Amazing what you need for a 200 mile relay race.

Last night, I started packing.  I've been figuring out my list of what to bring to Hood to Coast for a few weeks now.  With some creative packing, I managed to get most of it in my gym bag.  Food will have to go in a separate bag which I think I would prefer anyway.  I wasn't at all sleepy last night, I was too wired.  Finally, about 10:30, after watching the Hood to Coast documentary, again, I had to force myself to go to bed.

I set my alarm for around 7:00, giving me plenty of time to shower and finish packing.  Unfortunately, I woke up at my almost normal time of 5:30.  Boing! Wide awake, no hope of going back to sleep.  I lay in bed as long as I could stand it, which wasn't long.  Up I went, to finish packing.  Since then, I've taken a nice, leisurely shower, packed, started a load of laundry (not H2C related) and finished loading the dishwasher.  I watched the news and weather (I'm glad I'm not running leg 1 this year, thunderstorms and pouring rain at the start), ate breakfast, watched an episode of Star Trek: Voyager (yes, I am a geek, get used to it) and now, I'm writing this blog entry.  I could do some vacuuming but I keep telling myself I need to conserve my energy.  Really, I'm just lazy and I don't want to right now.  I want to be on my way to Sandy where my van will start.

As I wrote in an earlier blog entry, Hood to Coast, for me, is like summer camp.  It's a break from my everyday life, a time to get away and do something different.  It challenges my body and my will and my preconceived notions of what I can do.  I get to experience my co-workers in a different way, seeing them outside the office.  I get to watch thousands of people do something incredible. 

And I can't wait to start.