As of this post, just 119 days to go to Hood to Coast and I've got to admit, I am extremely excited!  We have 10 team members (still room for 2 more if you're interested), the transportation booked, the first leg mapped, and the team name picked  - Go DetermiNation Illinois!

After nearly 4 months of not being able to run due to back to back bouts with some kind of lung virus, and backing out of the Disney Half I was supposed to run in early January and deciding to walk the Illinois mini I-Challenge this coming weekend, I was finally able to complete a 5K run last week - I wasn't fast, but I made it and it felt GREAT!  Now on to the next hurdle, training for Hood to Coast (H2C).

For those of you who don't know, H2C is a 200 mile relay race based in Oregon.  The race starts up on Mt. Hood, at an elevation of about 6,000 feet and ends at the west coast somewhere between 24 and 30 hours later.   There are 1,000 12-person teams competing, which are chosen by lottery.  It's considered the "mother of all relays" and I understand it can be somewhat brutal. 

Of course, unlike training for Kilimanjaro, my training for Hood to Coast will mostly be running, sprinting, some core work, and lots of leg strengthening.  Also, once again, I will be training for hills and elevation.  The mantra we cried while climbing Kili was "Pole' Pole'"  which means, "slowly slowly" in Swahili - that's not the case with H2C...we'll be running full-out to meet up with the next runner and it doesn't matter whether we're running down grade or upgrade, running full out is the name of the game.  All teams must finish the race in under 30 hours, which means that we must average less than a 9 minute mile throughout the race....that's pretty fast for this old gal!  But I'm determined to train hard and not let my team down.

Champaign/Urbana folks, if you see me out running or hiking, PLEASE honk, yell, and wave - believe it or not, that helps so much!  It keeps my feet moving even more than my music shuffle. 

Now for the money stuff...My team has committed to raise $18,000 for the American Cancer Society.  We are paying for our travel, hotel, and vans to transport the runners ourselves, so all the money we raise will go directly to ACS.  Please, if you know someone who's battled cancer, you know how much work we have to do, take a moment and go to our donation site and make a donation.  http://main.acsevents.org/goto/determinationillinois.lorim  


Thank you!