Wow! What an experience this was. Molly has run it a few times and said it was awesome. I was reluctant to believe her. I mean how fun can it be to run 197 miles with a team, non-stop, running through the middle of the night, and having to each run three times! No way, I say! But, she was right. The excitement of meeting new people, the energy of all the crazed people around you, the humorously decorated vans, and all the laughs that are shared on NO SLEEP, made this relay run one of the craziest, most absurd, most fun, things I have ever done!Here we are, the entire team, the morning of the race, getting organized and saying our good-byes!
Here is van 1, our van, at the top of Mt. Hood waiting for our official start time. I can't describe how beautiful it was up there! Mike and Julie are good friends from Boise. There's me and Bob. Danieal and Greg live in Washington and are brother and sister. They were friends with others in Van 2, but we decided to have them in our van since we were all newbies and totally clueless about the race. That ended up being a fantastic idea. Although we missed our other Boise clan, Danieal and Greg were awesome. We would not have made it without them, no kidding! The six of us clicked immediately and quickly became a little family!
My butt pants came in handy when decorating our van. The other back door said, "Smack our" and had an arrow pointing to the bum pants. So, many times were were startled when someone would run by and smack the back of our van! We also hung Christmas lights all over the van. It was awesome at night! 
And we're off! Mike was our first runner. This was his very first race ever. He was so excited. You can see it in his face. I love this pic. It exemplifies how all of us were pumped for the race!
After each runner took off, we would drive a little way and then get out and wait for them. We were all about cheering on our runner, giving them water, gum, moral support, hugs, whatever they needed, we were there for each other!
Here's Julie handing off the baton bracelet to Robert. 
Here's me running into an exchange to give Greg the baton.
Julie is waiting to give Greg water. Check out the gigantic tree trunk she is standing next to. The scenery was picturesque!
I love this pic. of Danieal and Greg. He walked along side of her briefly giving her water and motivation!
Bob and I chillin...waiting for our runner to come by!
Check out the Star Wars van. Now these party-animal dudes really went all out!
Here's an exchange our first day with Mt. Hood in the background.
We slept in a field.....well some of us. I stayed in the van! It is actually a funny story. I went to the bathroom and Robert laid out our bags. I came back, he was asleep, and I didn't want to sleep outside. It was too cold. Julie welcomed it because she is tall and wanted to stretch her legs. So, we traded spots. Robert woke up in the morning and rolled over to talk to me. There was Julie sleeping next to him! We made jokes all day about him knowing it was her but snuggling up to her anyway and trying to get some action!
They were filming a Hood to Coast documentary. It comes out in 2009. It will be fun to see. Hopefully, we'll see our van, some of our runners, or something!
Check out the lines to the "honey buckets!" That's Robert and Greg at the back of the line.
We would eat out of the van. 
Danieal was our official stat keeper. We had to keep track of every one's times, splits, etc.
Robert taking off for a run!
Julie just finishing her run!
And then we were done......We finished at SeaSide. We were able to take a hot shower at the local middle school and then head down to the beach to wait for our team to finish. 
It was so beautiful!The party was incredible. There was so much free stuff, good food, music, and I even had a massage!
Boy were we excited to see these guys! We finished, we made it, and we were still smiling!
Here's all of the Boise gang who traveled over together. Bec and Jeff are our good friends who roped us in to this race. We're glad they did though. We really did have a great experience. We stopped at a few sites along the way home, for potty breaks, and food, and potty breaks (Mike!), and food....ya, it took us a long time to get home, but we enjoyed the ride! You know what they say is true....good friends, good times!
So, the experience is over. It was a long time training, planning, and stressing, but it was all worth it. Would we do it again next year.......You better believe it!
