wang writes

And so, a 7am flight and two transits (in Narita and Seattle) later, we arrived in Portland, Oregon, on Aug 26 (or Aug 27, Singapore time) which is also famously known as Velo City for its huge bicycle culture. At PDX we picked up a rental car and keyed in the Hotel Monaco address in the GPS — partly so we wouldn’t get lost, but also to test out the GPS that we’d be using to navigate the race course. We soon realised the GPS was a bit laggy, after getting lost in some suburb along the way to downtown Portland. Good thing we tested it out!

After that little bit of drama we arrived at the sweet boutique hotel, dropped our bags and met the rest (who had arrived on an earlier flight) at Rock Bottom, one of the many microbreweries in Portland. A quick bite and we were off to neighbouring Beaverton, the site of the Nike Campus (aka world headquarters) and Nike Employee Store.

Needless to say, our first stop was the Store, where products go for at least 50 per cent cheaper than outside. It wasn’t my first visit there — I had been there almost exactly a year ago for work. The damage this time around was much less. Bought a few Nike Pro tops and a pair of gladiator sandals and some Livestrong products.

A short easy run on the 3k sawdust trail that forms the perimeter of the sprawling Campus grounds was on the cards next. We dumped our stuff at Lance Armstrong (the buildings on Campus are named after Nike’s biggest athletes), a massive gym complete with swimming pool, rock wall, spinning studios, etc, and headed out. I ended up doing two loops and a bit instead of one (the rest went on to tour the Campus), because my legs were still feeling stiff from the flight after 3k. Ironic as it sounds, I actually felt much better after a longer run.

We rounded off the day with dinner at a famous burger joint. The portion could have fed me for three meals!! Explains why nearly one in two Americans are obesed…

Satisfied and exhausted, I slept like a baby that night.

Day 2 in Portland began with an easy 35min morning run for me, though everyone else decided to forego the scheduled trail run to rest their legs the day before the race. That reasoning went out the door once we hit the shopping malls though!

After a hearty breakfast (I ate others’ leftovers cos the portions, once again, were too humongous) at a famous cafe, Mother’s, we went to Target in Tigard to stock up on race supplies. Each van was left to select their race sustenance. Our van — team Singapore Noodles — filled the cart with Gatorade, Vitamin Water, granola bars and Hostess cupcakes. We also got some window crayons/markers to decorate the van, a bunch of toilet rolls for visits to the Honey Bucket,… I think someone bought a PS3, but not for the race though. Then we went to Washington Square Mall, followed by Woodburn Company Stores, for shopping, shopping and more shopping. Main attractions included the Coach, Nike and Cole Haan factory outlets, Abercrombie & Fitch, Hollister, Ruehl, American Eagle, Victoria’s Secrets… obviously runners have an endurance not just for the road! We were so engrossed with shopping that we skipped lunch, were starving by 4pm and fed our desperate hunger with 7-Eleven sandwiches. Not the best pre-race preparation!!

Next stop: the Nike Campus for Thirsty Thursday, a last Thursday of the month thing for Nike employees. Cheap beer, free grub and good fun. Hood to Coast participants thronged the party, which had beer in specially-designed Hood to Coast tumblers and free Hood to Coast bandanas. An announcer also went down the list and called each team on stage for a group photo. The Singapore Noodles and Chilli Crabs drew quite the attention…

We rounded off the day with a home-cooked team dinner of pasta and roast chicken at T’s, who had moved from Singapore to Portland about a year ago. Captain D, who also relocated to Portland barely a week ago, briefed us on the race.

By the time we got back to the hotel it was about midnight, and we spent the next hour or so decorating the van and organising our supplies. Van 1 runners had to be up at 5am to get to the 8am race start at Mount Hood, so I was thanking my lucky stars I was in Van 2. We only had to be at the handover point by about 1pm, so I managed to get a good night’s rest and a hearty breakfast before our gruelling journey began.

Ironically, I woke up at the same time when A, who was in Van 1, woke up at about 4.30am to get ready to leave. Uh-huh, I was that excited about the race.