For most of the summer, my training has focused on increasing my distance and adding the weight I expect to carry on the Camino. But for the past couple weeks, my focus turned to speed walking, as I tried to get back in shape for the annual Portland to Coast, a 126-mile relay from downtown Portland to Seaside, via a convoluted route through the coast range.
Whereas, when I hike alone, I normally move at about 3.3 miles per hour, when racing my speed is closer to 5.2 mph (about 11.5 minutes per mile). Both hiking and race walking involve moving your legs, but there are muscles that I really didn’t work too hard while hiking longer distances that were pretty sore after some of my practices.
For those not familiar with the P2C, teams are comprised of twelve racers spread out over two vans. The first van does the first 30-ish miles before handing off to the second van. Once Van 2 finishes their first leg, Van 1 starts their second legs. Legs range in length from just under 4 miles to near 8 miles.
The race is capped at 400 teams (this race overlaps a running race called Hood to Coast that is longer, but follows the same course after the first 60 miles). The H2C has another 800 teams. This can make for some serious traffic jams in some tiny communities up in the coastal hills.
My team has finished in the top two each of the past four years. We won in 2021 and 2022 and finished second in 23 and 24. Our goal this year was to beat our nemesis and finish under 24 hours. We didn’t count on daytime temperatures in the upper 90s, which lead to some slower times. We missed breaking 24 hours by less than 10 minutes and beat our rivals by over 33 minutes.
Besides getting in some speed training, I had a chance to “field test” (pun intended) my sleeping gear for the Camino. Before the race, I think I had tested/used almost every piece of equipment I intend to take with me. But Friday night was my first time to test my eye mask and earplugs under conditions similar or worse to an alberge bunkhouse. I’m happy to report that the eye mask was perfect. I totally blocked out all light, while putting no pressure on my eyes. My earplugs were another story. We had about three hours to rest, but between the sound of generators, porta-potty doors slamming and the constant noise of road and foot traffic I got less than one hour. I am so glad I discovered the deficiency ieny of my ear plugs before leaving. I’ve ordered a pair of silicone earplugs that are supposed to reduce noise by 45 decibels. These were substantially more expensive than the six pair for a buck foam plugs, but being able to sleep through the sound of snoring neighbors will make them worth the money.