The Low-Down on Hood to Coast

The 197 mile (317 km) Hood to Coast course consists of 36 legs, of which each team member must run at least three in rotation. The legs vary in length from 3.52 miles (5.66 km) to 7.79 miles (12.53 km), and the terrain for each leg can vary from level terrain to steep uphills and/or downhills. Consequently, a runner may total between 13.61 miles (21.90 km) and 19.68 miles (31.67 km). Teams in Hood to Coast must complete the course within a 31 hour time limit (an average team pace of 9 minutes 30 seconds per mile).

2007 Portland to Coast traffic at night on Highway 202 near Mist.

Start times on Friday are staggered between 6:30 a.m. and 6:45 p.m. in waves of approximatley 20 teams every 15 minutes.^[6] Teams are computer seeded based on self-reported 10K times for each team member's submitted roster. Thus the flow of teams through the 36 exchange points and finish line are even, with all teams finishing the race by the closing time of 9 p.m. on Saturday.^[7]

The course starts at Timberline Lodge at the 6,000-foot (1,800 m) level of Mount Hood, and proceeds down Timberline Road to Government Camp. This first leg drops 2,000 feet (610 m) in elevation over about 6 miles (9.7 km); the next two legs from Government Camp to Rhododendron have a combined elevation drop of 2,300 feet (700 m) over about 10 miles (16 km).

Runners proceed west along U.S. Route 26 to the towns of Sandy and Gresham, where the route proceeds along the Springwater Corridor to the Sellwood neighborhood in southeast Portland. The route then proceeds north through city streets and crosses the Hawthorne Bridge west into downtown Portland.

After crossing the Hawthorne Bridge, runners proceed north along Naito Parkway in downtown Portland along the west bank of the Willamette River and onto U.S. Route 30 to St. Helens. From there onward, the route passes through hilly rural and sometimes unpaved backroads through the communities of Mist and Birkenfeld on the way to the finish line in Seaside.

The Portland to Coast Walk Relay and the High School Challenge Relay follow the last 24 legs (127 miles) of the course, starting from the Hawthorne Bridge in downtown Portland. Each participant in these relays walk or run at least two legs in rotation.

[edit] Logistics and atmosphere

Each twelve-person team is allowed two vehicles no larger than a standard-sized van. While the vans generally follow the race course in support of their runners, certain narrower portions of the course require one van to make a detour to alleviate traffic congestion. Teams usually give themselves funny or original names and decorate their vehicles according to a theme. Race organizers announce the winners for best team name, best van design, best team outfit, and outstanding volunteer, (as voted by teams) at the PTC Awards Ceremony, Saturday evening, and on the HTC website.^[8]

Teams are expected to provide their own provisions, including food and water, and to ensure their own safety; there are no promised aid stations or police protection on the course,^[9] nor is there prize money for the winners. ^[10] However, local schools and churches along the route provide sleeping areas, food, and showers at nominal cost to participants as fundraisers. Teams compete in divisions based on gender (men, women, and mixed) age (based on the age of the youngest participant) or corporate sponsor.

All teams that include at least one member living within a 90-mile (140 km) radius of Portland are required to provide three volunteers to ensure adequate personnel at turns and exchanges along the course race.

A Good Example

Last Friday my mom called to say that she was feeling well and wondered if she and Dad could come and stay overnight with us. They like to do this from time to time because from our house it is only a short drive to San Francisco. They enjoy spending the day there, and this particular time Mom was looking forward to trying out her new "Sidewalk Warrior", her motorized scooter. Sometimes they plan to come and Mom doesn't feel well enough, so when she is having a good day it makes sense to get in the car and go.

Early Saturday morning I got up to go and have my quiet time in the living room and guess who was already there! My dad was there. He was meeting with the Lord and thinking through some things he has been writing. He immediately began to share with me the lessons the Lord has brought to his mind for this project and I was so blessed to hear about it.

I can hardly express the joy I felt when I saw my dad sitting so near my quiet time spot. He is the one who first taught me how to have a quiet time simply by doing it himself. I have so many memories of finding him sitting quietly with his Bible in his lap, deep in prayer when I got up in the morning. There were so many nights that we knew he got up to pray while we were sleeping and then returned to bed for a little more rest before he went off to work. His vigilence in personal prayer and the study of God's word have been foundational to the health and well-being of our whole family. We have depended upon his prayers and spiritual leadership as he has depended upon the Lord.

It is no wonder that I think of God as loving and faithful. No wonder I never doubt that he is with me in all the circumstances of my life. I have had my dad as an example of these things and his life has created the portrait of the Heavenly Father that fills my heart.

Perhaps best of all, whenever I come upon Dad in his meetings with God there is always such a peace and joy about him that it makes me want to know God myself. No matter how tough life has gotten for our family, no matter what depths of sorrow we faced, my dad in his quiet time moments has shown us that there is authentic joy in the Lord. One of the many notes Dad pinned to the refrigerator door some years ago pretty well sums it up:

Joy is the flag that flies over the heart when the Master is in residence.

That is the legacy of relationship with God that I crave. That is one of the reasons I get up to meet the Lord every day myself.

Thanks, Dad, and thank you, God for shaping this man to lead our family.

Good News from Central Asia

Bern and I received an encouraging note from Woody Busse this week. His wife Barbara was instrumental in taking us to Central Asia in 2006 where we taught Biblical Peacemaking for two weeks. The following is a report from the Presbyterian Church USA Missions prayer guide about results from the work we did there. God certainly blessed that short time among the people, many of whom are of another faith but who were willing to receive biblical truth.

Mission Yearbook for Prayer and Study, Friday, August 21
Republics of Central Asia

Rashid felt torn. For the past several days he and his colleagues at a development organization in Tajikistan had been participating in a workshop on biblical conflict resolution taught by a team from a Presbyterian church in California. During the workshop, they had learned practical biblical principles and skills for dealing with personal conflict. Rashid was one of the few Christians on a mostly Muslim staff, and he felt the Holy Spirit tugging on his heart to deal with a conflict with a colleague.

All kinds of excuses came to his mind - it happened a long time ago; most people in the office don't even know about it; this isn't the right time or place. But God spoke to his heart: "If not now, when?" So Rashid stood and announced he wanted to apologize for disrespecting his colleague several months previously.

As he was speaking, the other man stood up and received his apology and the relationship was healed. Over the next weeks, several other staff members experienced reconciliation in strained relationships as they put what they learned into practice.

Yusuf realized for the first time how he had contributed to a feud that had been going on for years. He realized that his negative thoughts toward a neighbor had kept him from seeing anything positive about him. So he decided to invite the neighbor to a party at his home where they ate and talked together. In Tajik culture, eating with someone is a sign of friendship and acceptance, and through this act the two were reconciled. As a result of these experiences, staff members began insisting that this training be shared with other villages, and they incorporated it into their project proposals.

Gracious and loving God, may the Prince of Peace reign in our hearts and in the hearts of the people of Tajikistan. Help us to be effective peacemakers in our personal relationships as well as in the larger conflicts throughout the world. Amen.

Katie and Teresa take a walk down the aisle

From Katie and Andrew Koetsier's wedding, July 25, 2009

Make Friends with a Lonely Atheist

This morning I read a story about atheists who have decided that atheism should be more than a stance, it should be a cause they promote. I can understand them doing this because atheism must be a lonely experience, all in all. They naturally would like to build around themselves a community of others who feel the way they do.

Who wants to be the only one in his neighborhood with his fingers in his ears, shouting "blah, blah, blah" at all the stuff about God that surrounds him and his family? It would be so much more comforting to take the kids to atheist camp and sing songs of free thought around the campfire, songs like "Don't kum byah, non-existent Lord, don't kum byah".

The most interesting thing I saw in the article was words that are on a billboard the atheists put up. It said,

"Being a good person doesn't require God.

Don't believe in God?

You're not alone!"

I would dispute the "not alone" part because I think that not believing in God probably leads to loneliness on a profound and cosmic level. However, much more interesting and thought-provoking to me is the question of what they mean by "good person". By what standard do they evaluate what a good person is? I think they would probably point to the good works they do, but why are those considered good?

I went to an atheists' website and saw lots of pictures of atheists picking trash up by the highway and going on walks for cancer cures. Why is that good? It looks like a lot of time-wasting, sweaty activity that leads to sore muscles. Yet they believe they are good people who don't need God because they do these things that benefit other people.

How did that standard for good come to be? It must have come from someplace outside of themselves because left to themselves with no outside influences to make them think better of it, people generally would not put on a silly orange vest and stab filthy trash all day while cars rushed by just inches from their elbows. Yet, there they are in the picture with piles of black trash bags in front of them.

If I could sit one of those good atheists down and have a friendly talk, I would ask her where she got her idea of "good". She might attribute it to the general knowledge that all people have in their hearts about what is right or wrong. She might say that over the course of human evolution people have learned what works and what doesn't for our survival. Doing nice things for each other contributes to the perpetuation of the species. But why care about that if we all only have one shot at life? Who cares about the perpetuation of the species? Once an atheist's life has poofed out, why would she care if even the whole world comes to an end?

I think that my hypothetical atheist friend probably does good works, not to help perpetuate the species, but out of concern for the quality of her own life. Maybe she lives in fear; fear of being ostracized from other people, fear of not being remembered well, fear of bad "karma". The very thing she criticizes God-believers for doing, acting out of fear (in this case, of God), is what she does.

No matter who is determining what is "good", good has to be measured by some set of standards. Unfortunately for atheists, the generally agreed upon standards were first recorded a long time ago in the Bible. In fact, they were recorded so long ago, so early in human experience, they didn't have time to evolve with the species. The most sophisticated and perfect instructions in good behavior were originally handed down to tribal people who were "not a people" yet. The Israelites, who became a "people" as a result of the laws they received. Then they published the law of their God, the world had its standards for goodness.

It is hard on atheists to try and prove they are good without God. Any good thing they can think of to do, He already thought up. He authored the Book of Goodness. So, maybe they can be good people and pretend the Book is useless and the Author isn't there, but it seems silly. Most of us know better than to think up something that doesn't exist and spend our lives protesting and trying to demonstrate its non-existence.

If there is a very high percentage of the populationwho claim to have a personal relationship with God, and their claims have persisted since the dawn of time, there may be something to it. My sympathies go out to atheists who disagree so vehemently with those claims. It is hard to keep on saying to believers "No, you don't have a relationship with God. He doesn't exist!" and then have them all look back at you like you are crazy.

No wonder they're lonely.

Healthy Food?

This is the carrot I could not eat for lunch today. ..too much like a severed finger. It went straight to the compost pile.

ACT-ion Figures

I saw this on the plane from Chicago to Denver. It's quite amazing and it made me think of my action figure loving family members. Very interesting story.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZGZZlM-AJo

Happy Birthday, Matt!

Matthew's birthday is today and we got to go and celebrate by having brunch with him and Stephanie at La Note in Berkeley. Mmmm...they know so many wonderful places to eat.

In fact, Matt knows so much about so many things that I count on him to bring me up to date on all the things I need to know. He sees what is happening the world and puts his observations to work, seeing patterns and developing trends across the globe. He is always ahead of the curve of emerging technology, but he also sees the direction corporations and governments are going and is incredible at predicting outcomes. He is an "early adopter" of new technology and always ready to maximize its uses, but he is also an accurate analyst when it come to understanding the weaknesses in that technology. He is amazing! Time with Matt always leaves me staggered by the insights he has into what is happening in the world today.

However, Matt's greatest virtues lie not with his intellectual brilliance, but with what you see in his face in these pictures. He is a loving man with a devoted wife. He is fiercely loyal to all of the people he cares about, whether they are family or friends (he said he would "kill" for his niece Susannah should she ever need his services as a bodyguard). He is generous and loving.

He is passionate about the things that matter to him--politically, socially and especially in matters of justice--but people matter to him more than anything else. Even stupid people matter to him because every person, like every event in the news, is part of the whole pattern of life. Matt wants us all to get up to speed and work together for good outcomes. I am very proud to be his mother.

Here is a birthday prayer for Matthew:

May the coming year be Matt's year to shine--

more than ever before!

May he find success and prosperity in every part of his life.

May all of his dreams come true

and may this be his happiest year of his life.

God bless my son, Matthew.

Amen.

Poems for My Mom and Dad

Here are two poems I framed for my mom and dad's anniversary gift:

A Great Man and His Heart
If these walls could talk,
they would speak of a man
Who has worked with great heart
To accomplish his plan.
They’d speak of the times
That he’s prayed in the night
For the strength to go on
And to do what is right.

They’d speak of sweet moments
Of laughter and fun,
The times with his children,
His love for each one.
Oh, if they could talk,
It would just be the start
Of a story of love,
A great man and his heart.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Are All the Children In?
I think oft-times as the night draws nigh
Of an old house on the hill.
Of a yard all wide and blossom-starred
Where the children played at will.
And when the night at last came down,
Hushing the merry din,
Mother would look around and ask,
“Are all the children in?”

‘Tis many and many a year since then,
And the old house on the hill
No longer echoes to childish feet,
And the yard is still, so still.
But I see it all, as the shadows creep,
And though many the years have been
Since then, I can hear mother ask,
“Are all the children in?”

I wonder if when the shadows fall
On the last short, earthly day,
When we say good-bye to the world outside,
All tired with our childish play,
When we step out into that Other Land
Where mother so long has been,
Will we hear her ask, just as of old,
“Are all the children in?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The poem for my dad was on a card my sister gave him some years ago. The poem for Mom is one she often mentions to me. It reminds her of her own mother who literally spent the last 45 minutes of her life praying that all of her children, grandchildren and the succeeding generations would make it home to Heaven and be with her.

60 Years of Life and Love

Vern and Wilma Carson's 60th anniversary party, July 4th, 2009

July 9, 1949, my mom and dad got into my dad's car and started a drive to Lake Tahoe for a romantic honeymoon. Along the way they stopped at a little Baptist church in Lodi, California, where they found the pastor in his study preparing his sermon for the next day. They asked if he would marry them and he agreed as long as they would bring along a couple of witnesses. They hurried back to collect my Aunt Doris and her husband Fran and then got married at 4:00 p.m. The two couples went out to dinner, after which they parted company so that Mom and Dad could get on to that honeymoon. Somewhere there is an old scrapbook that has photos from that week of happiness. It's black background pages are illustrated with white ink Dad used to depict the beautiful moonlight they saw dancing on the lake each night.

I think they might have had the right idea; keep the ceremony brief and save your energy for the honeymoon.

Now they have been married for 60 years. Some people might have doubted whether a marriage that started so impulsively, between a 16 year old and a 20 year old, could last, but they have beaten the odds. They have not only stayed together for six decades, they have loved each other vigorously through all of them. Even now they celebrate their love every day. It is the centerpiece of their home and life together, the source of the peace and harmony they live in and the wellspring of much of the laughter they share. Visitors can't be around them very long without seeing that these two people love each other very much.

My parents have shown me how to get through life. They have known extreme grief as well as extreme joy. They have been forced to press on through countless challenging circumstances and they have stayed together, working as a team even when they weren't sure what to do next. Their pattern has been to move closer to each other whenever circumstances threatened to blast them apart.

They have been loved, admired, taken for granted and, yes, aggravated by their big family over the years. Their response to conflict has been to re-establish loving relationships as quickly as they could. They believe family is meant to be together and they can't rest when there is any kind of separation. They love having their family together. They think and talk about each family member so much that all of us are actually present with them every day. They fret over the ones they don't see or hear from often enough. They worry and pray. They also brag and speak with amazement about how remarkable they think each of us is.

There is not enough room here for me to talk about how much I have learned from my parents and how richly they have blessed my life. They are present in every part of me. I don't like to think that there will ever be a time when I have to travel through life without them. When they leave for Heaven I know that some of the wind that has filled my sails is going to die away.

I am grateful for every day that I have with them. Visiting them is always a joyful homecoming for me, a return the rich environment that gave me my start in life. We laugh together, we tell stories and catch up on the news; sometimes we cry and pray together. We look at old and new pictures and revisit old and new memories. I can never get enough of it.

I wish my mom and dad a happy anniversary this July 9. I hope they have many more, but I am glad to have shared this one with them and seen the joy and contentment of their faces as they gazed upon the family gathered around them. I saw that they were indeed blessed--by those to whom they have been a tremendous blessing.

Susannah!!!!

Susannah is one year old today! Knowing her has been a tremendous surprise because I did not anticipate the incredible, unconditional love I feel for this little girl. I don't know if there is a purer or less complicated love on earth than what a grandparent feels for her grandchild. So much love, so little responsibility! Our only job is to adore her, pray for her and celebrate her.

**************************************************************************

Here is something I read in "The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime" by Phyllis Tickle this morning:

"That which we have heard and know,

and what our forefathers have told us,

we will not hide from their children.

We will recount to generations to come

the praiseworthy deeds and power of the LORD,

and the wonderful works he has done.

That the generations to come might know,

and the children yet unborn,

that they in their turn might tell it to their children;

so that they might put their trust in God,

and not forget the deeds of God,

but keep his commandments."

Excerpts from Psalm 78:3-8, Jerusalem Bible

~~~0~~~

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SUSANNAH!!

We love you so much!

Blintzed

Saturday morning pancakes, post FA Final (Chelsea vs. Everton).

Unbelievably tasty strawberries with just a bit of sugar.

One satisfied fan.

Blintz Pancakes

Sift together 1 cup of sifted all-purpose flour, 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Add 1 cup plain yogurt, 1 cup small curd cottage cheese and 4 well-beaten eggs. Stir just till combined. Bake on hot, greased griddle. Stack cakes and serve with fresh berries. Yummm!

Road to Recovery - Day 3 after surgery

Good weather.


Good books.


Good tea.


Good stuff to look at. We think it is all helping Bern on the road to recovery.

Thanks for the Visit

Golden "Great" Bridge

Bridge to Pier 39
Wente Winery in Livermore

Sisters.

Action Jackson

Telling America what it's all about.Riding the Pier 39 Carousel
Working on a prop for his next adventure video.

One night Jackson vacuumed the crumbs off his bed--the most creative reason for why he couldn't get to sleep before midnight.

Visiting the "Golden Great Bridge" with Mum and Lucy.

We Love Lucy

Jelly Fish Love

I can't help sharing this underwater visual symphony.

Coolest fish at the Monterey Aquarium

This is a Dragon Sea Horse. So cool! You can see its head pointed down toward the left and its body curves upward. They spend their lives camoflaged as sea weed.

Good thing my Dad taught me how to drive...

Rebekah, Lucy and Jackson meet their first Sheriff. Jackson was most impressed by finding himself face to face with a real gun in its holster.

I hit this box-spring mattress at 65 mph just after changing into the center lane on Hwy 101 north. Because I had just changed lanes, I knew I had cars on my right and left and close behind me, so I had to drive on through. Following the impact I looked over my right shoulder and, miraculously, saw a gap in the traffic through which I eased the car onto the shoulder of the highway. The car was handling really rough and making a lot of dragging noise, I so I said to Rebekah, "I think we have a flat."

She jumped out to comfort Jackson who was getting pretty worked up in the back seat, then she called out to me that the mattress was still under the car and might catch fire. Seconds later I was across the front seat, out the passenger side door and had Lucy out of her car seat and in my arms. We moved down the embankment as far as we could and were able to see that the car was not catching fire. Then a sheriff (or deputy sheriff) arrived and let me use his flashlight to call AAA. We also talked to Bern who made his way back to us with Jan in his car. (We had too many people for one car, so he had driven his Lexus and I was following him).

1 1/2 hours later the tow truck lifted my car off the mattress which immediately sprung back open and got shoved the rest of the way off the road. My car was fine, another miracle.

The next morning in my Quiet Time I gave heartfelt thanks that everything turned out the way it did. Then I realized that not only had I safely gotten my car out of a sticky situation, but had also cleanly removed the hazard from the highway. So who's prayers for safety was God really answering in that moment, ours or those of someone traveling behind us? It doesn't matter. It was God's will for things to go the way they did.

I also realized that we came very close to a very different outcome from this accident. It was sobering to think that if something worse had happened, I would still have been required to give thanks to God who is sovereign over all things in my life. The real test of my faith is in being willing to acknowledge Him as Lord in all things, even the outcomes that I don't prefer. The passengers in my car that evening know this even more intimately than I do. For their sake and the sake of their family, I was grateful that we were surrounded by grace and protection in those crazy moments on the highway.

Lego toys take a bath

It's been a lot of years in the dark container in the garage.

First step, into lingerie bags and a wash on the delicate cycle.

Then out to the garden to dry...

and stretch out in the sun.

(Note the cheerful little fellows in the lower left corner who have been through the wars).

Done.

The garage is clean and organized now.

Almost everything you see belongs to one of our kids.

Fun stuff to look at, but a bear to organize!

What to do with these bears...

I have been cleaning the garage for two days (!). There are dozens of boxes of carefully preserved toys, school papers, journals and child-sized artwork. Among the stuff I have been trying to make decisions about are these bears. I thought I would tell their stories while I think it through.

When Andrew turned three years old, Grandma Carson sent him money to buy a teddy bear. He and I went shopping and he looked and looked until he found the biggest bear in the store. It was nearly as tall is he was.

It came home and joined Raggedy Andy who had been a birthday present the year before. Raggedy Andy has held up well because he has always had a place in the house, but Bear has been moved around a lot and gotten pretty dusty and battered. He was Andrew's constant companion for a few years in those early days.

These three guys belonged to Jonathan. The first one was a Christmas present from me when Jonathan was one month old. The second one was a gift from friends when he was born. The third one joined up a little while later, maybe as a gift from visiting grandparents. The distiction these bears have is that they starred in a story I wrote for Jonathan when he was about three years old. He was into destroying his room everyday at nap time and after many attempts to persuade him not to do that, I wrote him a story called "Jonathan and the Bears".

I kept these bears thinking that I would use them as models to illustrate "Jonathan and the Bears", but so far that hasn't happened. Anyway, here are the Thompson Bears. There is one more, but he went to be with his owner several weeks ago and I didn't remember to take his picture. His name is "Friendly" and he belongs to Matthew. Melody doesn't have a particular Bear in the garage, but some of her dolls and Polly Pockets may show up here someday.

I know this is a lot of sentimental nonsense, but it's my job to clean the garage and I can't help remembering where things came from and what they mean.