2014 Independence Run

Me, Tom, Judy, Norm and Suzy

The 2014 Independence Run has come and gone and it was a good one! Not only did Tom get to run this year (he was out the last couple of years) our barista friend Suzy and a couple that we knew from our Federal Highways days also ran. Suzy's hubby was in attendance, but opted not to run.

Before the event started, there was a kids dash...which we got NO pictures of this year...the kids are so cute out running like crazy. Love that Ridgefield is a small town and that closing down main street is pretty easy!

Right after the kids dash we all got situated at the start. Since Tom runs his own race and would be "racing" Suzy he disappeared and was in the first half of people running. I stayed near the back so that there wouldn't be nearly as many people passing me - little miss poke-along...haha. The gun went off and then we were let loose.

About a half mile in I lost all sight of Tom and just settled into a pace that I could maintain until we started up the big hill. I felt pretty good for the first mile, but once the hill started getting a little steeper I was walking more than running, but still moving forward, because that is the goal. To keep moving! After about 15 minutes I saw Suzy and we high 5'd as we passed each other. I was a little surprised because Tom was so intent on trying to stay ahead of her. Then a short distance up the road I spied Tom coming around the corner...and I told him that I just passed Suzy and he was aware of that :(

The rest of the run from that point was pretty much how it always goes. To the turn around and then back down, down, down the hill and then one last climb to Main Street and then a half mile jaunt to the finish. The longest finish straight ever!

My goal was to finish with a faster time over last year's time. Which I did, by 36 seconds...I think. I'm not sure what the official time is, but my watch was telling me that I was about 37:59. We'll see what gets posted later.

While I may have taken time off of my last year's time...everyone else got 2nd place in their respective age divisions. I guess I'm going to have to get older if I am going to get 2nd in anything!

Tom is the only one paying attention!

The ribbons were a little cheap-o, but hey, bragging rights baby! Now that Tom is back at it...maybe we'll be doing this running thing together for a good long time!

Shamrock 2014

The 36th Annual Shamrock Run Portland has come and gone. My last Shamrock for a year or so as I would like to focus on training for the Spring Classic Duathlon in 2015. I may consider going back to the Shamrock in 2016 - we'll just have to see how things go with multisport first ;)

This year the Shamrock people decided to put photographers all along the route - in years past I don't believe that there were any. The photos were published on Facebook today and I decided to see how awful err, wonderful the photos were.

As it turns out...no one really looks good in running photos - although there is one of me from 3 or 4 years ago that was pretty good, but no more! Of the half dozen or so pics that they took of me I would say that the following one was the best. I don't look overly tired, I appear to be moving and I don't look like I want to die. Seriously, not flattering...not even a little...

Heading up Broadway - more than 2 miles into the 9.3 mile route

So, I searched for photos of Tom and Drew and man, those two looked GOOD! Check it out...

Check out the half clothed dude - that's not right!

Look at Drew...show off! He obviously did not get the memo that says no smiling during an event! Drew is awesome...love hanging out with him! Except during races because he is just too happy - haha. It's good that he runs with Tom, that way they can run a decent race and do well. Something that wouldn't be possible if they stuck with me.

I don't have much of a race report - just race photos to share. Running events are the same in one way or another - we train, we go, we conquer. The fun is being with our people!

We got to hang out with these cool people which we haven't really done in the past - we are very much go and run and then go home people - BUT afterwards Drew, Andy, Tom and I made a pit stop for a little food and coffee at Starbucks.

front row - Drew Swanson, Me, Alisha Smith, Alayna Salvato
back row - Andy Schultz, Mike Graves, Nate Smith

(photo was taken by Tom)

Wahine All Womens

In search of sporty-sport women who want to try out a little multi-sport action at Blue Lake Park in Fairview, OR. The event is called the Wahine All Womens Triathlon, but it has more! There is a Duathlon, 5k and 10k run as well as a Hula Kids Triathlon.

It has been almost 3 years since I last was at Blue Lake and I'm itchin' to get out there again. It would be fun to have some of my more adventurous peeps come out and join the fun!

Go HERE to check out the event.

Go HERE for my 2009 Race Report and HERE for 2010 and HERE for 2011. As you can plainly see from the posts Robin & I were a team...and we had a BLAST!!

Think hula skirts and leis...and other island-y type items :)

And Then There Was a 15k

2012 Shamrock Run Portland

So, my big crazy idea of a challenge for 2013 was training for and doing my first Half Marathon. Which happened on December 15. I'm pretty sure that throughout the training I kept saying that if things went okay that I would probably do the 15k Shamrock Run in March. You would think that I would have documented that crazy idea somewhere, but I don't see a mention of that possibility anywhere.

For the past few weeks I was pretty content with my decision to stick to the 8k race - it's a route I know and I know how long it takes to run it and so on.

However, this week as I have been trying (almost desperately) to find more team members one of our volunteers confirmed with me that he is committed to run and dropped off his registration to me at the station. Cool! I didn't think to look at his form until after a couple of hours of work, but when I did finally open his envelope, I noticed that he had checked the 15k. Interesting...I better check on this, could this be a mistake?

After a couple of days, I got an answer, sure enough he decided to run the 15k and now that puts the rest of us (me, Tom and another volunteer) in a later race. Tom had already said earlier this week that he would do it because he thought it would be a good challenge especially after having such a bad year last year; with his sciatica problem and nerve issues on the outside of his right knee which caused the "drop foot." Okay, two down - now to check with Jordan to see if he is up for the challenge - YES!

Oh. No.

I guess I'm going to do a 15k after all. It was a fairly easy decision to make. I don't want to wait around for at least an hour for the 8k to start and certainly not by myself. That's the non-social part of me, I like my people and all, but "my" people will already be running while I'm waiting around for the 8k to start. Also, because I know how long it would take me to do the 8k, I'm pretty sure that I'll be finishing loooong after the 3 of them finish considering that they will already have a hour "head start."

My big challenge for this year's Shamrock will be to finish not too far behind those guys. After we reconnect somewhere at Waterfront Park we'll get our chowder then head out for for coffee and granola at Thatcher's. Mmmmm, Thatcher's!

So yeah, the crazy continues.

Sprint Du just a couple of days away...

I'm feeling pretty good right now...considering that my "training" has been spotty for the last couple of weeks. There will be a couple of people from work joining us on Saturday - one will actually do the Sprint Tri. Aahh, swimming, not a favorite of mine. I'll stick to land sports thank you very much.

My level of excitement will certainly build over the next couple of days probably to the point where I will feel terror the morning of the event. Good thing the Du has a 8:00 mass start. So really, I won't have a lot of time to think about it. Just need to make a list of the things that I want to pack with me that day. Just got my Gleukos yesterday so I'm set as far as my hydration fluid of choice - After I pick up my packet on Friday I might have a little time to get over to Performance and get a few more Shot Blocks (margarita flavor) and then figure out exactly what I want to wear - no swimming so it should be fairly easy. I'll need to choose a jersey with nice big pockets to pack my shot blocks at least...easy to get to or may I should go with Gu...hmmmm. Ah well, once I figure it out I'll change my mind again!

This will be fun, especially since my friends Kristen & Kristan - church Kristen and work Kristan will both be doing Blue Lake. I'll get a chance to visit with Kristen since we'll be carpooling to the event and then she'll do the Sprint Tri. Hopefully Tom and I will find Kristan during the set up part and the 3 of us will muddle thru the event together. Kristan and I have already decided that the first two parts will be a no-brainer....but the second 5K - we'll see....

If I really enjoy the suffering I may considering doing the All Women event on August 1. All of the time that I put into this just helps me to realize that being active is good for the mind and the body. I'm more fit than a year ago and I ALWAYS feel better emotionally after a ride or a run. The run takes a little longer to recover from, but it's always good having done a good run. Usually after a run I don't feel so much like a loser...I have a problem with that. Next year might be the year that I try to increase my mileage to a 10K distance. I'm not sure how well that is going to happen, more distance requires more time and sometimes I feel like I don't have any time to devote to longer runs. I'll have to try to work that out at some point. Things usually work out somehow.

Here's to this Saturday and as always - I'm PSYCHED!!!