Joe Dudman started running road races as a sophomore in high school, circa 1980. Since that time he has accumulated over 540 race T-shirts (Yes, he finally got around to counting them!) Some of them evoke special memories and (hopefully) interesting stories. In this recurring series, he recounts some of them for Run Oregon readers.
Joe’s 1989 Hood To Coast T-shirt
This shirt is from the 1989 Hood To Coast Relay, my first Hood To Coast, back when the event was still in its infancy. I decided to run it on a whim and ended up on a fun, rag-tag team after phoning the team-matching clearing house.
The core of the team was made up of five friends in their early 20s from NW Portland, and they filled out the roster with random individuals like me. We had everyone from a kindhearted white-haired 75-year-old named Earl, to a couple from Bend who drove the relay in their pickup with a canopy along with their 10-year-old son and their dog.
Due to injuries and attrition, I ended up running 4 1/2 legs, and when we got to Seaside, I was totally spent. I was dizzy and my hands were tingling, mostly due to lack of sleep, but Earl had a stash of Cokes which he kindly offered around, and that brought me back to life.
It was a great motley crew of runners, and a fun adventure, and I gained valuable experience for the next time I braved Hood to Coast in 1996.
