Earth Day Run Volunteer Report + Long Run Lessons Learned

We had a busy weekend!

Saturday, we volunteered at the bag check for the Earth Day Run in Tigard. We had a lot of fun, and got to talk to a lot of runners. We were also able to enjoy some delicious beer (specially brewed for the Earth Day Run) from Hopworks. I've never had Hopworks beer before, but I can now say it is delicious! Now I'm even more excited to stop by their restaurant after the Girls on the Run practice 5k this Thursday!

Arriving bright and early:

Checking a bag.

Letting J do all the work! ;)

It had rained for about 10 minutes randomly, but we were able to warm up with some beer:

Since we were “in the area”, we drove over to Dundee for some wine tasting. (Delicious, of course!) Then relaxed (and napped) for the rest of the day.

Since Saturday was so busy, we saved our long run for Sunday. I was looking forward to this run all morning. My legs were finally feeling fresh, but I would soon realize that we shouldn't have waited so long to start our run! (This would be our first mistake.) We ended up heading out after lunch (on full stomachs, our second mistake). We decided to try out the Maple Trail in Forest Park (our third mistake). This trail was much too hilly and difficult for me after the past week. All week my legs have felt like lead, and I decided to finish them off with a super tough run. Not a good idea. I was miserable. My legs were tired, my stomach was upset (ugh!), my Garmin was feeding me weird numbers, and I soon lost all desire to complete our planned 7 miles.

We each took a Gu somewhere in the middle. I was hoping it would make me feel better, but it only seemed to make me feel worse. I tried the chocolate mint flavor, and it felt like I was choking down thick frosting. Blech. I don't think I gave it a fair chance, since I was already feeling pretty terrible, so I'll give it another go sometime in the future.

After the Gu, we found ourselves on the Leif Erickson Trail. We decided to change our path, here, thank goodness. This trail seemed to be much more up my alley, today. By the end of the run, my legs actually felt pretty good, but I still felt like I was going to hurl. I didn't, but the feeling wouldn't go away. We ended up walking the remaining 1.5-2 miles back to the car, since my stomach was giving me so much trouble. This was not the best week for my digestive tract, and it was definitely not the best week for my running.

I'm not going to let this week of running get me down. It was kind of a “recovery” week after last Sundays 10k (which capped off a great week). Everyone has great and not-so-great weeks. You just gotta work with what your body gives you!

Sunday:
5.32 miles (measured out later with maps)
1:18:57 (this includes walking and stopping, at least my Garmin could still measure time...)

We also walked another 2-ish miles. Meh.

Anyway, this upcoming week is going to be great! At least, that's how I've planned it to be! ;) Here's the plan, as of right now.

Monday:
3 miles

Tuesday:
5 miles (We're going to try to make it to a track workout! :)

Wednesday:
Rest Day

Thursday:
5k with GOTR

Friday:
Rest Day

Saturday:
Flying down to SoCal (again!)
8 miles (on nothing but flat pavement!)

Sunday:
Rest Day/Kid's Bday party, so not much rest, I guess ;)

Here's to a better week!

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...