Running Portland and Green River!

My Oct. marathon was the Portland Marathon!  Although I think the price is totally crazy it saves me from having to travel in Oct. out of state and I do love a marathon that I can sleep in my own bed and go run the next morning and drive home quickly afterwords.  I registered late for it this year as we had expected to be on sabbatical taking our honeymoon at this time, but plans changed with the house and Winterhawk so we are thinking sometime in 2014.  Which is great because we have something new and fun and exciting to look forward to!  Anyways back to the run.  Leading up to the race I caught a nasty cold that actually had me at home the Thursday and Friday before the race on Sunday.  It was one of those head colds that sounds totally disgusting and everyone freaks out if you come into the office but you don't feel all that bad.  So I thought it would still be a fun race and I would just take it easy.   By Sunday of the race I was not feeling 100% but was happy that I did not have a fever and would be able to run.  I headed down town and took up my parking spot at my husband's office which is awesome because I have parking and running water bathrooms for my pre race routine.   Its a great way to start out the day!  The weather was perfect so I headed down to the start and was ready to run.  I jumped in 2 min before the start which means that I went out with the A group- not where I was planning on starting, but it worked out ok.  The run for the day could not have been more perfect.  It was a beautiful morning in Portland and as I watched the sun rise I loved just being out there.  The race actually felt great given how I was feeling and with the expectation to just run and have fun it was a blast.  No major issues at all and I came upon Jess just before the bridge and chatted for a bit which was a great boost.  I finished the race feeling strong and had a lot of fun out there.  I am already registered for next year:) 

My Nov. marathon was the In Unity we Run Green River marathon in Kent, WA.  This is a low key event that actually was cheaper than Portland even when you consider gas and a hotel in WA, go figure!  Jash came with me to run this event so we had a great drive up together after work on Friday.  It gave us a good car ride to catch up from the busy week.  We got to our hotel with a kitchen- always have to have a kitchen and made our own pre race dinner and relaxed and enjoyed the evening together.  We were only 10 min from the start of the event so we were able to sleep in and still get there with plenty of time.  And of course no parking issues with a low key run.  They really are becoming more and more my favorite for so many reasons!  We started out in the rain, which we had prepared for and ran the first few miles together and then settled into our own paces.  The rain let up after a few miles and it was not bad weather at all.  It was slightly windy for the first half  but nothing too bad.  Jash headed back to the hotel after the first half for a warm shower and to get changed and I headed out the other direction on the park trail for my second half of the marathon.  By this time the wind had gone crazy!  There were downed tree limbs everywhere and I watched some big ones come crashing down in front of me.  Still it was some beautiful views and the wind made for a very fun adventure!  It was up to 58 MPH gusts and I really felt like I was going to be swept off my feet at some points.  We had to run the last 6.5 miles back into the wind and it was crazy to do on tired legs but also a great reminder to stay strong and keep going.  At some points I just had to laugh because it was fighting a losing battle, and you just had to keep going and push through.  Some fun pictures from the day below thanks to Ross Comer. 

Amazing Summer 2013!

Sorry I have been very tardy since my last post!  It has been a very busy wonderful summer filled with running (of course), getting married (YEAH!), buying a new house (SWEET!), selling the old house (awesome!), and becoming the mother of 3 chicks and a winter hawk (more on this later) :)


Let's start with the running!  Since my birthday race and last post I have run the following races:

June '13- New Port Marathon and Winthrop Marathon and pace lead Vancouver Marathon

July '13 -  Foot Traffic Flat 4th of July Marathon

August '13- Haulin Aspen Marathon


Sept '13 - Hagg Lake Hybrid Marathon


Oct  '13 -  Portland Marathon

So the running at least a marathon distance race or long a month streak from 2008 is still alive and well!!! 

The next big event of the summer was our wedding, but before the wedding you have to have a bachlorette and bachelor party!  Our friends are so sweet and threw us an entire weekend party here in the NW, but we also had a blast in AZ in the sun with me and some of my friends.  Rhiannon and John and our whole wedding party really spoiled us and made this such a magical time!  A few pictures below!

AZ bridal party fun! 

OR NW party fun!

After all the fun partying it was time to get married (and party some more!)
See more wedding day pictures fun below.  It was an amazing day on 7.13.13 and I could not have wished for a better more perfect wedding!  We had wonderful weather that day and beautiful views on the vineyard.  We were able to spend the time with family and friends and everyone looked wonderful!  My family made the trip from AZ to visit and spend time with us after the wedding which was totally a blast:) 

It was a fab day!  

Right after getting married we closed on a new house in OR.  We are so thrilled with our new house that is on over a half acre and backs up to a creek.  Since we had so much land we decided that we had to add to it! 

So the family quickly got bigger with the addition of 3 chicken girls that are just the most darling creatures ever!  They are the perfect pets who love people and are very playful and make you an egg each a day!  

So the chickens are awesome!  But we didn't stop there!  We also have a winterhawk ice hockey player living with us for the season!  So we watch a lot of ice hockey and have a full house now which is totally fun and just another adventure!  More to come for the fall! 

Birthday Run 101!

5/18/13

This weekend I had a birthday on a Saturday which made for the perfect opportunity to run a birthday race and what better way to celebrate than to run!  Friday Jash and I headed up to WA after he finished school and I finished work for the day.  We had a pretty nice drive up there and arrived just in time to cook a wonderful birthday dinner together with a celebratory glass of bubbly and some cake!  The next morning we were up early at 5am, well maybe more like 5:30am after a few snoozes.  We packed up the car and drove the quick 10 min to the race start.  Jash was volunteering for the event as well which was a great help to them and a good way for us to enjoy the event together.  After some quick pictures at the starting line it was time to run and celebrate my birthday! 

The morning felt perfect with the overcast clouds and no rain making it impeccable running weather!  We headed out as a group on the soft trail with rolling hills.  I started at a nice pace but trying to move it a bit faster because I knew I wanted to be able to finish my race and still make it back to OR to watch the Winterhawks in the Memorial Cup.  I enjoyed chatting and bantering with fellow runners and the first loop really flew by!  Jash was directing traffic on the little loop so I asked him if he wanted to run the third loop with me and gave him an hour to get ready as I headed back out.  The second loop was fun and I was still around a lot of people so engaged in many random running conversations and watched the trail!  By the third loop I was ready to have some company with Jash and we ran together and talked and enjoyed the beautiful day.  Jash gave me all the updates of what he had been doing for the morning at the main, only, aid station and how nice everyone was.  He was also a great Cheerer and many people looked forward to finishing a loop and having Jash clap and cheer them on with encouraging positive words.  We finished our loop if great time and I headed out for my 4^th loop on my own.  This one was really nice because I was alone for the whole loop now that we had all spread out so much and it was just what I needed.  I put on some tunes and just ran and enjoyed everything about being out there and reflected on how happy I was to be able to run and run my 101^st marathon+ distance race on my birthday in the beautiful NW.  There really was nothing that I could imagine doing that would make me more happy and I was just thrilled.  We also saw a few deer out on the course and that was pretty cool.  On the 5^th loop I was getting ready to be done for sure.  But on this loop I was able to run past a horse, giant horse with a rider on top and felt so tiny as we passed.  It was pretty cool.  I finished up my last loop to cheers and a wonderful sense of accomplishment and just before any rain started!  I chatted with a fellow out there that was 80+ doing the event.  I was in awe of him- he was truly living life as well and I was so happy to hear that someone in their 80’s was out there doing what they loved to do and it inspired me to keep it up and be out there again celebrating my 80^th 90^th 100^th and beyond birthday running on the trails with other awesome runners!  It was a very happy birthday indeed!