HOOD TO COAST RELAY MAKES RUN TO CHINA

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Dan Floyd has many labels in life.

He’s a proud Portland native. He’s a husband. He’s a successful businessman. He’s the head baseball coach at Central Catholic High. He’s an avid sports fan.

Despite being the Chief Operating Officer for the popular Hood to Coast Race Series, though, Floyd admits there’s one label he can’t claim.

“I wouldn’t call myself a runner,” Floyd says.

But Floyd, who joined the Hood to Coast team in 2013, had long been in awe of HTC’s “Mother of all Relays,” which begins each August at Mount Hood and ends at the coast in Seaside. That’s why Floyd, previously director of public affairs and government relations for Safeway Inc., was thrilled to join an athletic-based company with so much demand from consumers.

“The Hood to Coast Relay is a 34-year-old race and remains the most popular and longest relay race in the world,” Floyd says. “Every year, 40,000 people get turned away. At Safeway, if 40,000 people were outside your door and they wanted another doughnut or a loaf of bread, you’d make more doughnuts and bread for them. Supply and demand.

“So our entire plan here was, if there are 40,000 people trying to give us money, let’s create more running events for them.”

The HTC Race Series has gradually added run/walk events throughout Portland and in nearby Hillsboro, West Linn and Tualatin. But Floyd, 36, and his team continued to think of potential ways to expand even further, especially when seeing HTC entrants from all 50 states and 37 countries.

“It’s become a bucket list item for people from all over,” Floyd says.

In November, instead of foreign runners coming to America to experience the HTC, the famous relay is heading overseas. The same Hood to Coast Relay formula that has worked for 34 years in Oregon will take place in China.

With an official title of Hood to Coast China, the event marks the first time the HTC brand has gone global. And the Portland-area company has one global sports figure to help thank for the new venture.

“We knew we were trying to grow, but when Yao came to us, it allowed us to skip about 100 steps,” Floyd says.

That would be Yao Ming, the former NBA All-Star who has helped spearhead the popularity of running in his home country of China.

Working with China-based Starz Sports, Yao and the group contacted Nike about this Hood to Coast Relay they had heard so much about from afar. Nike helped put them in touch with the Hood to Coast team last June, and the partnership quickly formed.

“When they first contacted us, I thought it was bogus, thought there was just no way this could be real,” Floyd says. “How often does someone call you out of the blue and say that Yao Ming wants to work with you? I thought it was too good to be true, but it turned out to be very true.”

The highlight for Floyd was his trip last fall with his co-workers to China to visit potential race sites. That also meant a chance to bond with Yao over long bus rides and a lengthy dinner. Floyd spent the trip intently listening to Yao’s many stories and being struck with how generous the giant celebrity was to all those who approached him.

“It was surreal being in Shanghai, on a downtown street in China, with Yao Ming,” Floyd says. “I’ve never seen anything like watching Yao walk out of a restaurant and onto the street and seeing hordes of kids all around him, taking pictures. It’s shocking how well he handles it all. The coolest thing was just seeing Yao’s presence and how iconic he is in China.

“I just stared at this 7-6, 400-pound giant and thought, ‘Wow. This guy is our business partner.’ It doesn’t seem real.”

Yao’s passion for his home country is what has sparked him to help promote physical fitness among its immense population. Through the slogan of “Yao Pao Run Together,” Yao and Starz Sports plan to put on 40 running events over the next three years in China.

“This sport gradually becomes our lifestyle, and this lifestyle is also going to become part of our character, and our character is going to lead us to where we want to be,” Yao said during a two-hour news conference in China last fall.

Hood to Coast President Felicia Hubber, the daughter of HTC founder Bob Foote, also spoke at the event in Shanghai and gave an overview of the 34-year history of the Hood to Coast. Hubber and Starz Sports general manager Lucia Li then exchanged race bibs from the two Hood to Coast races that will take place this year in Oregon and China.

The partnership between the two was finalized in Portland after the conclusion of the 2015 Hood to Coast race. A contingent from China traveled to Oregon to witness the event firsthand, and they provided glowing reviews to Yao.

“What we sold through the Chinese is a brand,” Floyd says. “We definitely will help them out, but what people are interested in, and it’s now been validated by China, is they wanted our logo and our Hood to Coast brand. They didn’t want any knockoff-type event. They wanted the real thing.”

Hood to Coast China will take place along the eastern coast of the country in the Shandong Providence. The race will go through the city of Qingdao (population 8.7 million) and feature Mount Lao (elevation 3,716 feet) and a picturesque shoreline.

“You’ve got to have the mountain and the coast for the complete Hood to Coast package,” Floyd says. “It was beautiful over there. I really had no idea what to expect, because there are a lot of myths about the country. But when you’re there, it really is quite impressive. The air quality was way better than I thought it would be, and the traffic was way better than what people said. I’ve seen worse on I-5 in Portland at 5 p.m. It was amazingly efficient in China.”

Floyd also was pleasantly surprised to see how active Yao was in dealing with the logistics and how engaged he was in all levels of the process.

“This is an athlete, a worldwide icon, really, who is willing to do whatever it takes as a figurehead,” Floyd says. “He’s a great communicator.”

Floyd was an eager listener of Yao’s storytelling during his trip to China. Floyd, a big Trail Blazers fan, particularly enjoyed when Yao lamented the famous Brandon Roy buzzer-beating 3-pointer from 31 feet that delivered Portland a 101-99 overtime win over the Yao-led Houston Rockets on Nov. 6, 2008.

“Yao hated that Roy shot, because right before that he had a three-point play that he thought gave his team the win,” Floyd says with a wide smile. “Yao also said that, other than Shaq, Greg Oden was the strongest, most physical player he’s ever played against. That blew my mind.”

Since retiring from the NBA in 2011, Yao has kept plenty busy with a variety of interests. That includes establishing his own wine company in Napa Valley called Yao Family Wines. During Floyd’s dinner with Yao at a restaurant in China, Floyd somewhat jokingly asked if they were going to have some Yao Ming wine.

“He said, ‘Oh, we don’t have any at this place, but if you drive me home, I’ll run upstairs and grab some out of the house for you,'” Floyd says. “I thought he was kidding. But he was serious, and after dinner he went inside his high-rise and got some wine for us. He’s very proud of it. That was awesome and just shows what kind of guy he is.”

As with the attention he pays to the quality of his wine, Yao wants the inaugural Hood to Coast China to be as first-class as possible and to become a fixture in his country for years to come.

“I think what’s cool about this and why it’s going to be extremely successful is it’s an emerging running market with a huge population, and they have a government that wants their people to get healthy through physical fitness,” Floyd says. “And they have someone like Yao, who is fully committed to this.”

Floyd can’t help but think about the possibilities of further expansion of the HTC brand if Hood to Coast China is a hit.

“I hope we can replicate this throughout the world,” Floyd says. “I think we can go to other markets and other continents and keep using that brand to keep growing it.”

But no matter how worldwide Hood to Coast eventually gets, the top focus will remain on continually making the Oregon race the best relay event of its kind.

“Oregon will always be the priority,” Floyd says. “That’s the original. That’s where people want to go. We’re sold out every year and are already sold out for the 2016 race. The fitness craze is still growing, and that’s why you need to appeal to all levels, from marathon runners to walkers.

“We need to keep appealing to a culture and make it fun and inclusive for all ages and abilities. I can’t wait to see where we go from here.”

jksmith@portlandtribune.com