When D invited me to be part of this year’s Hood to Coast team a few months back, and told me the route was over 300km long, my first response was: “Can I run the whole thing?”
No kidding. I think it’d be fun to run the whole course solo someday. But on hindsight I was content to get the longest combined legs (see course rating below) this year. Trust me, it was tough enough running at a slightly faster than 45min/10km pace for each.
Oh, don’t be fooled by the so-called “downhill” or “mostly flat”. While that could be said of Leg 9, Leg 21 was hardly so. It was run at about 1am, in a constant drizzle, bitter cold, uneven gravel on a mountain side and pitch darkness. Yup, you bet I was scared shitless. But it was a priceless experience. Leg 33 was gentle rolling hills, but after staying awake for over a day and having had two hard runs in the legs, there was nothing easy about the 12.54km leg (which, incidentally, was the longest among all 36 legs).
Detailed race report and pictures to follow…