Paper: Commercial Appeal, The (Memphis, TN)
Title: FUN RUN A GRUELING 195 MILES  ELVIS-STYLE RIDE WILL SET PACE
Date: August 16, 2001

Imagine running, as a team, 195 miles in 30 hours while living in a van and catching snippets of sleep wherever you can.


Now imagine doing that willingly, for fun, and paying as much as $800 a person to do it.


That's just what a group of Memphis-area runners are going to do Aug. 24-25 at the 20th annual Nationwide Insurance Hood to Coast Relay race in Oregon.


The group of 12 runners, 10 from the Memphis area, will fly to the Northwest on Thursday to prepare for the race. They'll rent two vans, then drive to Mt. Hood, where the race officially begins at 9:30 a.m. Aug. 24.From there, they'll join 999 other 12-person teams from across the country in running the picturesque course, which traces through Oregon from lofty Mt. Hood to Seaside, which abuts the Pacific.


Each member of the team will initially run one of the course's 36 legs, which range from 5 to 8 miles, followed by the next member with the next leg.


After all 12 members have run one leg, they'll start over. They'll do this all night until they reach the finish line, catching sleep whenever they can.


It won't be easy.


"The distance isn't that bad. We've all run that distance before," said Kenny Simpson, 47, who has been tapped to run the first leg. "But we've never done it without rest."


Added Alicia Klyman, 32, a local lawyer who organized the team: "They say at the end you're very tired and hungry."


Joining Klyman and Simpson on the team are Bennett Bicknell, Maggie Boozer, Sandy Combs, Brett Cromwell, Ross Higman, Jon Mosteller, Tim Mosteller, Jerry Potter, Jen Powell and Clare Sample.


According to the event's Web site (http://www.hoodtocoast.com), the race began in 1982 with eight 10-person teams (one called itself "N.U.T.S and B.U.T.T.S.)," running about 165 miles.


Today, the race has grown so large that those wanting to run have to submit the $840 entry fee, then hope their name is one of the first 1,000 submitted. This year, more than 2,000 teams submitted entries, race marketing director Linda Stirling said.


While the race does attract serious runners, it also seems to be the running world's version of the Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest.


In other words, while you have elite competitors - the record is a shade under 16 hours - you have many others who just view it as a chance to have fun (at the end of the race, the 12,000 runners will join thousands of other volunteers and fans in Seaside for a huge beach party).


Take the Memphis folks, for example:


-- In honor of The King, they're calling themselves the "Graceland Candlelight Vigilantes." In fact, there's a prize for best team name.


The Memphians plan to visit Graceland before leaving, since there's also a prize for the best decorated van. "We're going to buy all the tacky Elvis stuff we can find to put on the van," Simpson said.


-- Although there are five women on the team, the Vigilantes have been placed in the men's open division, since an equal gender mix is required to run in the coed group.


The men's open division, mind you, is the one with a record running time of 15:56:54, about half the time the Vigilantes expect to take to run the course.


So . . . "Some of the men," Klyman said, "are talking about cross-dressing."


-- While the individual runners are racing through their legs, the other members of the team will be packed in the vans, with little to do.


Which meant Klyman and the others were disappointed to hear that Oregon has a law regarding, um, drinking adult beverages in vehicles:


"There's an open-container law, so . . ."


- Jody Callahan: 529-6531