Pints 2 Pasta

On Sept 7, I got to participate in what has been voted Portland's BEST 10K event. I now know why.

The event is called Pints to Pasta and is a run hosted by "Running with Paula" events. I'm pretty sure I have a link to those from this blog's sidebar. The interesting thing about this event was it was a one-way run... not a loop. The advantage of a one-way run is that you don't have to finish at the same altitude you start at! This particular 10K was all downhill and flat. Only 2 little uphill sections really, and both weren't a big deal at all.

In order to facilitate this run, we had to park at the finish line (The Olde Spaghetti Factory in SW Portland). The event coordinators then shuttled us via a fleet of school buses to NE Portland... or more specifically the Adidas headquarters.

Here is where we caught the school buses outside the Spaghetti Factory.



This is the view of Adidas as you get off the shuttles.



The race didn't step off till like 9am, but the shuttles were running from 7:30am-8:45am... I didn't want to be one of the people squishing into one of the last shuttles, so I showed up to catch my shuttle to the start around 8am. Turned out I was on the second bus!

At the Adidas courtyard I drank some water, and put off checking my polar fleece pullover into the clothing check until the last minute I could... and then one last trip to the porta potties, and then me and my group of friends decided to head to the start line. I had met up with Dayna, Sheryl, and Bryce before the run. Sheryl knew this girl Diane from TNT, and she hung out with us too before the run. We had seen her during Portland to Coast also.

Here was the actual start line for Pints to Pasta 10K.



1889 runners and walkers participated in this event.

The day was a beautiful day... supposedly hitting mid-80s by the time the run was over. My goal for this run was to finish the 10K in 1 hour or less. I opted to wear my new wrap skort and my Portland to Coast technical T shirt for this run.

The start was delayed because we were waiting for one last shuttle to show up. The bus literally drove up to the start line and the passengers walked off the bus into the mass of people waiting to start the race... so the gun didn't go off until like a couple minutes late. We were all anxiously awaiting the moment we could cross the start line.

FINALLY we were allowed to start going, and the group of us moved down the hill along Greeley enmasse. Here is the course map....



A lot of this beginning stretch was where I ended up running with Sheryl during the Portland Marathon in 2007, so I was waxing a little nostalgic. I was having fun going downhill, but I didn't know whether my energy would keep up if I was going too fast... so I was trying to moderate my speed a little. I had figured out ahead of time that a 1 hour 10K would mean roughly a 9:40 minute mile pace... so I was constantly aiming for that pace or faster. Mostly I found myself running at 8:30-9 minute miles to start.

I slowed down a bit to run up onto the Broadway Bridge. This was where the crowd started to thin out a bit. Those people who pushed WAY too hard on the initial downhill start had to walk up the hill. Those of us who attempted to moderate our effort were rewarded by being able to pull ahead of the others.

Over the bridge (beautiful day... I remember admiring the Willamette as I crossed the river) and a loop around and under the bridge to then merge onto the Willamette Westbank Esplanade.

There are always a good number of homeless people who spend the night in the park along the esplanade... they were sitting on park benches wrapped in their blankets all bleary-eyed watching the group of us pound past them. Some of the runners took water breaks at the various permanent bubblers (water fountains) that Portland prominently has available to anyone who is thirsty in the downtown/old town area.

The esplanade is a relatively flat and wide mixed-use pedestrian way. Many of the city festivals take place in the park alongside the esplanade. The esplanade was NOT closed off for our race... so there were numbers of bicyclists and other walkers and runners also using the path... both going with us and against us. I saw a number of people with cameras who looked kinda like event photographers, but when I smiled and waved at them, they pulled their cameras up and watched me run past without even trying to take a snap. huh.

The group of people I found myself running with had thinned out quite a bit too btw.

Just before the Hawthorne Bridge I FINALLY found a photographer who was more than willing to snap my pic tho. :)





We went past the Hawthorne Bridge and found a dragon boat race going on. All sorts of tents and teams in matching Tshirts and PFDs holding oars were watching us run by. Some of them cheered us on, some of them seemed annoyed that we were forced to dodge through their numbers to try to keep going at a good clip.

Then we ran along the riverside area with little shops and restaurants. This path gave way to a NEW riverside park area that was completed in the last year. Then, we went through there to the more sparse area with new condos going in near the base of the OHSU tram. I was beginning to drag right about here. I had to slow down to 10 minute miles or slower, and people were beginning to pass me, but there was nothing I could do about it. I was running low on energy. Luckily I had ran most of the race UP til now at more of a 9 minute mile, so I did have a little wiggle room. I kept pushing my pace as much as I dared tho... I knew the end was near, and I was very hopeful to finish in less than an hour.

Finally, after a zig and then a zag, you could see the balloon arch of the finish line infront of you. This was decieving tho... cause you still had a quarter mile to go. I KNEW this too... since I had my garmin. Nonetheless, as soon as I saw that balloon arch I started pushing myself harder... and passed a number of people. Somehow the road here was more crowded than all along the Tom McCall Waterfront Park.... interestingly enough.

My energy didn't hold for that entire quarter mile. I began my final push too early, alas. I had to slow down a bit again to get air in to my lungs... and some of the people (not all of them mind you) who I just passed were easily able to pass me. I crossed the finish line in such a crowd of people, it was simply ridiculous! I never have had to wait to get my timing chip clipped off before! There was simply a crush of bodies in the finish chute, and all of us were waiting in line to get our chips off... it must have taken 2 minutes or more to get out of the chute!

Here I thought I had done pretty good (most certainly a PR for me!).... finished in 57:04. A 9:11 minute mile pace average... but I found the area around the Olde Spaghetti Factory COMPLETELY CROWDED! Look at all these people who were done before me! dang! I went wandering through the crowd for water (why the organizers didn't put water at the finish line, I'll never know. was pretty bad planning tho). I ran into Diane right about then. She was happily drinking a pint of beer already. I asked her what her time was and she told me roughly 45 minutes. WHOAH! I asked her what her PR was for a 10K, and she stopped and said she didn't really know actually. She hadn't thought about it in a while.

However the more she thought about it, the more she realized that this run was a PR for her also! I did some mental math and realized that 45 minutes was DAMN CLOSE to a 7 minute mile pace! That's AMAZING (7:14 minute mile pacE). Not only that, she ended up winning 3rd place in her age group! Pretty sweet!

I found Dayna and Sheryl as they crossed (I was happily sucking down free samples of jamba juice by this time). Both of them had great runs. Dayna finished in 1:03:00, Sheryl in 1:10:05. Both of them were beaming like crazy. We made our way to go get beer and pasta, and found Bryce. He was heading out already. We asked his time and he told us 54 minutes (actually 53:36). I was like, wait! You were 4 minutes infront of me? When did you pass me?? hehehe.

We hung out and ate our food and listened to the band and sat in the sun and relaxed. They had various prize give aways, but we weren't in the right spot to get anything. That was fine with me tho. I was just happy I killed the 1 hour mark.

Finally, as it was approaching 11:30am, I decided I needed to take off. I went home and passed out till like 5pm or so. What a great day!!! :D

My stats were...
Overall Place: 856 out of 1889 (hey look! I'm improving!)
Female Place: 356 out of 1119
Age group Place: 65 out of 212

Last race, I was a middle of the road runner. Looks like I'm slightly ahead of the bell curve now! Neato.

Evil Olive van1, leg 1

As you probably already know, months ago (arguably before my birthday in February) I put together a 12 person team, Evil Olive, to compete in the "mother of all relays," Portland to Coast.

Well, on August 22-23 we did it... and we did it GOOD!

Portland to Coast is associated with the better-known run relay race, Hood to Coast. Where Hood to Coast is a 197 mile run relay from the top of Mt Hood out to Seaside, OR... the Portland to Coast is a 127 mile walk relay from downtown Portland to the same finish line on the coast, on the same route.

Things about Portland to Coast to know:
(1) it is a WALK ONLY race. Running at all is a penalty that adds time on to your finish time... and if spotted on 3 legs or more can result in a disqualification of the team.

(2) frankly, altho the run teams are going 60 miles further, the walk relay takes longer than the run relay. A "good" time for the walk relay (oh, say OUR time), would be considered a bad time for the run relay. iiinteresting.

(3) the HtC/PtC people start the walk race HOURS sooner to get us through the course before the runners. So, we start way before the run folks... but we also cross the finish line way earlier.

(4) walking fast is HARD WORK. seriously.



So. Managing the team was seriously stressful. There are so many logistics to consider in running a team with 12 people!!

My team ended up consisting of:
* My best friend and her main squeeze from up in Seattle, Hana and Jesse
* A friend of mine from Myspace, and one of her best friends from down in Oregon City, Jaimee and Jessica.
* My soccer teammates and their spouses, Brent, Renee, Marc, and Brooke.
* From out in Walla Walla, my mom, her friend Ronnelle, and Ronelle's best friend, Carey.
* and, ofcourse, me!

And then, 1 month prior to the race, Renee found out that her blight of shinsplints... were actually worse than shinsplints. She had 3 stress fracture on her tibia from overuse. NO WONDER IT HURT TO WALK AND RUN, RENEE!!! Jeez.

We had to find a replacement for Renee last minute... and I was able to convince my running partner, Sheryl, to step in for Renee. Luckily, Sheryl had actually done 2 previous Portland to Coast races, so she went from newest Evil Olive member to being the most experienced walker on our team (as the rest of us were clueless about what to expect)! HA!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU Sheryl for joining our team!

Anyway, my mom ended up stepping up to help me with A LOT of the logistics. She not only found us a 7-passenger van to use as Evil Olive support vehicle #2, but helped me out with scoping out the course roughly a month before the race and taking notes (this ended up being an 11 hour excursion... holy cow!)... and then assisted me in thinking through all the logistics. She asked really good questions that made me question my previous assumptions, etc. It worked really well having her on the team, and I don't think things would have worked as well without her.

___ anyway, with all that out of the way.... the experience! ____

On Thursday night, Aug 21, the group of us (minus Sheryl, Hana, and Jesse) met up at The Olde Spaghetti Factory for our first ever team meeting. We couldn't have one prior to this date cause frankly nearly half the team lived too far away from Portland to make it!

I got there late. Oops. But, as it turned out, my party hadn't been seated yet, AND they had all found each other! Neat. We all got seated in a really nice separate room in the restaurant, and started ordering and I started going through the list of things I wanted to mention (rules, emergency procedures, penalties and disqualifications, exchange zone schematics, score sheet timing, logistics, and quick notes about each of the legs... both driving notes and walking notes). The dinner was a lot of fun, and I got through everything I wanted to. Plus the food was great! I was feeling REALLY good about the team after the dinner. After the dinner, I watched Brent and Renee transfer the food stuff for van #1 into Marc and Brooke's rig, and then I collected people's overnight bags in my car and headed out to the coast...

1 hour 30 minutes later, I was at Gearhart, OR at our rental condo (1 mile north of Seaside) that we got for 3 nights (Aug 21-24). Hana and Jesse had driven here from Seattle and checked in for us. They had a nice 6 hours or so to hang out and enjoy the coast before I showed up to collect them. I walked around the condo real quick before unloading the car and shepherding Hana and Jesse into my car. The condo was GREAT! It was a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom condo pretty much right off the beach. Plus, it was only like 2 blocks from a McMennamin's brew pub, the Sandtrap. How amazing is that!?!

The 1 hour 30 minute drive back to my house flew by as I went over all the same things with Hana and Jesse that I did with everyone else over dinner.

We rolled into my driveway around 11:30pm. We only had a handful of hours before everything started for us. We made the sofa bed for Hana and Jesse, and they went directly to sleep. I wandered around the house restlessly for a bit before finally settling in bed... and deciding I couldn't sleep. I read a novel for several hours, and then realized I only had 1 hour left before it was go time, so I turned off the lights and tried to lie still, but honestly didn't sleep at all. hmmmm.

When my alarm went off at 2:15am, I was still wide awake.

I got up, threw the 3 additional things I thought of overnight that I needed in my bag, and then went through my ritual of brushing my teeth, washing my face, and putting in my contact lenses. Then I got dressed to walk.

Sheryl showed up at my house around 2:50am. We piled our stuff into her rig, and drove out to Marc and Brooke's house in SE Portland. There we found a warm reception (and fresh coffee!!! mmmmm) and we started packing our stuff into Evil Olive van #1, a Honda CR-V... our home for the next 24 hours. Luckily Marc and Brooke's rig had a roof rack, so we were able to strap our sleeping bags and sleeping pads and pillows up there to conserve room in the rig. If you haven't noticed yet: there were 6 of us... for 5 seats with seatbelts. This is not a problem when one of us is walking. However, when ALL of us are in the rig, one of us was banished to the trunk. I happily volunteered for that position. It was actually quite comfortable back there to tell the truth. Marc and Brooke put a comfy seat back there for me, and there was more than enough leg room.

We drove out to OMSI (the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) where the PtC starting line was around 4am. It was insane. Just a mass of vehicles and people.... I left the van numbers, race bibs, safety pins, and car paint with my teammates to decorate van #1 as I took a couple headlamps and reflective vests into the breach to check Evil Olive in. I also dragged Jesse along as he was our first walker... however once we learned we couldn't check in immediately he went back to the van to get ready for his walk. It was a bit of chaos, but eventually after 4:15am I was able to get our team checked in. We received our timing chip and the relay "baton"... a reflective slap bracelet. The rest of van #1 had walked out to find me by the time I checked in... and then talk of finding porta potties started. I hung out near the start line soaking in the excitement and chaos until I remember the stop watches!!! Shit! We have to turn in a break down of the "split times" at the finish line to completely finish the race. To this end, I had created a clip board with 2 stopwatches taped to it and a sheet of paper. This was the easiest process I could come up with for timing our legs. Ofcourse, it helps if I HAD the fricken stopwatch clipboard at the start line!!

It took a bit of panic and running around, but I found Marc with the van keys and he let me in van #1 to get the clip board. Whew!

Then it was standing around... listening to the announcer guy go through all the team names in our start time (geez, maybe 60 teams?!?) naturally cheering for ourselves... and then 3, 2, 1. GO!!! And they were off (mostly older women... and Jesse) in a blaze of walking. They dissolved into the dark along the Willamette Esplanade, and we who remained filed back to van #1. I learned at this time what "roadkills" are. I guess it's tradition to keep track of the people you pass while you are competing, and that number is your roadkill count. Sheryl informed us all, and we were like, oh? ok.

Here is Van 1 all decorated up:


We played with the idea of going for coffee, but then decided we were all good since we had just had some coffee at Marc & Brooke's place. Jesse's leg was short... only 4.16 miles, so we decided to go straight to the next exchange. This turned out to be a good idea. The parking lot was small, so if we had done anything before getting there, we most likely wouldn't have been able to get in and park!

We were standing in the exchange when the very first walker of the relay (who most likely started at 4am) came through with a motorcycle escort. That was kinda neat. We watched with curiosity as the first several teams did the first hand off of the reflective slap bracelet.

Here is Jesse on the first leg of the race.... he's on the left (obviously).


Finally, after 55:22 here comes Jesse! Hana got ready to go, and the hand off went flawlessly. We also had no problem clearing out of the exchange parking lot, as the volunteers were anxious to have more parking spaces for the various vans lined up on the road waiting to get into the parking lot.

Hana's leg was 6 miles long, and had told us ahead of time that a great place to meet her would be around 4 miles for a drink of water and an opportunity to take off her sweat pants if she was up for it. According to the course route, the St. John's bridge was at 3.94 miles, so just after the bridge we found a turn off that we parked at and waited for her. We hung out in the dark, talked a bit, and then eventually decided given her estimated pace... Hana was coming soon, so we moved out of the vehicle to cheer her on. I spotted her and started jumping up and down and cheering her on. She was smiling in embarrassment. I started yelling at her, "TAKE OFF YOUR PANTS!!" and the other PtC people who were waiting for their walkers thought I was joking and just chuckled at me. Sure enough, hana stopped after accepting a drink of water from Jesse and took off her pants, and then threw them at me like she was a stripper, and everyone at this roadside pit stop laughed. The sun was just coming up, and the whole trip this far felt surreal.

Here is Hana walking in the rising sun.





We piled back in van #1, and headed to the next exchange.

The next one had loads of parking spaces, but the exchange zone was nearly on Hwy 30... which was kinda dangerous, especially with the spectators who were pushing onto the highway. The volunteers were a little stressed out trying to keep people back.

My entire van first lined up for the porta potties... and then Marc and I headed up to the exchange zone (I had the timing clipboard... hence the privelege). On the way up there, I remembered to ask Marc for the van keys. hehehe... he pulled the keys out of his pocket and handed em to me. It was fun thinking about what it would have been like if we forgot to get the van keys from Marc before he started walking. hehehe.

At the exchange zone, as we were getting closer to the expected Hana sighting, Marc started stripping his sweat pants and sweater off and hung them on my shoulder. He also asked to see us around 4 miles during his 7.25 mile leg. At 1:29:22 Hana came up the hill and handed off to marc. We walked back to our car and raided the food supplies in our van. The turkey & cream cheese wraps were excellent at 7am!

I drove us to an area along Hwy 30 with a larger gravel shoulder where some other vans were parked near the 4 mile point, and we waited for Marc. Brooke happily handed Marc his water when we found him. He was talking about REALLY needing to pee for the past 3 miles. Yeeks!

When he was on his way, we passed him and whooped at him in encouragement out the windows on our way to the next exchange point.

Here is Marc on his leg:



As a side note: WAY later that same day, around 9pm, Chelsee Caskey, an 18 year old High School Challenge participant, was hit by a car on this leg, Leg 15. Chelsee was participating on Lincoln High School's team for her third year in the event. The driver has been arrested and charged with second-degree assault, driving under the influence of drugs, and reckless driving. Chelsee remains in serious condition at Emanuel Hospital . This is the first ever occurrence of a runner-vehicle collision during the relay's 27 year history.

So not cool.

The next exchange point, as soon as we got there I had to pee again and took off for the porta potty. I didn't realize that everyone decide they needed to pee also. Unfortunately this was a smaller exchange parking lot, with fewer honeybuckets, so the line was ridiculously long. I found everyone else in line once I was done... and realized I had left the key in the van thinking not EVERYONE was leaving... whoops. Brooke had the key on her and handed it to me. I went and got the timing clip board, and then simultaneously kept an eye out for Marc on the route and for Brooke from the porta potties. My anxiety was for nothing, Brooke was ready to go well before Marc showed up. Here came Marc at 1:45:08, and handed off to Brooke.

Additional side note: Marc found a dirt hill to duck behind to pee during his walk. If someone had seen him do this, it would have been a disqualifiable offense. Good thing he's a stealth pee-er!

Brooke's leg was only 3.52 miles long, and she told us she didn't want a pit stop from us along the way. BUT, she was also pretty sure she didn't want to ditch her jacket and could tie it around her waist if she got too hot. We passed her pretty quickly after she had started tho, and Marc made the executive decision as van driver and as Brooke's husband, to pull off on the next street and get her jacket from her. Brooke was very grateful. :)

Walk, Brooke, walk!



We moved on to the next exchange at the Scappoose Fred Meyers... where Evil Olive van #2 was also meeting up with us. My leg was up next.. so I was a ball of anxiety. The rest of my van was ready to find coffee. :)

I started getting phone calls from van #2 saying they spotted Brooke just a little ways off, and she would be at the exchange soon. Also they were asking where we were... I kept telling my mom, "at the exchange!" I thought she knew where it was since we drove there before... but I guess she wasn't paying as close attention as all that.. cause she parked further away and walked over.

Anyway, all my anxiety was for naught. Everyone was back by the time Brooke showed up at 55:49. Hana made sure that Brent got the timing chip (which he needs on his shoe while crossing the finish line in Seaside, OR), and I honestly couldn't tell you who was doing the timing clip board.... hehehe. Brooke handed off to me, and I was off!!!



My walk was GREAT. I had 5.69 miles, straight and flat along boring Hwy 30. I had been training quite a bit the several months leading up to the race, and knew that I could walk a little quicker than a 12 minute mile (5 mph) when I had flat road. It wasn't easy, and I'm SURE I looked like a complete moron while walking fast... but I could do it.

I passed a whole bunch of walkers, and decided to start counting my roadkills after a bit. I was looking for both vans to pass me and cheer me on... every time I heard cheering from behind I'd turn around smiling to find it was someone else's van. damnit.

Then there was one van with everyone out of it cheering someone on with urgency behind me that I couldn't see. When I heard one of the spectators yelling, "COME ON, YOU CAN TAKE HER!!" I realized this someone was coming up on me! Like hell he was! No one had passed *ME* yet! I stepped it up a notch and really pushed myself on my step rate and using my abdomen and arms more efficiently to go quicker. He was a tall skinny guy, coming up on my heels huffing and puffing. His van stopped again a little further up to cheer him on AGAIN... WHERE THE HELL WAS *MY* VAN?!?! I was able to keep in front of him the entire while. He then started talking to me:
"you're really challenging me!!"
I responded, "you're really challenging ME!"
he said, "but this is my first time! I'm a beginner!"
I responded, "Dude, this is my first time too!"

That's about when his energy gave out, and he started falling behind. HAHAHAHAH! Booya!

After this, both my vans pass me cheering me on... and even my van, van #1 stops and gives me a drink of water (which I refuse to stop for, I dump it down my mouth as I continued moving). Thanks, Hana!! It was very needed!

Sometime around here I also came across the race photographer. I played with the idea of stopping and striking a pose for the camera, but then decided to just smile and hug myself. I should have struck that pose in hindsight.



BLAZE O GLORY! Here I come... I see the next exchange up ahead of me... and I couldn't get there soon enough.

I cruise in with both vans cheering me on, and pass off to Sheryl after walking for 1:06:34... or an 11:42 minute mile average pace. Marc met me at the exchange, and my legs immediately transformed into spaghetti and it was REALLY hard for me to walk or stand at all. Holy crap. 22 roadkills! Woo!







The entire team wants to get a team picture on this grassy hill, and I oblige by sitting on the ground in front of them.. too wobbly to stand. Everyone except Sheryl (who was walking) was in this pic.



I'm pretty done. We have to go get Sheryl at the end of her leg, but after that, van #1 is done with our first leg. I slam 2 more bottles of water... we head to the Columbia County Fairground.

Here is Sheryl's leg:




We aren't able to provide Sheryl any route support since she's on a leg that no vans are allowed on... we can only meet her at the end of her 4.15 miles at the fairgrounds. We get there, and I tear into our van food. Van #2 gets there eventually and parks near us. It's a gorgeous sunny morning by the time Sheryl shows up at 1:00:50 and hands off to Ronnelle in van #2. Before parting ways, Brent and I test the Motorola Walkabouts we brought along to contact one another at the next major exchange location... where cell phones do not work. We decide on channel 8, walk a bit away from eachother and test the devices. They work. We also decide to use the call signs "olive jar 1" and "olive jar 2" for van 1 and van 2 of Evil Olive respectively. Perfect! We're good to go!

We hand off the clipboard to van #2, and we sing song wish van #2 good luck as we head out for "pancakes!!"

We stop at the Scappoose High School where I was informed of a pancake fundraiser... and are informed (after barging in on band camp) that the pancakes are for the Hood to Coast runners... later. They weren't set up to feed people now. WHAT!?! damnit, why include that information in the walker packet if it's not meant for us!!! Grrrrr...

We decide to hit a local diner in Scappoose instead. We had a nice greasy breakfast/lunch... it was approaching noon after all. After food and "bottomless" diner coffee we head out. Our destination is in the middle of nowhere... the sleeping areas at exchange 24 (on Hwy 202 just after it splits off from Hwy 47 near Mist, OR). The drive takes a while to get to along the Scappoose-Vernonia Hwy, and I doze off in the back of the car... well, up till the water bottles fell on me from on top of the cooler (I was in the trunk afterall). We get to the sleep area, and Marc expertly locates a promising looking patch of shade in the back corner of the sleeping field. We immediately pull stuff out of our van to claim that patch of shade (it was pretty sunny) and another van pulls up hopefully, and then drives off when they discover that it was OUR shade... not theirs. Within minutes, we're fast asleep in the shade in the sunny late August afternoon on a Friday... in a field of hundreds of other walkers and vans. For the number of people in this field, it's eerily quiet. So pleasant......

... could almost ignore the spiders that keep trying to crawl on my legs....

(... part 2 to come)