g: the early years...

T minus 36 hours

Hood to Coast is just 3 days away. 3 days until 12 people pile into 2 vans and run a collective 197 miles. That's 316 kilometres...Sydney to Canberra in Aussie terms. All up 1000 teams - 12,000 runners and 3,000 volunteers! Toughest challenge other than the fitness is estimating how long each runner will complete each leg. If everyone is conservative but then comes home in world record pace, the van won't be there to drop off the next runner, so all time advantage is lost. If we all say we are going to do 4 minute miles but we bomb, then vans are hanging around check points forever. Oh the dilemma!

Hood to Coast 2006

In a moment of absolute lunacy last year, I threw gDiaper's hat in the ring to enter the longest relay race in the US...195 miles of sheer running pleasure from Mt Hood to the Coast. 1,000 teams made up of 12,000 runners have lined up each year since 1981. Getting in is nay impossible. So I was shocked to learn we had actually been selected. 
My running mate Seth has pulled together 11 elite runners and me. As sponsor I am hoping to score the three shortest, flatest legs of around 5 miles each. The business has really become an impediment on my training.
We have two vans that need decorating (inflatable toilets on the roof?) and have 3 fabulous volunteers that are putting aside 4 hours or so to man (or woman) the course. We have a team name: gDiapers: Just Flush It.
And lawyers standing by ready to manage being sued by Phil Knight. We have t-shirts and hopefully some groovy little giveaways on course.
So with a month to go, it is a great night to start training. And as I am holed up in a hotel in Seattle, I can actually get our for a gallop. 

Back in the swing of things

8 weeks from today and the family and I are heading to Newport (coastal town on Oregon's coast) for a love-rly weekend with friends and a marathon. Training was meant to start 2 months ago but as always, the pesky business just keeps getting in the way. That and a solid month of sickness not to mention the rain. (I am all excuses...)
So in Hawaii I finally got back into it. And heading up Diamond Head Rd was most inspirational. Purpose of the post is to keep me accountable! The will is soooo weak.

Running around Phoenix

So after a solid month of rain, we headed to Phoenix to witness the big red ball of flame in the sky - the greatest nuclear reactor out there, commonly known as the sun. We caught up with relatives, ran a marathon and the kids had a great time riding a very cool train in a kids park in Scottsdale. So while running around the streets with 30,000 others, I noticed a thing or two...

At Mile 1: There is huge pride for New Orleans. Runners with "Proud to be from New Orleans" on their shirts abounded
At Mile 5: There are as many Hummers in Phoenix as there are Toyota Priii ( plural of Prius?) in Portland
At Mile 10 Thus the business case for an environmentally sensitive diaper is weak in Phoenix - bummer as the weather is great and a new gHQ here would be very attractive
At Mile 11: Must contact my good friends at Toyota and see if they would come in on a "Buy a gDiapers Starter Kit and get a free Prius" deal I just devised (oxygen defecit just kicking in now)
At Mile 12: There is one golf resort for every man, woman and child living in Phoenix
At Mile 14: Why is the 3hr 40 minute pacer going slower than the 3hr 45 minute pacer? Note to self - do not follow pace groups
At Mile 15: Who put Split Enz on my iPod?
At Mile 20: OK, somebody shoot me now, I am tired
At Mile 22: Oh, there's the family, better pick it up now
At Mile 23: OK, they're gone now, back to dying slowly
At Mile 24: Didn't I pass Mile 24 an hour ago
At Mile 24.5: I want my mummy now
At Mile 25, 26. 26.2: Running friend Seth joins me and drags my sorry ass over the line. He is attached to the blue gardening shoe in the pic

According to my GPS, I went through 3,300 calories so I sent the afternoon "replenishing" on a Gatorade type drink called "Sierra Nevada" Ale. A bit hoppy but certainly did the trick.

Back to the land of diapers today.