two 10Ks (sorta)

So, the Friday following the Race for the Roses, I went ahead and ran a liesurely 6 mile run from my house.

I had noted on mapmyrun.com that the intersection of Evergreen and Gillis is exactly 3 miles from my house, so on a beautiful Friday afternoon in nearly 80 degree weather, I ran there and back home.

Turns out, I was a touch overdressed, and could feel myself getting hot. I also had to stop at the Marshall Community Center to refill my handheld water bottle after emptying it roughly 2/3rd the way through the run. I was drinking a lot of water. I forgot what running in NICE weather was like... silly me. The run took me about an hour and 7 minutes which translates to a 11:10 minute mile or so. I can do better, and I know it, so I'll keep working on improving that.

Oh, and another fun fact. On a whim, I weighed myself before and after the run. I lost 1/2 pound on the run, even tho I was drinking as much water as I could manage. I went about drinking 1/2 lbs of water after the run to make up for the liquid loss.

I would have a chance soon enough to try to improve my 6 mile time though.

+++++++++++

This morning, I went ahead and ran a 10K organized event called Bridge to Bridge... to Brews. This was a 10K that started and ended at the Widmer Brewery and Tasting Room on Interstate Ave in Portland.

Not by design, I met up with a number of TNT people at the purple TNT booth there to distribute TNT material to potential future participants (cause I didn't know where else to hang out before the race). Frank and Kim, my mentees, were there... as was Lori, my fellow TNT mentors Heidi, Tracey, and Mish, and TNT alum Karen. It was great seeing everyone! This guy named Percy who is also a TNT alum, but not on a season I ran, asked to pace me and Sheryl too. He ran with us for about half of the Portland Shamrock Run, and he said he liked our pace.

I showed up early, 7:45am or so, to pick up my race day packet (I wasn't able to get it on Saturday). That was a little earlier than I needed to be there. Finally around 9am we stepped over the start line. I was freezing by then... the weather forecast the night before said it was going to be mid-30's and raining and even possibly snowing... but in reality this morning it was just cold and overcast. No precipitation.



The course went up a hill to the east end of the Fremont Bridge, and then over the lower deck and down the long sloping ramp on the other side. It was a TOTAL THRILL to run over that bridge (no pedestrian area on the bridge. It is strictly a freeway bridge that I-405 goes over, they closed a couple lanes of the freeway off for the run this morning). GREAT VIEW of the Willamette River and downtown Portland! Way down below we could even see the Widmer Brewery/Tasting Room. Then, once in NW Portland, we just ran a route that was similar to the Race for the Roses... the 8K runners split off at a certain point, and we caught up with them later on Front St. Over the Broadway Bridge and back to the brewery. There was a surprise uphill at the finish line which was a little annoying, but Sheryl and I made it over the finish line in roughly 1:07:30 or so. So, since a 10K is 6.214 miles, that means I ran it in about a 10:52 minute mile pace. Not bad!! I still think I can do better tho.

We weren't too far behind the other TNTers either... They all met us at the finish line (which Sheryl and I decided to do a cartwheel over), and told us they were surprised at our pace... that it was the fastest that any of them had seen us run. heh. Go us! We got in line for the brewery at that point and went in for our free brats, potato salad, sauer kraut, and Widmer beer. :) We couldn't find a table, so we ended up parking on the floor and having a great time.

Photos to follow...

Oh! My mentees told me I had a couple additional pictures from Race for the Roses in a random person's photos. I went ahead and looked where they told me to, and sure enough, 2 more photos of my sprint to the finish!!




Neat, huh?