Paper: Oregonian, The (Portland, OR)
Title: RUNNERS, WALKERS BEGIN TO HEAD FOR THE COAST
Date: August 24, 2001

Summary: More than 18,000 people will participate today and Saturday in relay races to Seaside from Mount Hood and Portland


Young and old, fleet and not-so-fleet will thunder down Mount Hood today in the 20th anniversary of the Hood to Coast Relay.


The biggest relay in the world -- about 12,000 will run the 197-mile course and about 6,000 will participate in the Portland to Coast relay walk and high school challenge -- begins at 9:30 a.m. today and ends Saturday on the sands at Seaside.Among the teams are elite male racers, including 2000 champion Pace Setter Elite, Life Time Fitness Penn State, Princeton Running Co., Lactic Acid Droppers and Team Allegra, all with projected finishing times of just over 16 hours. The fastest women's squads -- 2000 winner Princeton Running Women, Baba Yaga-Saucony and Atlanta Track Club Women -- should finish in less than 22 hours.


But more than fast times, the Hood to Coast has been about camaraderie and achievement, as teams of 12 runners -- jammed together in two vans -- run through the night on a course that travels the loneliness of U.S. 26, through downtown Portland and through the beauty of the Coast Range.


The Spa Sisters of Bend, a group of women who began training eight months ago, will celebrate having lost between 30 and 150 pounds each when they walk the Portland to Coast relay. The Aging Heroes, which has won the super masters division the last two years, will raise money for a bone marrow transplant for the 6-year-old daughter of one of the team's course volunteers. Seventy-eight-year-old Al Nakata will be the oldest runner, and 10-year-old Isiah Votaw will be the youngest.


The Intimidating Recycled Athletes, walking in its sixth Portland to Coast Relay, includes six grandmothers, a 54-year-old mother and her 15-year-old daughter. The husbands of several of the women walk on their own team -- Rumpled Old Men.


The event is sponsored by Nationwide Insurance, and 85 percent of the field is a company team or is sponsored by companies. Nike sponsors 50 teams in the event -- its first was 19 years ago. Henry Weinhard's sponsors Will Run for Beer, dubbed the team least likely to win.


"We're just hoping to survive," team captain Joan Piatt said.


For the first time, teams will wear timing chips to help at the finish line, but little else has changed in the relay.


You can reach Abby Haight at 503-221-8198 or by e-mail at


abbyhaight@news.oregonian.com