running hood to coast. check.

Kara came. She saw. She ran 197 miles.

Well, not exactly.

She was part of a team from church that ran in the largest team relay in the world, "Hood to Coast". They ran from Mt. Hood in northern Oregon all the way to Seaside. This is not for the weak. She trained HARD for this.

And she finished with an average of 8 minutes/30 seconds per mile. That's pretty fast. Especially for a basketball player who is used to bouncing something in her hands or shooting for a net. She was awesome.

Her first leg was about 4 miles...downhill. Sounds easy right? It's more torture on the knees than you may think.

Her second leg. 7.5 miles. At night. With only a headlamp to light her way. She started running at 1:45am. I was happily sleeping at the time.

Her last leg. 7 miles. She said this was her favorite. Because it was beautiful scenery and it rained. Once she was soaked, it wasn't that bad after that. Actually, she said, it was kinda nice.

2 vans. 11 teammates. 30 hours. And one tired basketball player-turned-runner.

The cool part - their name was the "Stumbo's Prayer Warriors". Named for our last senior pastor, John Stumbo, who's body has been ravaged by sickness and wasn't able to join the team. Their purpose was to spread the word about John, as well as commit to pray for John throughout their individual runs. They wore team tshirts that made people ask questions, and they were able to share the story with many people along the way.

John was able to make it to the team send-off prayer time. And when the team crossed the finish line, John was on the phone with them. You can follow John's personal story on the blog listed to the right.

Cool story here. This is Steve Unwin. He's running the leg that John Stumbo was supposed to run. The team met him at the finish of his leg with a finish tape made of toilet paper and cheered him through. He's holding up the bracelet that the team wore. It reads "Stumbo Prayer Warriors - Hebrews 12:1". HEBREWS 12:1 SAYS Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

Kara met all shapes and sizes during the race.
These guys wore kilts throughout the whole race.

This was the view of Seaside as they crossed the finish line.

Tutu came and spent the entire weekend with us.
She was an enormous blessing as Jeff was leading worship the whole weekend and Kara was running Hood to Coast. Thanks Tutu!