Hood to Coast Next Week

I've been living in this cycle lately where my life goes like this:

4:45 Wake up
5:15 or 5:30 Run or go to boot camp
9:00 Go to work, try to eat and drink all day while solving the world's legal problems
6:00 Leave work to go to yoga
6:30 Yoga
8:15 Get home, scarf dinner
9:00 Bed (ideally, it never seems to work out quite that early)

I have made a conscious effort lately to enjoy a few quiet and low-key weekends, but now it's already mid-August and the chaos of 2012 is almost upon me.

Starting NEXT WEEKEND, my weekends are going to be the opposite of quiet and low-key.  For pretty much the rest of this year.  Wow. 

Next weekend is Hood To Coast, a relay in Oregon that goes from Mount Hood to the seaside town of Seaside (wonder where they got the name).  197 miles covered on foot by a team of 12 runners.  I'm so psyched to have the opportunity to do this, let alone with my expenses paid, thanks to a law firm client who invited me to be on their team.  The firm is actually sponsoring 3 separate teams, so it's a smoothly-run operation, at least I hope it is.  And it turns out that I get the "glamour legs" portion of the run -- meaning I'll be the last runner on our team for each portion of the run (running legs 12, 24, and 36 of the 36 total legs).  Since our team's first van will start just before noon, I will wait for 6 runners in van 1 to run all their portions, then all 5 other runners in my van will run, then it will be my turn, probably beginning at about 8:00 on Friday night.  I'll run about 6 miles, then our van will get a break for a few hours, where we are going to stop at a hotel and clean up.  My second leg will be about 5 miles, probably around 6:00 Saturday morning.  Then again, our van will get a break for a few hours, which will hopefully mean a big breakfast.  Then sometime on Saturday afternoon, probably around 3:00, I'll get to run leg 36 of the relay, about 5 miles again, and I'll get to soak up the glory of being the one to cross the finish line.  Hood to Coast is supposed to be one of the best running experiences in the country, and several friends who have done it have ranked it along the lines of marathons like Boston.  I'm not as excited as I should be because it's just been so busy lately with yoga taking up pretty much every free moment, but I think as soon as I get packed up, it will hit me.  Very excited about it! 

Then after I get back from Hood to Coast, we have my birthday that week, and then my best friend and her husband come to visit on Thursday, and they'll stay through Labor Day weekend, leaving on Tuesday.  And they're not bringing their twins, which is a big score!  Cute as those kids are, I'd rather have my friend all to myself! 

Then in September it's several weekends filled with my favorite races and the state fair, and possibly a trip to Pittsburgh for hubby's high school reunion (he's still trying to decide if he wants to go, and if he goes, whether he wants me to go too). 

Then I have a quiet first weekend of October, then we leave for China on Oct. 10 I think.  We come back very late at night (after midnight I think) on Oct. 28 (a Sunday), and I have to work Mon-Wed.  Well, technically, I'm working all week, but on Wed. night or Thurs. morning, we have to fly to Milwaukee for my brother's wedding that weekend.

So the first weekend of November will be the wedding and family stuff in Wisconsin. 

The weekend after that, Nov. 10-11, I'll be out of town in San Antonio, visiting my friend there and running the marathon.

The weekend after that, Nov. 17-18, we have another one of my best friends coming to visit. 

The weekend after that is Thanksgiving, and then it's December!  A weekend of shopping and baking, our local marathon, and then we fly home for Christmas on Dec. 20. 

So you can see why next weekend kind of marks the end of the year for me.  It is going to go so fast.  It will all be so much fun, but it will be over before I know it. 

My big project this coming weekend is to get all my packing done for Hood to Coast.  I've started a packing list, but I need to do things like look at the weather before I do much more of that.