HTC18: Finish Line Festival

I've had some pretty cool race finishes in my time.... crossing the 50 yard line at Reser Stadium twice!, throwing up on Hayward Field, every year finishing on Steve Prefontaine's track in Coos Bay, crying happy tears in Walt Disney World as I finished after 3 solid days of racing.... but this one... Hood to Coast... come on ... We finished ON THE BEACH!! And not only that, we did it as a TEAM!

But before we have that finish line moment, why don't we take a look at everything else that went on prior. Warning, this might be photo heavy because who doesn't love photos?!?

Before we reached the official beach we made a stop at this totally adorable bowling alley/restaurant for the food we had been fantasizing about for 199 miles! Were our eyes possibly bigger than our stomachs? Probably, but that happens! Everyone was freshened up as much as one can be and we were heading to park for the shuttle to take us to the finish line. The shuttle meant room to sprawl out for the first time. And it also meant more team photos! 

The energy in the air upon our arrival at the beach was so strong! People had finished, people were finishing, people were waiting to finish. I have goosebumps just thinking about it. I think we all whipped out phones to snap pictures as soon as we could see everything. Announcers in one booth were calling numbers of teams to line up because their final runner was coming up soon. The finish line announcer was saying team names as they crossed. A band was playing on the opposite end. In the middle people were testing free samples of products, entering contests, shopping, getting photos, and hitting the beach. Let's take a little photo trip through my experience, shall we?!

We've been waiting 199 miles for this initial view in Seaside, Oregon!

 Renee/Ronda selfie!

Excited to take off my shoes and feel sand on my feet, I decided we needed a feet in the sand photo... and we discovered our matching polish. Our friendship was meant to be!

Did someone say merchandise tent?? Was I able to stay out of it? No. I saw children's clothes for sale, and those weren't available at the start. So my little girl now has a Hood to Coast t-shirt and hoodie to grow into! And I got myself one more nice, long-sleeve shirt with a collar suitable for running OR wearing to work!

This is the stretch of other stuff I wasn't all that into. I checked out the samples and enjoyed walking around with Dustin and Renee though! It was so fun to just relax, feel sand in my toes, and hang out with my new best friends!

We didn't go IN to the concert area, because I think it was all part of the beer garden section and required ID. I had my ID, but I also didn't have the energy to bother with it. BUT we could still hear the music everywhere and it was quite fun, worthy of dancing and singing along!

It did take us a couple minutes to understand what we were looking at, but then Renee, Dustin and I took advantage of this to show off our number of kills. Yeah, mine is small.... but I'll take it!

We found the cutest photo op... and getting up into it was a challenge! All those miles we ran, and then Renee and I were hurting and extra stiff and slow, so this ended up quite funny!

I cannot go to a beach and not go IN. It's just unheard of. Who cares that it was chilly, I HAD to get my feet in the water. So I did just that!

For those of you that didn't make it all the way out into the ocean like I did, here's the finishing party view from way the heck out there! Biggest beach ever and longest run to the water? Yes!

After the water we made our way back to the official party to meet up with the rest of Van 1 who had been shopping - I think. We were in a cluster among a swarm of people when it happened. When I totally had a fan girl moment. No, Jimmy Buffett wasn't there (but Hood to Coast people - let's work on that for 2019, okay?!?), but a different type of celebrity was.

The entire race, beginning at the start line, I was "stalking" one team... Heart 'N Sole. They are one of the four teams featured it the Hood to Coast documentary that Lady Storm Squad had to hear about the entire weekend. I saw their van and was on a mission to spot the runners. Throughout the race we were always on pace with them, and I was constantly seeing their van and runners milling about. But I hadn't seen Kathy yet. She is so inspirational to me, the entire team is. Watch this documentary to understand! She went a couple of minutes without a heartbeat during her final leg in Hood to Coast one year. They were able to save her... and she is STILL doing this race! Kathy is a strong woman, as well as the rest of her team. #goals 

I was stunned when THE Kathy went walking by with some of her teammates. OMG, there she is!! So what did I do? I weenied out and clicked a photo of her walking away. (She's the blond in the photo.) Recalling the time I did this same pathetic thing with Joey Fatone, my husband took charge and ran after them. I followed! The next thing I knew it was nearly a group hug and me being the huge dorky fan right to their faces and just being way too excited to meet them! Sure, they are normal women, but to see how great of a team they are, how they support each other, and how they are still running, when clearly they aren't in their 20s anymore, well to be they are pretty darn cool and I was so happy to be around that!

Imagine how stunned I was when my cousin's wife says "oh, that's my aunt on the left!" WHAT??!!

After this our whole van went over to THE finish area to wait for van 2 to appear so we could put a cap on this race. I loved this part. I stood so I could play in the sand, everybody else took the chance to sit and relax. It was just really, really nice. We were hearing the teams cross the finish line, and they were all names I had been seeing during my last run - so I knew we were almost done!

608 LADY STORM SQUAD, YOUR RUNNER IS COMING!!

Robin was on her way!! We gathered with van 2 and found our way to a narrow corral to wait for Robin to appear. This is where it all got chaotic for me. I was actually being pushed around by all of the runners on either side of me. Obviously they didn't do it on purpose or know I was there, but it was still a little shocking and jarring. I barely got in with my teammates in time, so I was pulling up the rear - which worked okay since I was documenting the entire finish for us. Another team crossed when we did, which sucked because then we never did have our name called at the end. To top it off, they wouldn't let Ava run down with Robin, so she never did get to cross with us. Not fair. Someone said it well, the finish was anti-climactic. We learned our finish time is already locked in before we even run on the sand, so maybe next year we can pause and make sure all 12 of us are together, and then not let another team cross with us so we can have OUR moment!

The rest is pretty quick! Once we were able to get Ava with us it was time for medals and photos. I won't even dare show you how many I have from this. I mean there are close to 900 photos on my phone right now, nearly all from Hood to Coast! I'm glad volunteers don't mind clicking away though. I'd rather have 20 of one shot than 1 and we end up with our eyes closed or something!

Wanna hear how it ALMOST ended? By the time we were finishing we were so cold - determined to be in matching shirts so we ditched the hoodies. And it was starting to get misty, turning into rain. Van 1 was ready to go! We said our good byes and went to meet our driver at the shuttle pick up location. One family had been there 45 minutes and NO shuttles had come or gone. By the time we gave up it had been at least an hour that that group had been waiting. What was our plan? Walk to Tillamook.

Okay, not really. Our dedicated driver volunteered to do the over 2 mile walk back to the shuttle to get our van and then get in the insane traffic to get us. We expected well over an hour, maybe 2,  until we would be reunited, traffic was just THAT bad. He set off one way, we ladies went the other and ended up in a tent with food and a live band. Dustin wanted Starbucks and the sound check of the band was enough to kill my Meniere's Disease ears, so I happily told her I'd walk with her to Starbucks... in the rain. Lucky for us, by the time we got there and went to Subway to get a sandwich our driver had found a back road and was almost to us! Our plan of hitting the main road and starting to walk south to Tillamook never had to happen after all. Hallelujah!

The drive home felt so fast, and way too soon our team had to say the final good byes. But maybe not so final. I'm positive I will see them again, either at Hood to Coast... Ragnar... or something even sooner than that!