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Remembering Ryan Bowe '99 with a Race

Last March we blogged about a new movie, “Hood to Coast,” about the race called “The Mother of All Relays” — a 197-mile run from Mount Hood to Oregon’s Pacific Coast. The movie follows four of the relay teams, including Team R. Bowe, which was running in honor of Ryan Bowe, of W&L’s Class of 1999. Ryan died of a rare heart disease in 2007. He was 30. A distance runner on W&L’s track and field team as well as a member of the cross country team, Ryan was a native Oregonian who had run in the Hood to Coast relay since he was 12. Team R. Bowe was composed of Ryan’s friends and family along with several of his former W&L classmates, Kappa Sigma fraternity brothers and teammates.

The movie’s one-night premiere occurred in theaters around the country on Tuesday (Jan. 11). Nina Coolidge, of the Class of 2008, watched it in Boston and wrote that “it was inspiring to see such a moving story of a fellow W&L grad.”

“Hood to Coast” was reviewed favorably in numerous newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times and the The Oregonian in Portland. On the “Hood to Coast” website, you can find a short video of each of the four teams that are featured in the movie. The video for Team R. Bowe is below:

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