Michael Turns Pro
I know that I said I wouldn't run the Hood to Coast relay again, unless I ran on a team with Steve Prefontaine, Sebastian Coe, and Said Aouita. My main gripe in 2004 was that our team lacked the competitive edge, which led to some of us running extra legs or switching our lone easy leg for another hard one because some team members just couldn't cut it. But I have figured out a great methodology for running Hood to Coast in the future. I wasn't even thinking about the relay--let alone signing up to race--until last week, when a few co-workers mentioned that they would be participating . . .
As the race draws near, there are tons of teams publicly looking for substitute runners. Team abilities run the gamut of competitive to slow. Some teams even offer to pay for everything (which amounts to a couple hundred bucks)--they'll even go so far as to pick you up and drop you off. So if you wait long enough, you can find a team desperate enough to essentially pay you to run. I always thought I'd like to run professionally some day . . .
So I found a group of guys who have run relays together before (but not Hood to Coast), and are semi-competitive--meaning they're older professionals like me who like to run fast but don't train hard-core. I sent an e-mail this morning to one such team, and an hour later two of the team members (from D.C. and Atlanta) conferenced me in and made initial plans to meet up. To them, I'm perfect: local runner guy who has experienced the relay before and is willing to join an unknown team just two days before the starter's gun fires. All I have to do is meet them at their hotel Friday afternoon, and have Meg pick me up in Seaside on Saturday night--oh, and run 17 hard miles within a 24-hour time period. I'm not in good shape (for me), so this will probably be harder than last time.
I'll see how it goes before putting my seal-of-approval on this approach, but I think this is the only way I'll run this race again.
As the race draws near, there are tons of teams publicly looking for substitute runners. Team abilities run the gamut of competitive to slow. Some teams even offer to pay for everything (which amounts to a couple hundred bucks)--they'll even go so far as to pick you up and drop you off. So if you wait long enough, you can find a team desperate enough to essentially pay you to run. I always thought I'd like to run professionally some day . . .
So I found a group of guys who have run relays together before (but not Hood to Coast), and are semi-competitive--meaning they're older professionals like me who like to run fast but don't train hard-core. I sent an e-mail this morning to one such team, and an hour later two of the team members (from D.C. and Atlanta) conferenced me in and made initial plans to meet up. To them, I'm perfect: local runner guy who has experienced the relay before and is willing to join an unknown team just two days before the starter's gun fires. All I have to do is meet them at their hotel Friday afternoon, and have Meg pick me up in Seaside on Saturday night--oh, and run 17 hard miles within a 24-hour time period. I'm not in good shape (for me), so this will probably be harder than last time.
I'll see how it goes before putting my seal-of-approval on this approach, but I think this is the only way I'll run this race again.
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