Portland and the Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon

Ruth and Mary, the friends I ran the Disney Marathon with, both moved to Portland, Oregon in the last year.  Brooke, Ruth's sister, also moved out west (San Francisco).  We (mostly me) decided that it would be great to try and run a race together in Portland once Ruth got settled in.  The Portland Rock 'n' Roll was perfect timing in the spring, so we signed up in October 2013, before Ruth even left Atlanta.  Finally May rolled around and it was time for me to head to Portland to visit and run the race in my new Team PAWS singlet!

I got in around 7 pm on Thursday night and Brooke and her husband Gregg arrived after 10 pm, so it was a late night for me since I didn't get to bed until about 11 pm (2 am Eastern time).  Luckily,I slept until about 7 am instead of my usual 5 am or so when I am in the Pacific time zone.  We headed out first thing in the morning to grab some breakfast to go and then headed to Eagle Creek trail in the Columbia Gorge.  We hiked 2 miles in to Punch Bowl Falls.  It was a beautiful hike, but not very hard (we were running a half marathon in 2 days).  Tip: you have to wade into the pool in order to see the falls around the corner.  

Eagle Creek trail

Punch Bowl Falls

I wish I could fall asleep as easy as Alice

We grabbed some lunch after the hike and then headed to the expo to get our packets and see if there was anything worth buying.  Brooke and I both bought Tiger Tails to help with muscle issues.  The ladies wanted to chill out a bit while Alice napped so Gregg, Luke and I grabbed a beer at Horse Brass Pub before meeting up for dinner at Navarre.  Navarre is a family style eating and the dishes were all pretty solid.  After finishing up there we headed to Salt and Straw for dessert.  Salt and Straw is a famous ice cream shop that Luke and Ruth really wanted us to go to.  There were some very interesting flavors and after trying quite a few I ended up getting Arbequina olive oil ice cream.  It was delicious!

Saturday morning was also planned around food, next up was Voodoo Doughnuts.  The line was not too long, so we were in within 10 minutes or so.  They have a bunch of very weird flavors, but I went with the plane old cake donut with chocolate frosting and peanuts and a chocolate bar.  The chocolate bar was almost to rich for me, but I still ate it. 

Yes have some!

Yummy

Napier sister sandwich

After our morning carb loading we headed up to Ruth's work, Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU).  OHSU is up on a hill overlooking Portland and the Willamette River and you can take a tram up to it.  Unfortunately it was a cloudy day so we weren't able to see Mount Hood or Mount St. Helens. Interesting fact: Sunday, the day of the race, was the 34 year anniversary since the deadly eruption that coated the Northwest in ash.  I still lived in Idaho when this happened and remember seeing tons of ash when we drove up northern Idaho so my brother could play in the Little League championships.  Alright, now back to Portland...

Tram and the view from OHSU

Delicious latte

Two story tall rhododendron

Who doesn't love a talking snowman?

We did a little bit more sightseeing and some shopping before heading to dinner at Mama Mia Trattoria.  The food was ok and the service was not top notch (granted they probably had way more business than usual because of the race), but it was a good pre-race meal and it was close to our hotel.  That evening we decided it would be best for us to stay at a hotel so we would be close to the start/finish and so the two mamas would get plenty of sleep.  We headed to the Marriott Waterfront after dinner to settle in and have our girl's night.  First we organized all our race stuff and then we watched Frozen.  Watching Disney movies the night before a race is becoming a tradition for Ruth and I.   I really loved Frozen.  Obviously Olaf and Sven are the best characters in the movie!  It actually had strong female lead characters, although I am not quite sure about the Elsa transformation into a stripper ice queen.  After the movie I was getting sleepy but everyone else watched some Dateline (or similar) show about a guy that may or may not have killed his new wife of four months in the bathtub.  Don't people realize that divorce is a better option than murder?

Sunday morning we woke up earlier than we needed to since we were so close to the start line.  It was misty/rainy outside so we waited until about 20 minutes before the start to head out of the hotel.  Because it was raining we decided to wait underneath one of the bridges so we wouldn't get wet, although it didn't really help.  It was difficult to get to our corral because of the way the start was set up (not much space for people to walk) and so we just jumped in the nearest corral.  I was regretting my decision to wear my Team PAWS singlet with no layer over because of the cold and the mist, but the body heat in the corral helped me to warm me up some.  We were all a little worried about the potential for running 13.1 miles in the rain but what could we do?

Ruth

Brooke

Mary

Me

Start line

Let's do this!

About the time the race started the rain stopped.  We were hopeful it would hold out for the race, but knew we may not get the lucky.  The first 3+ miles of the race was an out and back going north along the river.  The first part was okay but as we got closer to the turnaround it was not as pretty and on the way back we almost had to stop to wait for an Amtrak train (since we are faster than sound we were able to beat it).  Once we got back near the start we wound through some roads on the west side of the river and then got to cross the river on the Hawthorne Bridge, which was very cool.  

Hawthorne Bridge (Ruth in the center)

On the other side of the bridge we went through some industrial areas and then eventually ended up back on Hawthorne Boulevard going east with all of mile seven going uphill.  For motivation Brooke and I started high fiving each other at each mile marker, this was stolen from her and Sarah from when we ran the Savannah Rock 'n' Roll half marathon in 2011.  I will be the first to admit that Brooke lwas much better at this than I was (see finish line photo).  After the road finally leveled out we got to see  Luke, Alice, Bo, Mike (Mary's husband) and their kids (Lucy and Jack) at the intersection where we turned off of Hawthorne.  Alice was not very thrilled about us having to leave her.  We continued north winding through some really pretty neighborhoods.  For me the run felt great, probably because of the nice temperatures and low humidity.  This is the best I've felt running in a long time and I was really enjoying the entire experience.  Around miles 11 and 12 we were out of the neighborhoods and in areas with not many spectators but it went by fast and soon we were crossing the Steel Bridge and almost at the finish.  

Me and my mutant forearms

After the Steel Bridge heading to the finish

Mary and Ruth were ahead of us so Brooke and I finished the race out together high fiving at the finish line.  All in all, a really enjoyable race for me.  And around the time we finished it started raining again, what great timing!

Sweet finish photo!  Not sure what is
going on with my left arm.

We found Mary and Ruth after the finish line and headed back to the hotel so we could shower and get some food in our bellies.  We went to Hopworks Brewery for some eats and post-run adult recovery beverages.

Go Team PAWS!

Finishers!

Bikes and beer: a recurring theme for me

I am hoping to finish up the remainder of my Europe trip updates in the next week so I can just focus on the current happenings.


P.S.  Since I haven't mentioned it in a few blog posts, I am running the Chicago Marathon to raise money for PAWS Chicago, a non-profit animal rescue group in Chicago.  Over a 1/3 of the budget comes from charity runners like me.  Help save a homeless dog or cat's life, donate to my fundraising page here!  I have raised 77% of my goal, only $900 more to go.  I only have three more miles available for sponsorship, better act fast!