Paper: Oregonian, The (Portland, OR)
Title: RACE IS ON TO REGISTER FOR '91 HOOD-TO-COAST RELAY 
Date: August 27, 1990

The catch phrase for the 1991 staging of The Oregonian Hood-To-Coast  Relay should be, ``Register Early.''


In fact, it almost sounds like a friendly warning when plans for next  year's 10th running of the event is discussed by Bob Foote, Hood-To-Coast  founder and president.The relay is becoming so popular that landing a team in next year's race  might be more challenging than completing the 191-mile course.


Foote said after Saturday' finish that Hood-To-Coast organizers plan to  make it easier for runners throughout the Pacific Northwest to enter the race. But that may mean the race's 750-team limit will be reached faster.


Because registration forms were sent only to teams that ran in the 1989  relay, the less restrictive registration process to be used next year will  result in the event filling up more quickly, Foote said.


``It's going to be an avalanche, just like the great land rush of the  1800s,'' Foote said of opening up the registration process. ``Of course,  everyone knows the difficulty of getting in this year's relay. It's going to  be an even more accelerated pace next year.''


In addition, Foote said, the 121-mile Portland-To-Coast relay likely will  be expanded from 38 to possibly 300 teams for its second running.


``We could have put probably 200 to 300 teams in the Portland-To-Coast this year,'' he said. ``But we chose to be conservative.''


The number of 12-member teams allowed in the Hood-To-Coast has been limited -- but expanded each succeeding year -- for several years. This year's limit  of 750 was reached by mid-April. The 700-team limit in 1989 was reached in  late June.


``With the popularity of this event,'' Foote said, ``it almost has an  endless potential for the number of teams. That's why we always will have  tight limits for the Hood-To-Coast and Portland-To-Coast.''


Registration forms for next year's race will be available by early December in most running stores in the Pacific Northwest, Foote said. This year's relay results packets, which will include registration forms for next year's race,  will be mailed out around October, Foote said.


He said if the number of teams in the Hood-To-Coast isn't expanded beyond  this year's 750 limit, that number probably will be reached by January 1,  1991.


Registration forms for this year's relay were mailed to 1989 teams last  December, Foote said. By mid-January, 500 teams had mailed back the forms and  reserved a spot in the relay.


``They just flooded in,'' Foote said.


The objective of mailing registration forms for this year's race to teams  that competed in last year's race only was to slow down the gold-rush-like  fervor in which teams registered for the relay, Foote said.


However, he said, the tactic backfired because teams that got the forms  simply photocopied them and passed them along to their friends.


``The tough part this year is that I had a lot of Hood-To-Coast teams that  have run the race for five years that didn't get in because they  procrastinated,'' Foote said.


Many of the late comers were more than a little upset about being left  out.


``I got some calls in April and May from teams that said, `I've been trying for four months to find registration fliers,' '' Foote said. ``A lot of  runners were mad. They said, `That's really unfair because you're making it an elitest event by only allowing people who've run it before to get fliers.' ''


Foote said relay organizers considered the merits of the protests and  decided to lift the registration limits.


``A lot of the changes that have been incorporated over the years have been due to recommendations from the runners,'' he said.


Of course, Foote can't resist adding his own personal touches either. Such  was the case this year, when the finish line was moved 12 blocks south and  further onto the beach at the Broadway turnaround.


Foote said his biggest frustration with the eight previous Hood-To-Coast  Relays was that the home stretch and finish line never were prominently on the beach.


Last year, runners completed the last 50 yards of the race on the beach.  Foote finally fully realized his vision this year, though he had to extend the course another half-mile to do it.


In the Hood-To-Coast's first year in 1982, when there were only eight  teams, the race ended in a parking lot along the beach in Pacific City. Foote  said he remembered he and his teammates crossing the finish line, running  through the parking lot, onto the beach and into the Pacific Ocean.


``There's just this romance of seeing these amoebic bodies of runners  running down the beach and splashing in the surf in jubilation,'' he said.