Hood To Coast Is Coming!
I’ve been waiting for Hood To Coast to come around this year. This race is amazing. There really are no words to describe it… I suppose that is why a documentary has been made about the race.
My first experience with HTC was with a group of coworkers in 2008. I had no idea what I was in for. I hadn’t yet competed in any races. I was a casual runner that had been running since high school, with a sweet spot for long distance, trail and road running. Put me on a track and I have a nervous breakdown if more than four laps are required.
Because the weather was so miserable here, I trained a lot in the gym. HUGE mistake. Monumental. This led to a blown out knee just after my second run of the event, and by the time my third run came about my teammates made an executive decision that I would NOT be running. I pouted, I cried, I drove like a ticking time bomb the rest of the trip. I was every bit the J.A.P my daddy called me as a child. It was embarrassing, humbling and a huge lesson learned for me.
I later apologized for being a petulant brat towards my teammates, thanked them profusely for pulling me off, sparing me worse damage to my knee. It took about a month of recovery on my leg and I had tweaked some tissue pretty badly… but I was back up and running a good seven miles a few times a week by the fall.
Running fairly steadily through the end of 2008 and early 2009, I was hoping to join another HTC team, but without the ties to my old co-workers (I had left employment and was freelancing) I wasn’t sure where to look. After nearly three years in PDX, I was still pretty much in the “acquaintance” zone with people.
Didn’t matter. Life had other plans. In March 2009 while on a trip back home to the Bay Area, I was moving furniture (what’s that about bending at the knees and team lift?!) and tweaked my back. Shortly before I had been telling my husband, “You know, my back has been feeling funky since we got here, I think I need a run to loosen up…” but had limited time and never did. The following morning I woke up with zero control over the right side of my body- hip to leg, it felt fat, buzzing, heavy –and then all of a sudden a sharp shooting pain knee to ankle.
After a trip to the ER and a subsequent visit to the family’s chiropractor in the Bay we were certain it was a herniated disc. After a few more painful, buzzing, numbing scary days we were back in Portland and I went to a sports and spine doc. He confirmed the disc was herniated and so badly that he wanted to do discectomy surgery, sure that steroid treatment wouldn’t work. I’ve abused my body over the years, having thrashed it about dancing for twenty years and running. I just wasn’t quite ready to cut it open yet, and convinced him to go ahead and try a round of steroid injections. Thankfully after a second round of injections I was running again by June. While I managed to squeeze in a 10k with my sis in July, I had zero hopes of joining a Hood To Coast team this late in the game.
Ironically, while I had been in the Bay Area that March, I had received word I secured a spot in the Nike Womens Marathon/SF for October 2009- so I had been eager to begin training, and was crushed when I tweaked my back during the trip. When I recovered by June, I was hopeful I would have time to train and make it for the October marathon. Again, life had other plans for me. BABY!
So here we are, two years since 2008 –knee injury down, back in jury down, two missed running ops and now a baby on the way! Thankfully, baby is due at the end of May/June 1. I just got word I’ve secured a spot on a HTC team for this August, and I’ll have plenty of time to get my 10k time back up to par before August.
Viva endorphins!
-b
