Hood to Coast: Second Leg, or "In the Still of the Night"

~2 min. w/u
6.06 miles @ 39:35 (~6:35 pace)
~8 min. c/d
Total: 8 miles
Course map

After a fitful two-hour nap, our van rolled into downtown Portland around 2am to make the second exchange with Van 2. I was groggy, stiff, and completely uninterested in running any time in the near future. Unfortunately, Tara only had a four mile leg and then it was my turn again. At this point it was obviously pitch black and quite chilly outside, so I probably should've taken a longer warm up, but honestly I was just not in the mood. I took off from the outskirts of downtown Portland and ran through the streets of an industrial area pretty much the entire way. Had this run taken place in daylight it wouldn't have been described as scenic, but at 3am I didn't really care that much. I was just grateful that the streets were well lit and the footing was even, because I needed all the help I could get at that point. The darkness deceives you into thinking you're moving at a faster rate than you actually are, so while I felt like I was flying I was actually plodding along at a fairly pedestrian pace. Unlike my first leg, I actually saw a few other runners on this route, and passed 4-5 people along the way. My legs grew heavy toward the end and all I could focus on was grinding it out and handing off the bracelet to Alex as soon as possible. After I finally reached my destination and made it through the transition zone, I jogged down the road a bit to cool down before the van picked me up. I was now 2/3 of the way done and had nothing to do but play the waiting game for another six hours.