It’s a muggy August evening in Portland, Oregon. Award-winning Haitian American chef Gregory Gourdet is closing up his restaurant, Kann, for the night. He’s scheduled to run his first leg (out of three) of the 2024 Hood to Coast relay marathon at 4 a.m. the next day.
The relay, also known as the “Mother of All Relays,” starts from the top of Mount Hood and ends on Oregon’s breezy Seaside Beach, which lies on the state’s Pacific coast. Because Mount Hood is a two-hour drive away, he must leave Portland by midnight at the latest.
After locking up Kann’s doors, he rushes home to pack a bag. He’s hoping that by the time he arrives at Mount Hood, he’ll have some spare moments to stretch and hype himself up before hitting the starting line.
Gourdet will be joining his six-person relay team, along with thousands of other folks from across the globe, to embark on this iconic race that spans 198 miles. The race is made up of 36 legs that are each around three to eight miles long. Teams must complete the course within 36 hours; the average finish time is 29 hours.
