The Twelve Olivias, a Hood to Coast Story

“O my goodness it’s Olivia!” yells a man in a bright orange shirt, and cracks himself up. “OLIVIA! GO OLIVIAAA!” Loud finish line cheers continue as I run on to the beach and then across a larger official finish line with eleven other Olivias at the Hood to Coast (HTC) Relay. It is August 24, 2024, and for the third time in a row the Twelve Olivias team completes the 196 mile Hood to Coast Relay in Oregon. Yes, you read right, the team name is the Twelve Olivias, and yes, we are all named Olivia. This is a “Twelve Olivias” HTC story, a voice from an Olivia in Van Two. It was my first year joining this group of incredible women, some back for the second or third time. 

At the end of May 2022 I got an Instagram message sounding something like this: “Hi Olivia, Coming at you with a very random (non spam, I promise) message haha…” and then talking about the idea to make an all Olivia team, the race, how it works and details. I was intrigued! At the time nine Olivias had already committed to running that year. I was unable to join, and I had serious FOMO as August and HTC came and went. Olivia Enright, team captain and leader had written down an idea in the notes on her phone in 2019. She started with a spreadsheet with more than 120 committed, running, Olivias who had run and finished races previously. If it turned out that any of the people on the list were in fact named Liv or Livia legally, so not technically “Olivia,” they were removed from the list. This of course brings up the story of “Liv” (Olivia) Paxton, who has BQ’d with an incredible time of 33 minutes under the qualifying time BUT so far she has been unable to sign up for the race because she signed up for all her other races under her preferred name “Liv” instead of her legal name. Fingers crossed this gets resolved! But, back to August and to the HTC story. In June this year, I contacted Enright to say if they still needed another Olivia, I would love to join. Within two weeks I was signed up and welcomed as part of the team by email, a group chat, multiple Strava invitations, and at least twelve new Olivia friend requests. I had officially become an Olivia in the Olivia world!

Ironically enough, when you put together a bunch of people with the same name, your name changes. I became “Coetzee” as I joined Busch, D’Angelo, Enright, Hummel, Maffei, Ondeck, Ornellas, Polischeck, Snell, Sylbert and Whalen. The Olivias came from all over: New York, Colorado, Minnesota, Montana, Pennsylvania, Florida, Texas, California and Oregon to run the forty second annual HTC relay. Last year there were fourteen Olivias, two Olivias came to be the drivers! This year Busch and Maffei were able to run again.

The “Mother of all Relays,” HTC,  is a 196 mile relay race. In 1982 the first eight teams ran 165 miles with marks spray painted on the ground every five miles from the top of Mount Hood to Pacific City. By the second year sixty four teams participated, the race grew purely by word of mouth. By 1988 with all the growth happening, the race finish had moved to Seaside and also, since that year the race had sold out on the day the lottery opened. Start times vary with the goal of having everyone finish at about the same time on the Saturday, meaning as your team is getting closer to the end, so are all the teams around you, having traffic become trickier at every stop. This year 1182 teams finished HTC, and to add to the volume of cars, people and traffic, another 258 teams of 8-12 people get added for the “Portland to Coast” walk/run in Portland. 

Arriving at the Airbnb the day before the race, the Olivias who were already there had a very calm familiarity with each other – they had either been working or had just come back from a five mile shake-out run. With every new Olivia arriving, there were hugs all around. Next up was getting the vans from the car rental place. Previous experience told the team to rent cars at a location that is not the airport (think of the Seinfeld car rental episode where a reservation was made and yet, no cars). So for anyone who knows how the race works this might not be new news, but to any one else who is even thinking about signing up for this always-sold out race, take note.

We all got into the successfully rented vans (really SUVs, but they are called vans for the purpose of HTC) to go to Trader Joe’s and shopped for snacks per van. A Trader Joe’s employee commented that he didn’t realize that “T’Js is the official HTC shopping spot!” and laughed. We filled our cart with bottles of water, animal crackers, bananas, peanut butter, a loaf of bread and I got a couple of cans of La Colombe coffee. For dinner we had a variety of pizzas from “Apizza Scholls.” After dinner we decorated both vans’ windows with markers and then had a team meeting where Enright handed out various Adidas hoodies and crop tops, as well as other strappy olive colored tops, and embroidered running hats, all branded with the original “Twelve Olivias” logo designed by Keegan Sanford for the Twelve Olivias in 2022. We each got a special ArtiKen (bracelet maker for many professional athletes, handmade in Kenya) pink and black seed bead bracelet spelling out “12 OLIVIAS.” We made sure each van has a bunch of magnets to tag the other teams’ vans. Then we all walked over to Laura Jean’s for dessert, packed up properly and were in bed by 10 pm.

The race

Whalen started us off at Mount Hood at 11:05 on Friday, August 23. We arrived there about an hour earlier, checked in, had our safety gear checked and took a pre-race team photo or two in matching, pink, 12 Olivias hoodies. Everyone on the chilly mountain was there to send off their first runner. We started close to the time when a group of people in no shirts and banana outfits also started. I also saw some people in hot dog costumes warming up. It was about 36 F degrees and raining up on Mount Hood, much cooler than the previous very hot year. There was a steady flow of “Oh it’s the Twelve Olivias!” or  “Hi Olivia!” whenever another team recognized the team. If they did not recognize the team, there were some responses of “You are really all named Olivia?”

At the next handoff, after a little safety pin scramble, we saw number two, Ornelas take off, she wrote down an expected pace of 7:30 and ended up running at 6:30 pace! We didn’t stop again to see the rest of Van 1 run, and instead got lunch just around the corner from the Oregon Trail Elementary school where leg 6 (Polischeck, Van One runner) would hand over to leg 7, (Snell, Van 2) in a couple of hours. Once your van is running it gets way more exciting, you have each runner coming in and telling their story of their run, but you are also counting down to your own chance to run for the first time! 

During legs 6-7 there was a major rainstorm soaking Snell and Busch (Boring, OR, was more exciting than expected) and then clearing up wonderfully for Sylbert, Enright, D’Angelou. I had the honor of running us into Portland, most of my course going on the flat but scenic Springwater Corridor next to the Willamette River. At the end of my run, I handed the wrist wrap very curled up to the next runner, now Whalen again (Van One, now running leg 13, officially almost dark). First run and twelve legs of 36 DONE! Others got dinner right at the exchange but after eating a giant Pad Thai for lunch and just finishing almost 6 miles I was not hungry. I think I ate a slice of bread and peanut butter, precariously spread in the back of the car. D’Angelou claims the wrap at the Portland exchange to be the best one of her life, and she had been looking forward to this one for the past year. Again, it did not disappoint. Snell had an açai bowl and Busch bought a quesadilla with so much cheese it stuck to the top of the container and stayed there. 

After a wet wipe “bath” and a change of clothes I felt fresh again (okay, fresher). We drove for a while to get closer to our next handoff, before stopping at Fred Meyer in Scappoose to go to the bathroom, sit around on some couches, stock up on energy drinks or snacks (Enright got excited about some chicken chips), fill up on gas and restore order in the car. A good stop to reset. I also finished my brownie from the previous night at Laura Jean’s. Everyone had some reason why their tummies are NOT QUITE doing what they want it to do. An Olivia thing or a relay thing? Nah, just a runner thing.

Now truly DARK, the next big exchange at Columbia County Fairgrounds at 11 pm felt like the first real place where the traffic started getting rough. We were there on time and our first runner was ready: bathroom, bib, flashing lights, smiles, thumbs up and at the exchange point waiting for leg 18 to hand over. We still had plenty of time but the realities of timing it right became a bit more stressful than before. Traffic would only get worse as the night progressed. This middle of the night (3 am) run, leg 24 for me, was foggy, and very very dark even with cars driving kind of close. I had a headlamp and a vest that may or may not have worked. It was so very dark even with some lights. I would run with more light in the future. Sylbert especially mentioned the darkness for leg 21 as well, where she mostly ran uphill and on uneven gravel. For me it felt misty and magical anyway. Getting “kills,” passing other runners, is something people keep track of by writing on the windows of their vans but for me focusing on running (nevermind in the dark) took more effort than counting so I quickly lost track of that. Exchange 24 was giant. After handing off to Whalen I couldn’t find any of the Olivias for a little while. Wet wipes, change (the special trick way you’d change at a birthday party when you were seven, underneath other clothes, or over other clothes but with special tricks so you can do it wherever turns out to have been an essential skill for life, relays and running) and start driving to a place where we were hoping to sleep happened next.

The HTC race redirected all the Van Twos to the exchange 30 – 31 spot (also a location where everyone would meet up with their Van Ones) causing a giant traffic jam that meant we barely crawled along despite being right next to the parking lot. It was light again, and our one hour we were hoping to lie down on a patch of (probably wet) grass and get a few minutes of some kind of sleep had disappeared with the darkness. Expecting not to sleep at all helped because it did not happen except for maybe a couple of stolen minutes in the car. 

Yes, it is a run and a relay, meaning the running parts are very fun (or they were for me) and also the only thing that felt truly familiar in this new racing format, with these lovely strangers who became instant friends. But. It is also a race of calculating where your runner is, when they will finish, when to get ready, where to park or, when running late due to traffic backing up, alternatively to drop off a runner before the parking lot to not get any points subtracted for not stopping in the parking lot first. This was an extreme last resort and we almost never did that, but it became inevitable for some parts of the race. 

Our pace predictor spreadsheet (made by Busch) had Van One coming through really soon, and with no cell service there was no way to check where the runner or Van One was. So as we now accidentally started driving away from the exchange spot due to a lack of parking, we panicked. Snell got her backpack with all she needed to get running ready, I hopped off with her to take her bag and we only had a verbal “meet you at the exchange point” (no cell service remember) agreement for me to get picked up again by Van Two. Off went our van in the wrong direction, looking for a gap to get back into a line of cars that seemed never-ending and also trying to get to this drop off spot. Deciding to focus on only one crisis at a time, I was only concerned about helping Snell get ready.

First things first, a porta potty stop! Then, Snell changed between two vans – these were real, big vans not SUVs – by tying a sweatshirt to their handles. Pretty sure there were people sleeping in one of the vans but they had window covers up and I held up another sweatshirt on the road side, so if anyone was going to try and look they’d have to be committed. She changed, brushed her teeth, we had a chat about running when things (knees) hurt and taking it easy. I took her cool red Gregory backpack, walked her to the exchange point and waited, squished between all the runners waiting to run and the teams eagerly trying to see where their runners were. A fascinating scene to watch, a volunteer lady handling, no, juggling, the crowd crossing the street, the eager stressed out van drivers and teams, and the racing runners, yelling warnings to inconsiderate pedestrians trying to sneak across when she clearly had not given the go ahead yet: “No one is getting run over on my watch!” Do not mess with tired volunteers! I have so much respect for the volunteers at HTC! They were always nice to us and helped us as much as possible. THANK YOU!

Enright found me before Polischeck handed over to Snell for a final time. I waved goodbye and goodluck. The next time we saw Snell was four miles down the road and after getting parking easily. Exchange 31 provided a happier Snell and lighter Van 2 in general (literally, again, remember the porta potties are essential at each possible stop and our previous stop had not allowed for this). This stop had another great volunteer lady, loudly announcing “OLIVIA!” instead of the customary bib number yell “1042” our runner approached to hand over to Busch. In truth it is a relief to just start running when it is your turn to run, and even just moving in the car is good, it means you are almost at a next stop, one stop closer to running again, one more runner done and closer to the end. Traffic was building up more and more. Views were now visible with the morning, and getting more and more beautiful as we were nearing the coast, the road (and race course) rolling along nicely. 

The final leg, my leg, 36 started with some trail and I thought HOW FITTING and lovely. Next came a steep road downhill where it felt like I was flying, a stop at a traffic light, happy to catch my breath, through a neighborhood with people standing outside and cheering, a paved beach walkway a right turn and across the official finish line and quickly joined by my team to jog across another finish line and get our finish line picture! We made it with our collective Olivia legs from Mt Hood, to Portland to the Coast, finishing in 4th place for the Women’s Open division in 24:56:03.8 but really, we came from even further, united by a name, a love for this sport, saying yes to something unfamiliar and a little wacky!

“What is in a name?” Romeo’s Juliet might have argued that a name is all it is, and it would be all the same, but, for the 12 Olivias, things would be quite different with any other name. The second girl born in my family, I inherited my own name, Olivia, from my grandmother. With Afrikaans naming convention, the eldest daughter of my father’s sister, also has this name. Other than us, and all the new Olivia babies being born (Olivia is currently still the most popular baby name given to girls since 2019) I have not come across many Olivias. Nevermind becoming quick good friends and running an almost 200 mile relay with 11 other Olivias and gaining a whole new squad of seriously badass friends. 

Thanks to all the Olivias who have been part of this 12 Olivias team. After the race I was added to the bigger, more official Olivia group with two MORE Olivias. It is kind of like an Olivia family. Polischeck said she has run with a lot of groups, and this is by far one of her favorite running groups ever. Lots of the Olivias refer to the HTC weekend as one of their best weekends of the year. We do not only share the name Olivia, we share a love for running, excitement and commitment for running, probably multiple pairs of Goodr sunglasses (not unique to any runners anywhere and also not the Olivias), and, a very definite “YES-WOMAN” attitude! 

Finishing is great, and the Twelve Olivias have finished really well third (2022), second (2023) and fourth (2024). It is more than a race – it is about the much much bigger things, finding a group of likeminded women who not only support each other physically for this one week of the year, but also cheering each other on for big things like other races, birthdays, weddings or less big things like jewelry or podcast recommendations. 

Thanks Olivia, for having me as a part of this special pink and run loving crew.