The Blaine County Journal News-Opinion - We've Got The County Covered

Lesley Zellmer, from Chinook, recently mentioned to me she had just returned from Oregon where she participated in a relay run from Mount Hood to the Coast at Seaside, Oregon. I knew she was a runner but was not familiar with this relay which, turns out, has been held for 41 years and, for the record, is 196 miles long.

Per the relay group's official website, "The Hood to Coast Relay (HTC Relay) is the most popular and largest running relay race in the world, annually drawing participants from over 40 countries and all 50 states. Known as the "Mother of All Relays," the event takes 12-member relay teams from the ski resort atop Mount Hood to the beaches of the Pacific Ocean." The $750,000+ raised annually goes to help Providence Cancer Institute research and patient advocacy programs.

Around 12,000 runners make up the one thousand 12-person teams who run the relay. Teams' runners are assigned to two vans that drop runners off and pick them up during the course of the race. During the two-day event each runner is assigned to run three times (legs) that each average just over five miles. Van 1 transports runners to legs 1-6, and van 2 transports runners to legs 7-12 miles. While the first van's team leaves from points along Mount Hood the team in the second van is resting for their upcoming runs.

Winning the lottery, recruiting a team.

The only way to register a team for the HTC Relay is to win one of the 1000 team lottery spots. The team Lesley joined was actually captained by a traveling cath lab technician who lives in Texas. After several tries the team captain finally won a lottery spot. She contacted a cousin of Lesley's husband to join her team. That cousin is a radiology tech in Helena and she asked Lesley to join the team. The word spread and finally, mostly through their medical connections, a team was formed. That was late October, 2022.

At the last minute a team member had to drop. Someone called Lesley asking if she knew a runner and she thought of her sister in Colorado. The sister works from home and had a flexible schedule, she joined the team. Another member with a Montana connection was Tana Kelley who is a news anchor for "Wake Up Montana."

Team members were from six different states, many in the medical field. The team included three cath lab techs, two registered nurses, a radiology tech, a college professor, a data analyst, one title company owner (Lesley, Treasure State Title in Chinook) and a news anchor for "Wake Up Montana."

Preparing for the event.

Lesley said she runs an average of 25 miles per week, "some seven-mile days, some days three or four miles. The average leg on the HTC Relay was about five miles so I didn't need to prepare any differently." Participants ran three legs totaling an average 16.5 miles.

Upon arrival the group stayed in an Airbnb in Vancouver, WA just across the Columbia River from Portland. Some of the team drove to the race, others flew to Portland. It was an hour and a half drive to the relay start point from the Airbnb. During the actual race runners used sleeping bags between legs of the relay.

The Pace Makers, Lesley's team name (note medical connection to members) brought their own food and water. Lesley told that the "major exchanges," where vans would drop off and pick up runners, were set up at large areas to accommodate van traffic. Those areas also had vendors selling water and food. Required gear to assure runners could be safely seen at night included a head lamp and a reflective vest with LED flashers front and back.

The Run. Lesley was the 9th runner assigned to her team's van 2. To accommodate 1000 teams there were staggered start times. The Pace Makers' Runner 1 of Van 1 started from the ski resort on Mount Hood at 3:55am on Friday morning. Lesley said 25 runners started every five minutes. Lesley, runner 9 of Van 2, was grabbing some rest before her first leg was at noon on Friday, leaving from Boring, Oregon. She started her second leg at midnight on Friday and the third leg began at 11:15am on Saturday.

Running conditions varied as the runners moved toward the coast. Lesley's first run, in the daylight, was on what she described as a "paved trail for runners and cyclists." The second run, at midnight and 70 degrees, was in the forest on "old logging roads". The last leg started at mid-day on a two-lane highway and was in the 90's with a light breeze.

The finish line was on the beach at Seaside, Oregon. "Our entire team," Lesley pointed out, "gathered for a group photo and to receive our finisher medals. It was a great feeling to have finished the relay and been a part of such a huge event."

Per Lesley there were lots of porta-potties along the running routes but no water sources so many runners carried water bottles. She added, "This year's race was extremely hot and some residents and families along the route had garden hoses and sprinklers set up for runners as we ran by. That felt amazing!"

Thoughts and observations after the relay

Asked if she was ever fearful Lesley said, "Most all the time with the number of runners on the course, I could usually see someone." Some runners said they encountered some "sketchy" homeless people along the running route in Portland. "Much of the route was uninhabited but when we ran through residential areas most folks would be at the end of their driveway to greet and cheer us on."

Not all residential areas, however, were welcoming. Lesley said in the 86-page handbook that was given to each runner (most downloaded a digital version for obvious reasons) there were some warnings to avoid trespassing on certain pieces of property on the route. She explained, "Most of those places were in the mountains where folks had likely built to be away from crowds and noise. They probably weren't happy that 12,000 runners had showed up on their turf."

Lesley also mentioned a kind of "crowd communication" going on during the run. She explained, "At the major exchanges where the vans would pick up and drop off runners there were lots of people. That's where we got the latest news, like learning early on that a runner had fallen on Mount Hood and broken a hip."

Lesley showed me her Olympic-like medallion on a ribbon. Medallions were given to each runner who completed the course. Some teams were competing for best times and received prizes for the fastest finishes. But the Pace Makers team, per Lesley, "tackled the Hood to Coast Relay for the "fun, experience and adventure" and it was well worth the effort."