Noobing it up

Today was a day of firsts...and it went great!

First we were off to take part in the "Be The Change Mile". This was the first time I'd run on a track since High School (...Freshman Year...) And not just any distance, no, the same distance as the annual (and oft dreaded, by yours truly) one mile President's Fitness Challenge run. The event was definitely not an official/sanctioned event, but I loved that aspect. It was just a bunch of runners getting together to run a mile in celebration of a great fundraiser for low income athletes.

There were two separate heats. The first heat (which we ran in) was the "community heat". This included runners, walkers and some of the high school students that were taking part in both heats. The second heat was the "competitive" heat. These runner's ranged from finish times of 4:50 - 6:50ish. They were pretty speedy!

We took off with the gun (we couldn't hear the gun at our first race!). We quickly drifted toward the back of the running pack, but in front of the walkers. The mile equated to 4 laps around the track, which doesn't seem like much, but it definitely felt like a lot while we were running it. It was quite windy and cool, which may have been why my breathing was so labored. In any case, the breathing didn't come too easy! J was having a grand ole time; honestly he should have just taken off, since he had so much energy at the end. With my current level of fitness I was absolutely spent at the finish line. We clocked in at about 9 minutes? As I said, it wasn't an official race, and the clock was on the far side of the track from the finish line, but I'm pretty sure it was about 9 minutes-ish. Even though it was only a mile-long race, I think I paced it alright. We passed several of the early speedsters in the final laps, so we definitely didn't finish last place!

After we finished, we helped ourselves to some coffee and donuts (several cups and several donuts!) It was really fun to watch the second, competitive heat. Those guys were fast! It was nice to hang out with some fellow runners; if only we were more outgoing, maybe we could have "met" more of them!

Our second "first" took place at Mt. Tabor Park. That's right...trail running! It was only about a mile (our second of the day), but it was tough. We're not used to running on anything but flat concrete, and flat concrete this was not! It was really beautiful out there! (It probably helps that it was an unusually nice day for winter in Oregon. For one, it wasn't raining. And you know its a nice day when you can see Mt. Hood!) The funny part is, we saw a bunch of the runners from the mile track race out on the paths. Guess we weren't original in planning a run after the earlier race. That and Mt. Tabor is probably only about 1 mile from the track we were at....

Anyway, here's some pictures from the trail run. There were definitely pictures taken from the track race, and I'll post those later if I can track them down. (I admit that pun was a little over the line...)

Isn't he angelic! ;)



We could see Mt. Hood from here; unfortunately my camera could not...