PORTLAND, Ore — The annual Hood to Coast relay began Friday morning at Timberline Lodge as enthusiastic runners make their way to the Oregon Coast.
The timing of the race couldn’t have been better for runners as air quality throughout Northwest Oregon was rated as “good” after an unhealthy blaze blanked the area for five days.
Related: Portland air quality improves
Temperatures will also be in favor of runners this year. Despite a record-setting year for 90-degree days, highs will be in the 70s in the metro area, and even cooler in Seaside, where the concludes on Saturday afternoon.
Despite the early wakeup (5 a.m.), runners and supporters were buzzing with excitement for the 5 a.m. start. More than 12,000 runners, from 50 states and 43 countries, were registered for this year’s Hood to Coast.
Runners will go down Mount Hood to the first van exchange in Sandy, then make their way through the Portland metro area up to St. Helens before heading west out to Seaside.
KGW meteorologist Chris McGinness, himself a runner, chatted this week with a group of men who have each completed over 100 legs in the relay over several decades. One has run in every Hood To Coast.
Cindy Gillespie is making a dramatic return to Hood To Coast.
Last year, she was napping in a field in the middle of the night at exchange 24 in Columbia County. A drunk runner stole a porta-potty truck and drove through the field, striking her. The truck tire came to rest on her thigh.
The driver ran off into the trees. She screamed for someone to ease the truck off her leg. The driver was caught by a K-9 and hauled away by police. She just wants him to get help with alcoholism.
"They did X-rays on my leg, knees, shoulder and chest. Everything's good! I'm so thankful that we were in God's hands, I truly believe that it was a miracle," she said then.
She has run in 20 relays and had no intention of missing the 2018 race.
"When this happened last year, I said, "Yes, I will be running Hood to Coast,'" Gillespie recalled. "That's the most exciting part: That it's here and we're going to be running it."