Run with Nuun!

Nuun finally released their highly coveted Hood to Coast team applications today.  YOU better enter!  All you have to be is be female, a blogger, FUN, and not have run it with them before.

Hood to Coast is seriously one of the best races in the WORLD, and running it with Nuun is one of the best times in the WORLD.  I wholeheartedly 110% recommend applying.  

 Seriously - look how much fun this is.  And how beautiful the scenery is.

Obviously I already knew that Rudiger would probably hinder my chances of applying to this but even with this aside I fully support Nuun's decision to have an all new team of ladies this year.  Too bad though, because I seriously had a good idea for an application in the works!  If it wasn't so much dang work I would totally make the video just for fun!

Making the video last year was a blast (although JMan did a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of editing), so let's take a little walk down memory lane, shall we??!!  You can also check out my application here.

The good news is that I AM going to run a relay with Nuun this year!  If you haven't heard, Nuun is now the official hydration sponsor for RAGNAR, and I will be running Ragnar Las Vegas with Nuun in November!  I'm seriously pumped and a ton of other awesome blogging ladies will also be there.  Some people may be taking bets as to whether I'll actually do the race or not given Rudiger's arrival in July, but I plan on being there, with bells on!

Are you going to enter?  Please say YES!  It's the best time EVER.  Seriously.  
Care to wager a bet about my participation in Ragnar Las Vegas?!

REJECTED.

If you've read about anything round these parts, it's Hood to Coast.  It is THE race of my year.  Even when I first became a runner long long ago in 2008, I KNEW that I wanted to do Hood to Coast.

So I put in an application.
But in 2009, it was not meant to be.  REJECTED.  

So for 2010, I tried again.  You get to go in a "special" lottery if you've been declined the year before, so we supposedly had much better odds.  And SUCCESS!  We were in!

 Van 1 is the best, by the way. 

And it. Was. AWESOME.  It did NOT disappoint.  Hanging out with my favorite people in a sweaty van all weekend is truly the best.

So after one of the best weekends, ever, we were understandably greedy for more.  So we applied again for 2011.  And to my very pleased surprise we were ACCEPTED again!  Even without the special lottery.

In 2011 the extreme heat and extreme traffic issues put a little damper on our fun, but we still had a blast.  And of course, we wanted more. 
So we applied for 2012.  But, like 2009, it was not meant to be.  REJECTED. 

Lucky for me, Nuun was accepting applications for their 3 awesome teams, and I got picked!  And I had THE TIME OF MY LIFE running with them in 2012.  Thank you again Nuun.  But my poor teammates didn't get that experience.

 Van 1 Team Morning Rockstars

So of course, we applied again, in that special lottery for those who are rejected, for 2013.  But this time, the special lottery didn't hold any specialness for us.
Because the word just came, that for 2013 we are  REJECTED.
 
And I am disappointed.  That's for sure.  I feel a little like we got a bit screwed by all the people last year who earned a guaranteed entry through their brand new rule: that if you finish within 30 minutes of your predicted time you get an automatic entry.  I heard that an estimated 350 teams (out of only 1,050) got guaranteed entry through that method ALONE (there's other ways to earn it too).  You can bet if that'd have been a rule during 2010 or 2011 we would have gone to the EXTREMES to make that happen.  Which I'm sure a TON of teams did.  But that left way less spots for those that didn't have a team last year.

But oh well - what can you do?  Except apply again next year!  And start thinking up some Nuun Hood to Coast application ideas....!

Anyone have a team I can be on?  Or an idea for a different relay we should enter?  

My Go-To Mantra & an Endorphin Warrior GIVEAWAY!

It's no surprise that I adore Endorphin Warrior training bracelets.  In fact, I first fell in love with them after I saw the 2011 Nuun Hood to Coast team girls sporting them around their blogs.  I "dropped hints" (aka begged) around my husband and a "Persevere" bracelet magically appeared under the Christmas tree last year.

My arm looks hairy.

So when I heard Endorphin Warrior was offering to send all of the 2012 Nuun Hood to Coast gals a bracelet (that means ME!) I was ECSTATIC to say the least.  This time around I chose "Relentless".  My go-to mantra while running is:

Never Give Up.  

Never Surrender.  

And this seems to seamlessly interact with RELENTLESS.  And PERSEVERE too, for that matter.  Although I think I personally like the "PERSEVERE" statement better, the RELENTLESS bracelet just happens to fit a bit better (I'm not sure if they're the same size or not, but one is tighter which I prefer) so I pretty much never take it off.  I know you're not supposed to shower and swim with it to prolong it's life, but so far I seriously wasn't lying - I NEVER take it off (not for swimming or showering!) and it's still in awesome shape.  

This picture might be a little unrelated - but it deserves some more action.

So I was even MORE ecstatic (is that even possible?!) when Endorphin Warrior graciously offered to do a giveaway of a Warrior Training Bracelet for a reader.  I knew that you guys would love a bracelet just as much as I did, so I leaped at the chance to offer one to you. 

So I bet you're dying to know - How do I win?!  Here's all you have to do:  

• Go to Endorphin Warrior's website and check out the different warrior bracelets they have.  Leave a comment below saying which keyword or phrase would you pick if you won.  That's it!

Bonus entries:  1 bonus entry for each thing, just leave a comment below.

1. Like Endorphin Warrior on Facebook
2. Like Ricole Runs on Facebook
3. Follow Endorphin Warrior on Twitter and tweet about the giveaway, something like: I want to win an @EndorphnWarrior bracelet from @ricoleruns and you should too! http://www.ricoleruns.com/2012/09/my-go-to-mantra-endorphin-warrior.html

 Fine Print Shenanigans:  This giveaway will run through Thursday, October 4 at 8:00pm PST.  One winner will be chosen using Random.org random number generator.  Although Endorphin Warrior provided me with a bracelet all opinions are my own. 

Post Hood to Coast Festivities

It's hard to believe that in just under 29 hours we made it from here:

To here:

We made it!  It took 28 hours, 46 minutes, and 30 seconds - good enough for 6th place in the Corporate Women Division (for some reason the other 2 teams were in Women's Open and we were in Corporate Women).  Don't ask how many teams were in our division though... (only 9!).  WE STILL ROCKED!

Being in Van 1 is DEFINITELY the way to go, for a million different reasons.  You get to see the gorgeous mountain.  You usually have better running times / sleeping times though because of our late start I'm not sure that was the case this time.  You miss out on most of the traffic.  AND MOST IMPORTANTLY - you get to the beach party FIRST with time to shower and relax before you meet your team at the finish.

Since we were nearly the last team to finish, the beach party was already in full effect by the time we got there and was very busy. 

We had to stop by and say hi to the Nuunies!

We had a lovely gorgeous sunset going on

And then FINALLY our team was there!  Running on the sand when your quads are already starting to feel sore is not easy.  The run to the finish with our runner was more like a sad little shuffle of soreness. 

Then we were off to the Nike VIP tent (woot!) for some beers and BBQ and talk.  I didn't last long though - it was pretty chilly out and I was starting to get reeeaaaallllyyyyy tired.  Some of the young-ens headed out to the bar after - I headed to my warm cozy bed. 

And just like the end, the weekend I'd been looking forward to for MONTHS was over.  I feel a bit depressed.  I don't want the relay madness to end! 

The End.

Hood to Coast Leg #3 aka Leg #30

We're almost there!  You've almost made it to the end of my never-ending marathon posts about Hood to Coast!  Don't worry, persevere - you can do it. 

Where we last left off we had grabbed a bit of sleep at the last major exchange.  Some slept in the van on the way there - since I had just run I was still all hopped up on adrenaline and couldn't sleep.  Once we got there I opted to just sleep in the van - while some others slept in the field.  Since it was now daylight and quite hot by the time we woke up it was a bit difficult do simulate night! 

And finally it was morning - Team Morning's true time to shine!  :-)

Check out those awesome Tough Chik arm warmers - I wore mine on the night leg only since it was hot and sadly didn't get a picture. 

I've mentioned it before but I can't reiterate enough how I think starting so late (we started at 2:30pm) hindered our experience a bit.  I feel like we missed out on some of the "crazy" of Hood to Coast - the atmosphere - seeing all the costumes and crazy van decorations, etc.  The good thing was that we missed out on traffic, but we were literally less than 30 minutes ahead of the VERY LAST RUNNER.  We could hear them on their walkie talkies saying "Exchange 27 now closed" when we were only at Exchange 29!  That's not good.

Here, for example, is one of the exchanges, a freaking ghost town:

But I digress.  That was really the only negative thing of the whole weekend so how can you possibly complain?!?!?

And then it was time for me to run my 3rd and final leg!  Looking at the elevation map it looked like after I made it about halfway I was good to go - it was smooth sailing downhill to the finish.  So I kind of overlooked this leg and figured this would be my easiest leg by far. 

Nope. 

Ready to go!

Saturday, August 25, 2:00pm
Another jaunt down the road through the middle of nowhere this time.  The road was curving with no shoulder so it was a bit scary going around the blind spots because a car coming your way would easily hit you before they saw you. 

The scenery on this leg was GORGEOUS though.  Through the forest and pure loveliness. 

 

Again, I totally underestimated the difficulty of this leg.  Although it looks straight downhill, (and it was - very steep downhill for one mile that wrecked havoc on your quads) - it was still quite rolling after that so I was wrong to think it was only downhill to the finish.  Lots more hills to contend with!

Total Distance: 5.3 miles   Total Time: 40:21   Average Pace: 7:37
Splits: 8:05, 7:48, 7:31, 7:25, 7:25, 6:51 (.3)

Total elevation gain of 162 feet, total loss of 667 feet

Look at all those 7's!  This time I mixed it up by passing 2 people but only getting passed by 1 person (probably because Molly was already ahead of me and didn't get a chance to pass me for a 3rd time!).  So to recap, the ENTIRE race of 17 miles I only passed 6 people and got passed by 5 (2 of those 5 being Molly).  Again - you were ALONE when you were running. 

But I was so thankful while I was out there to BE out there - to be running Hood to Coast, to be running with this fabulous group of women, to be running with this amazing company.  I LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT!

But then I was done!  And that meant the WHOLE TEAM was done!  YIPPEE!  We had survived! 

We're finally all done!

I loved my van so much - they were the best group of girls and best driver in the world.  I'm so lucky I got to hang out with them in a sweaty van for 30+ hours! 

Come back tomorrow for the final epic conclusion - the beach party!

Hood to Coast Leg #2 aka Leg #18

After I finished my first leg we headed off to Portland to find dinner with Team Noon (Team Brunch strikes again!).  We found the most generically named restaurant ever: "The Portland Sports Bar & Grill".  Seriously?  That's the best name you could come up with?

I had a BBQ chicken wrap and it was just okay.  The chicken was dry and the pita bread was pretty dry too.  Some of the other girls got tater-tots and I was pretty envious of their choices. 

After killing a bunch of time at the restaurant (service is always slow when you're trying to feed 14 people it seems!), we headed off to the next van exchange - a bit of a sketchy area under the bridge.  Beautiful views of the city lights though:

And then we were off and running again!  Once again, being the last to go makes it rough - both in anticipation, and in staying awake, and in knowing what to eat.  It'd been a good 5 hours or more since we ate dinner by the time I actually ran, so it's difficult to decide what's safe to eat.

We settled on some peanut butter, more dried mangoes (get those away from me!), and I gave myself a glute massage with more Bengay.  Totally normal for 3 in the morning.  Things got a little bit delirious somewhere in here...

Until finally, FINALLY, it was my turn to go. 

Saturday, August 25, 4:29am
I was hoping we would somehow get a bit more behind so I would be running when the sun came up, but no dice.  It was just starting to get a teeny tiny bit light as we drove away from the exchange AFTER I finished. 

My run was a pretty pointless circle around West St. Helens - I guess they felt they needed to add some mileage so sadly I didn't help us much in getting to Seaside.  Kind of like Ragnar. 

This was to be my hardest leg and it was hard all right.  It was steady uphill the whole time, but mostly in the last 1.5 miles or so was when I really struggled.  In the last mile a very strong headwind added to the uphill, it was partially on gravel, and it was DARK. 

There were times when I definitely wasn't sure where to go, because again, since we started so late, we were around NO ONE.  I had an identical leg as my first, passing 2 people and getting passed by 2 (Molly passed me AGAIN!). 

It was seriously pitch black in places and I wished I'd carried more light.  I just had my headlamp on and it wasn't enough.  There was also an intersection that I wasn't sure where to go where again there was no volunteer nor a sign, and no one in front of me leading the way.  I did NOT like that.  We need signs people! 

Total Distance: 5.27 miles   Total Time: 44:04   Average Pace: 8:22
Splits: 8:08, 8:12, 8:08, 8:21, 8:53, 8:37 (.27)

Total elevation gain: 214 feet

No 7's this time.  I was just happy to keep moving despite the hills, headwind, gravel, and darkness.  I was so happy to be done with this leg! 

And finally FINALLY it was time to try to sleep for a bit.  But of course first we had to wind our way on the most curving road ever in the middle of the night to get there.  Jay is a rockstar and got us there safely.  THANK YOU JAY! 

And we like to fake brush our teeth in the middle of the night.  We're cool!

Leg #2 aka Leg #18 done - only one leg left to go!

Hood to Coast Leg #1 aka Leg #6

For some reason I am having a terrible time recapping this race.  I don't know why.  It's never happened to me before. The weekend was so awesome and I met so many fabulous people and had fun running 17 miles and it's like too many things happened to even put into words.  I'm having a serious case of writer's block, people.  But, the race started nearly a week ago already, and it's freaking time I got it documented and sadly, moved on with my life.  I guess.  If I have to.

So maybe we'll go with mostly a "story of pictures"?  Whatd'ya say?

On Friday morning our late start (more on that later) granted us a luxurious wake-up call of 7am.  We loaded up the vans and were off to Oregon!  In case you're confused, our group team name is "Afternuun Delight" but each of the 3 teams were further designated into "Team Morning" (us!), "Team Noon", and "Team Night".

Since we love food though, "Team Morning" quickly became "Team Breakfast":

And since "Team Morning" Van 1 and "Team Noon" Van 1 seemed to be together nearly the entire race (that was a blast - so glad it worked out that way!) - our conglomerate quickly became "Team Brunch". Yeah, we're clever.

Team Brunch at the end of the race

After a few hours in the van (the first of MANY), we finally got a glimpse of that oh-so-glorious mountain: Timberline Lodge at Mt. Hood. 

Isn't it lovely?  Shouldn't this be a magazine cover?  Don't you love our Team Sparkle skirts?!

My awesome van: Corey, Jess, Tricia, Stephanie, & Nuunie Caitlin

Tricia started getting ready for her first leg and the rest of us started getting ready for the whole race with our Nuun tattoos (the most important part of course!):

Corey rocking the tattoo application

We also made it our mission to Nuun-tattoo as many people as possible, and taking some notes from The Amazing Race the day before - aimed for as many "odd" looking people as possible.  Good strategy, right?

Being the last leg of your van definitely has it's disadvantages.  On this first leg I was ITCHING to run.  I was seriously dying of jealousy every time another teammate took off.  It was killing me to wait all that time, but finally, FINALLY, Molly and I (my leg 6 counterpart on Team Noon) took to the starting blocks corral. 

Friday, August 24, 6:20pm - Just late enough to have to wear the reflective vests / headlamps / LED flashers even though it was broad daylight.

And we were off!  Molly is ragingly fast and passed me within the first 10 seconds of the race.  Two people passed me and I passed two people for a sad net gain of 0 (but we don't worry about net, only gross matters, right?!). 

We had a nice jaunt down the highway that led into Sandy, Oregon, where the first major exchange was waiting there at the Safeway parking lot.  This was to be my longest leg, which I was very happy to get done with first, however I was pretty nervous going in because my glute acts up on 6 mile runs, so how was it going to react to not 1, not 2, but THREE 6 mile runs???!!!

Surprisingly it seemed to do okay.  It was hot out (high 70's) in the blazing direct sun and I was at max effort, so the main concern was my heart rate / breathing the entire time - so that was plenty to think about.

Total Distance: 6.71 miles   Total Time: 52:24   Average Pace: 7:49
Splits: 8:06, 7:47, 8:05, 8:00, 7:37, 7:35, 7:20

Look at all those 7's!  Yeah yeah yeah, the downhill:

Total elevation gain of 165 feet, 526 feet of loss

The route was net downhill by a decent amount, with some rolling hills that are difficult to see in the elevation map since the scale is so large.  But you can likely see that the first mile was warm-up, second mile downhill, 3rd and 4th miles slight uphill, and last 3 miles downhill. 

I was all alone for the last 3 miles - could not see a single runner in sight in front of or behind me, and that was very unnerving because there were NO signs and NO volunteers directing me where to go (or confirming I was on the right track!).  Once I got into Sandy there were a few annoying stoplights and I got to run past a bunch of people eating at bars outside who all cheered for me - which was funny.

And before I knew it - I was sprinting into the exchange:

And then I handed off to Erin on Van 2 and we were all done with our first set of legs!  I immediately walked as much as I could before we left and stretched my glute / hamstring out - which was the story of the whole trip.  I rolled it with the lacrosse ball a bit too, and used Bengay a few times, and it seemed to keep the problem under control.  I'm on a break now from running though - in case you wanted a bit of a spoiler alert!

And that was my 1st leg / Leg #6 of Hood to Coast!  Next up: dinner and my 2nd leg - the night one!

Pre Hood to Coast Festivities

So now you’ve heard about my lost cat and how awesome and how generous Nuun is.  Now let’s get down to brass tax and talk the nitty gritty details of Hood to Coast.  Sorry folks, I’m sure you’re getting recaps right and left from everyone and their mom, but these recaps aren’t just for you, they’re for me too to read in the future, so you’re getting the deets.  Come back next week if you’re tired of HTC talk. 

First let’s talk pre-race festivities.  The true fun started on Wednesday with a Mariners game and other shenanigans, but since I just got a new job I unfortunately could no longer attend the Wednesday fun – orientation instead for me. 

So the fun for me started on Thursday with a stop at the airport to pick up Katie and Harmony, and then headed to Nuun Headquarters for THE AMAZING RACE.  Since I’m obsessed with that show and am dying to be on it it was very fitting I finally got to participate in an amazing race of my own.  

 

Look what a stacked team we are!  Tonia, Vanessa, Harmony, me, XLMIC, & Stephanie

There were many locations and / or activities to do, taking pictures the whole time.  But since Lindsay wasn’t on our team and I’m no true Seattle-ite, we didn’t really know how to get around the city quickly to get to all the locations in the time allotted.   

 

What animal exactly do you think this is????  It likes Nuun, that's for sure.

So we mostly focused on the bonus points: Nuun-tattooing as many random people as we could.

 Harmony is so awesome and such a good sport!

Brave Stephanie even tatt-ed up this guy:

And the other bonus point method: finding as many pigs in Seattle as we could.

And guess what?  WE WON!  I couldn’t believe it, but apparently all those pigs really paid off.

After the race we headed back to the office for a solid carb-tastic dinner and some van decorating.  We definitely didn’t win any artistic competitions but we had fun all the same.

And then we were off to the hotel for a fitful night of sleep before our 7am wake-up call (for Van 1’s) to head up to the mountain.  Come back later to hear about the mountain and Leg 1!

And extra special thanks to the following sponsors for making our Hood to Coast experience extra awesome: 

Team-Sparkle, Magnets on the Cheap, Kind Bars, Sparkly Soul, Bengay, Tiger Tail, Tough Chik, Go Sport ID, Endorphin Warrior, Showerpill, Swiftwick, Thorlo, Knucklelights, Pickybars, Chobani, and GNC.

Dear Nuun, THANK YOU!

Oh. My. Gosh.  Where do I even begin to recap Hood to Coast?  It was truly an epic, amazing, awesome, wonderful, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity kind of weekend.  And I owe it all to Nuun Hydration – not only the best hydration company ever, but quite possibly the best company ever.  

Nuun Hydration is truly a place that I would want to work.  In fact, I may have dropped a few hints here and there about how they probably REALLY need a “Director of Educational Programs” or something!  You know – someone who goes out to schools and tells kids about the horrors of dehydration??!!  Don’t you think they need someone like that?!

But seriously, every Nuun employee I came into contact with was AWESOME, everyone was generous, a good sport, supportive, etc., etc., ETC.  I wish I’d gotten to chat with more of the Nuun-ies, but I was especially impressed with Caitlin (not only superstar organizer extraordinaire but also incredible amazing runner-of-the-hardest-legs), Jay (best-van-driver-of-all-time and owner of the most awesome Boston accent ever), Casey (second-best-van-driver-of-all-time and king of the cheerleaders), and Mason (Nuun CEO and running expert). 

I owe everyone a ginormous THANK YOU, but thank you alone doesn’t seem to cut it.  I am so thankful to Nuun for picking me and allowing me the opportunity to spend the weekend with them running, eating dried mangoes, drinking Nuun, meeting other lovely runners from around the country, smelling up their vans, and in general having a wonderful time.  

If you’re not into the everyone-posting-about-Hood-to-Coast for weeks on end kind of thing, I understand.  My recaps are likely to go and on and on and ON.  So if you choose not to come back until they’re done, I understand.  But if you read any, read this one: Nuun Hydration ROCKS.  If you have a choice, choose Nuun.  Not only because their product is great (which I truly believe) but also because their company is great.  It’s a place we’d all love to work.  

THANK YOU NUUN!  

So about that Director of Educational Programs position….????!!!!