Tales of Slow Brave Athena

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August 28, 2005

Portland to Coast: the report

This was a really incredible event. Portland to Coast is a 127 mile walking relay. There's a 400 team limit, and a team can be up to 12 people and 2 vans. While 12 people/2 van teams are the norm, we met teams of 6 people, and teams of 4 people.

Friday
I was in Van 2 of the Librarians on the Loose, a 12 person team made up of 10 librarians, a librarian staffer, and a friend. With the exception of me, all of the library staff were from Multnomah County Library. Van 1 had started at 5:30am (it's a staggered start, with faster teams starting later) on the east side of the Hawthorne Bridge. We met up with them at the Columbia County Fairgrounds in St. Helens at about noon Friday.

Driving up Hwy 30, we saw lots of walkers, and lots of their vans. The vans are easy to identify -- the front and rear has the team number, and most of them are decorated. Some are rather underwhelming (ours, for example), while others include xmas lights and giant rooftop decorations. Once we got to the fairgrounds, it became obvious why having things on the van roof was important.

We called the other van and described our location as three vans behind the giant pink panda. There were probably 100 vans in the lot, maybe more, so it would be difficult to find your friends without a landmark. While we were there, one neighbor inflated a giant phallic palm tree, and we spotted a team of Heidi girls in golden pigtailed braids and drindrel smocks. It's unclear how many, if any, of the Heidi girls were actually female.

By the time we caught up with our team mates, we were ready to go. And they were completely wound up. None of them had gotten a full night's sleep, and they were all jagged on sugar and caffeine.

Leg 20
Erica did her leg, and then it was my turn. She handed off the magic bracelet, and I started charging up the hill. Immediately, I thought, I'm going too fast and I need to slow down. Then someone passed me. And someone else.

It was hot and bright. I have no idea how hot, I'm sure it really wasn't superhot, but that's the way it felt. (I just looked at weatherunderground -- the high was 86) And I was wearing the thick cotton maroon Summer Reading tshirt. Oh dear g-d, shoot me now. All I could think about was my case of heat exhaustion after the Helvetia Half last year.

Over the 5.9 miles, there's a gain of almost 600 ft. That's not the Columbia Gorge, certainly, but it was significant.

I was immediately wussed. I had gone out too fast, and now I couldn't get my heartrate down. People were passing me, and I was feeling like I was just crawling. And panting. About 3 miles of the Pittsburgh hill were gravel and dirt, so every van that went by was kicking up huge dust clouds.

My team stopped for me about every mile, and everytime I saw the Suburban, I was filled with hope. Someone remembered me in this g-dforsaken hell. Erica would run out, chipper and cheerful, with a bottle of cold water and encouraging words. The second time she did this, I decided that I loved her, I loved her with all of my heart.

I felt great swings of emotion. I felt initially that the vans that were waiting by the road were mocking me, and then when they'd cheer me on, I'd just feel this tremendous gratitude. And suddenly, I saw the van of the Knights of Knee, Wendy's team. I shouted, yay!! Knights of Knee!!, and Wendy yelled out, how ya doing. And I said, I'm hating this! And she made some sympathetic noises about how horrible it was.

About 2/3rds of the way through, I saw a walker down. She was in a chair, and people were trying to massage her legs, while she was screaming. There but for the grace of g-d, that could be me. A little while later, her teammate caught up to me, and she was fast. But slow enough that I could try to keep up with her, and we conversed some. She was great. I managed to surge ahead of her at the exchange—but she gave Martha a run for her money all through her leg.

At the exchange, Wendy was waiting for me (or maybe she was waiting for her teammate, but it felt like she was waiting for me), as were my teammates. I felt so happy to see them all. And then I ran into the Amateur radio folks who had volunteered at Helvetia Half, and I was just so happy about the continuity in my life.

Leg 20 stats
5.9 miles, 103 minutes, 17.458 pace

My teammates did their legs, and we all ate a lot of snacks, and finally about 10:30, Sara Ms. Clean-Up finished her leg, and we headed towards the "vacation house" in Astoria. We made it there at 11:30, ate some awful pizza, and hit the sack.

Saturday
Saturday morning came early. We were all up at 3:30, and back on the road by 4, and at the exchange 45 minutes later. At this point, there was a surreal amount of vans, all lit up with xmas light and glowy things, and a huge amount of people, some holding lit-up things on sticks. We were standing in a farmers field with maybe 500 of our new closest friends when I mentioned that, while I knew by the afternoon we'd all have Stockholm syndrome, right now I thought maybe we had made a big mistake. My teammates gave me this look like, are you insane?

Leg 32
Well, maybe. By the time Erica finished her leg, I was psyched and back on the boat, ready to go. And I jetted out of the shute.

Though everything at that point seemed very up-in-the-air. For a number of reasons, none having to do with the driver, our van ended up with a wheel in a stream that even 4-wheel-drive couldn't rock out. I gone to the shute, but I wasn't sure if our van would be continuing, or what exactly.

Luckily, about a mile-and-a-half into this leg, which was easy and cool and cloudy, there was the van, and everything was A-Okay. That leg was an easy 4.1 miles. I could go fairly speedily, for me, and not worry about getting too warm. And I actually passed a couple people. I was passed, too, by one walker, and several runners (but they don't count).

Leg 32 Stats
4.1 miles, 61 minutes, 14.878

Once I was finished, I was filled with joy. I was done. I was done! Damn!

My teammates did their legs, admirably, and then suddenly, we were in Seaside, waiting for Sara to come in, which she did in a blaze of glory. We came out of the holding shute, struggling to keep up with her in the sand, as she was passing other walkers. And then suddenly, they called out our name and number, and we had our medals, and we were having our picture taken, and then, um, we were all in a dazed lump on the beach. Could we get some shade and some beer, please?

How we did
Of the 400 teams, 315 finished. Don't ask me, I don't know, exactly what that means. The first finishers, Racewalkers NW Portland To Chaos, finished in 22:46:34, a 10:43 pace. We finished in 31:48:11, a 14:58 pace. And #315 came in in 36:59:16, a 17:24 pace.

I'd just like to say that we all adored the Von Cap Family Singers, who donned wigs and outfits at their stops. They rocked.

All of the walking teams, with the exception of one (Montana), were from Oregon or Washington. There were 9 teams that were all male, and 126 that were all female.

We drank some beer, waded into the ocean, and then headed back to Astoria. A few of us napped, while the rest went manicly on to get some real food. I managed to put off the real food issue until Sunday afternoon (and it promptly made me sick!).

The whole thing was very invigorating. I feel better about walking and about librarianship. It was strange and odd to be without my sweetie, and interesting to be with a group of people who seemed to know each other pretty well.

Posted at August 28, 2005

Comments

Posted by: Jon in Michigan at August 29, 2005 4:04 AM

Posted by: Wendy B. at August 29, 2005 4:27 AM

Posted by: Megan at August 29, 2005 7:14 AM

Posted by: Tricia at August 29, 2005 8:50 AM

Posted by: neca at August 29, 2005 11:42 AM

Posted by: Fran at August 29, 2005 8:37 PM

Posted by: Cheesepuppet at September 1, 2005 11:30 AM