OT: Hood to Coast for Real

Joshiebaby · Since 14 Oct 2007 569 Posts Vancouver, WA Addicted

http://www.kptv.com/sports/20648906/detail.html

Wow. That dude is a running fool.

Teacher Runs Hood To Coast -- By Himself

SEASIDE, Ore. -- A middle school teacher from Beaverton finished the 197-mile Hood to Coast Relay on Sunday. The difference between Eric Salkeld and 12,000 other Hood to Coast runners, however, was that Salkeld ran the entire race by himself.

By the time he reached the finish line in Seaside, the Hood to Coast tents had been packed up and the post-race party was over. That didn't stop Salkeld from taking a celebratory dip in the ocean.

"Once I got into that ocean, the pain went away," he said.

Salkeld, a teacher at Five Oaks Middle School, tried to run the race on his own last year, but stopped at the 165-mile mark.

This year, Salkeld left Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood early Thursday morning and ran 72 hours before stopping to take a nap. He continued on to Seaside and arrived Sunday night.

"There were times where I wanted to stop. I felt like quitting many, many times," Salkeld said.

The Hood To Coast Relay claims to be the largest relay in the world. The average 12-person team finishes the relay in 28 hours.

Brooks Beasts finished first overall by averaging under 5 minutes and 10 seconds per mile for the race.

"It went really well. Everyone ran solid. There were no problems," said Brett Winegar, who lives in Seattle and ran on the winning team. "Everyone hit the paces we were going for and it was a great race and a great experience."

shred_da_gorge · Mon Aug 31, 09 8:09 pm

Run Forrest, run!

forrest · Tue Sep 01, 09 8:15 am

Har Har

Gman · Since 11 Feb 2006 4911 Posts Portland Unstrapped

If you are going to spend 4 days on the road, you should really bring some friends

And speed up a little if you can - or are a super mutant...

The Spartathlon - classic event in Greece. Also during the inaugural run in 1983 was the venue for the shocking emergence of Yiannis Kouros, an unknown young Greek running his first ultramarathon who demolished a world-class international field by winning in over 3 hours. In the subsequent decade and a half since then, Kouros has gone on to rewrite the world record books at every ultra event from 100 miles through 1,000 miles. Almost everyone came back from Greece suspecting that he had cheated.

Half a year later, Edgar Patterman organized a 3-day, 200-mile stage race along the Danube in Austria. He specifically invited Kouros in order to test him. Some of the same international stars were in attendance (such as Dusan Mravlje of Yugoslavia, the favorite). With race officials and spectators watching virtually every step of the way, Kouros took off, left the field behind early, and even beat some of the official crews to some of the pre-set aid stations, averaging sub-7 minute miles for the first two days. Then, on the third day, he took it easy and ran the final stage with Mravlje. Three months later Kouros came to New York City to face an even more stellar field in the New York 6-day race. That's where he ran 635 miles to bridge the century-old gap between the modern and the 19th century 6-day performers by breaking George Littlewood's all-time best of 623 miles. In that race he broke 12 hours for the first 100 miles, ran about 165 miles for the first 24 hours, broke the 48 hour world record, hitting 266 miles at that point, and then just kept going. As indication of his long distance speed, Kouros' 24-hour track world record is 188-plus miles, which is about 7:40 per mile.