Worse day of the year? I think not....definitely not compared to what we've been dealing with this past week. Turned out to be a gorgeous day actually - a bit cloudy and cool during the morning, but with a 10am start time, it was a comfortable 40 degrees for the run. Having a later start time lead to such a stress free race morning. P signed up for the 5k as well so we leisurely woke up at around 7am, I had my typical race morning coffee and peanut butter toast, spent a good hour and a half stretching and made our way, 2 miles down the road to the venue.
2 miles away, say whaaaaaa??
Oh, heck yes - the race was held at the McMenamins-Edgefield property and is one of our favorite places in all of Portland. So much so that we are planning our wedding there next June. The property is the old county poor farm that was refurbished in 90's and is now a destination resort. The 74 acre farm land contains a hotel, outdoor concert venue, vineyards, gardens, two golf courses, a movie theater, Spa, 5 restaurants and 10 different bars, a winery, brewery and distillery. If you are EVER in the Eastside of Portland, you must make it a point to stop in. The place in amazing and was a perfect host for our 5k fun run.
Now on to the run - I was hoping to use this race as a good time trial for verifying how much faster my 5k has gotten over the year. Haha, not so much. Someone should have taken a closer look at the course before hand. **Doh**
P and I met our friend, Mark, at the venue around 9:15am. The race was capped at 1,500 and I think only around 700 ended up registering. Love, love, love smaller races.The parking was a cinch and they had all kinds of fun vendor tents around the property.
First stop was at the shoe donation tent where I regretfully said good bye to my bright pink Adidas Marathons - the pair of shoes that I ran my very Tri in. They were still in fairly good shape and I'm sure will be a great resource for someone else in need. In return I got an awesome neck gator that with the expected warmer weather approaching, I can hopefully put away until next winter.
Next stop was the coffee tent and potties. 2 minutes to race start and Mark and I wished P good luck as we headed up closer to the front of the pack. Runners near the front and walkers behind. Oh, if only everyone had followed that rule it would have made our time on the course a lot more enjoyable.
And we're off!!
First thought? "Get the heck outta my way all you walkers!!". I mean really - the course followed a narrow path around the two golf courses which meant many, many hills not at all conducive to passing slower folks. I ended up spending quite a bit of time up on the side of the greens just trying to get some momentum going by passing all those who basically quit running after the first hill.
Mark and I quickly realized that a decent pace was not going to be possible and surrendered to treating this fun run as just that, a fun Saturday morning training run. Once you are able to resign to the fact that your chip time is not going to reflect any serious effort, it actually makes your time on the course much more enjoyable!
So after a quick loop around the 1.5 mile mark, we dominated the remaining hills and found our way to the finish line.
Total time - 32.12
Av pace - 10:21
Place - 5th AG
Blah - nothing to write home about, but that's ok. It was a fun run, with fun friends and I will take getting in an extra 3.1 miles on a typical rest day. Mark and I waited for P to finish his power walk and then headed over to the heated tent for some brew and a bowl of delish soup. We spent the next 3 hours lounging around the property enjoying each other's company and a "few" more post race beers.
 |
| Beer!! One of the main reasons why I race! |
Overall it was a fun day at a venue that you just can't beat. One suggestion for anyone interested in running next year - make sure that you get some interval training in. Though the race is a short one, if you want to enjoy the course and not huff and puff your way through 3.1 miles, spending some time on a moderate hilly training course will benefit you greatly.
No comments:
Post a Comment