Seeing the Humor in Running a 200 Mile Relay Race

Many, many years ago, a couple of runner friends at work talked me into running the Hood to Coast Relay, a 12 person, 195 mile relay race in Portland, Oregon. I had never really wanted to run a relay race and have not pondered the joys of running a relay race again since then. Why? For the same reason, I think camping is the equivalent of pretending to be homeless. I don't enjoy it!

It's not that I don't love the outdoors or anything. I love the outdoors. I just don't like sleeping outdoors in a sleeping bag in a tent. I'd rather just sleep in my good ole comfy bed. But that's just me.

Similarly, I love running...trails, roads, varying distances, alone, with friends, casually, competitively. But I don't like running at 3am for 6 miles, finishing, hopping into a van all sweaty, towel off, attempt to sleep and get up 5 hours later to run another 7 miles. Then do it yet again 8 hours later. Especially when I'm sharing the van with 5 other smelly guys who have not showered.

However, a lot of people apparently LOVE running relays, like the popular Ragnar Relay series.  I'd rather run a boring 10K or half marathon, head home, shower up, have a beer and call it a day. However, to each his own. The humorous animation below sums it up for me.

But getting back to Hood to Coast...you know, it was actually kind of fun. Fun enough to be talked into doing it another year. Perhaps you should put a 200 mile relay race on your bucket list.