Portland Shamrock Run 2009

This past weekend (March 14th, 15th), Addy's parents came up to Portland to visit.  The is the first time her parents have seen the house.  It was nice to have them up, I always enjoy hanging out with them.  The occasion was the Shamrock run on the waterfront on Sunday.  Addy, me, her dad, her aunt and uncle were all registered to run.  

Saturday I had to work, but Addy and her folks got to go thrifting together at a few goodwills before I was off.  Addy made out (she always does) with a couple pair of jeans and hand-bags.  When I got home, we sat around for a while and talked until we got hungry and decided it was time to get some food.  Last time we were in Grant's Pass, they took us out to a new pizza joint called Circle J.  They had some great pizza and good beer on tap.  So we decided to return the favor and get them some good pizza and, of course, some portland microbrew.  So, we went to HUB (Hopworks Urban Brewery).  If you haven't had the Cascade Mountain Range, it is AMAZING!  

Sunday Morning!  Time to race.  The weather was absolutely crummy.  40 degrees, overcast, and raining.  Man, it was cold!  We got there almost 2 hours before the race started.  It was dark and cold and I parked too far away.  The volunteers were still setting up the tents when we got there.  We went to pick up our t-shirts and of course, they were already out of small T-shirts for Addy.  The cool thing is we all got free tees from last year, because they had a bunch left.  After we got our race bibs, we went to find a warm, dry place to spend the next hour.  Unfortunately, Addy and I still don't know downtown that well.  So, the only place we could find was a Starbucks.  Also unfortunately, it was tiny and also full of people already.  So, we ended up standing outside in a doorway for most of the time.  This did nothing to help our warm-up for the race.  Addy's dad and aunt and uncle were all running the 5K so they started 30 minutes before us.  It was so windy out that the finish line actually blew down before the start of their race.  Addy's mom was awesome and stood at the finish line, holding our stuff.  She was a sport for standing in the rain the whole time.  Thank you, Kim!  

Soon it was time for Addy and I to line up.  There were SO MANY people!  The announcer said that there were a total of 20,000 people running in the different races!  The line went as far as I could see in both directions.  The horn blew and we were off!  Our first 15K race.  The first 2 miles or so were through downtown and it was pretty cool to run through downtown with so many people and the streets blocked off for us.  We ran south past PSU and up the hill toward OSHU.  This was the beginning of the 2.5 mile climb up Terwilliger.  Addy's uncle had run the 15K before in past years and said that the view was great on the run.  I believe that if the weather was nice, it would have been gorgeous.  But it was terrible out, so I was really just focused on getting through it.  As we climbed, the rain actually turned into freezing rain because of the altitude change.  That's right, we ran through freezing rain and up a f-ing hill for 9 miles, for fun.  Anyway, the top of the climb was at the half way mark and I had to stop the portalet.  Five minutes later and five pounds lighter, I felt much better and started on the decline.  I knew I had to make up some time because of my pit stop, so I tried to lengthen my stride and focus on passing people while keeping my pace steady.  The view of the Willamette while running down Barbur with 8,000 other runners was pretty cool and made up for the crappy weather a little bit.  According to the Garmin, I run the last couple of miles at a pace closer to 6 min/mile instead of the 7:30 min/mile I was aiming for.  I was glad to finish and found a place to wait for Addy, so I could see her finish.  I didn't have to wait long and saw her finish strong and ran over to give her a kiss.  

As we were making our way back to where Addy's family was waiting, we ran into our friends and teammates for Hood to Coast, Faith and Krista (Donald was with them for encouragement). They had run the 8K and finished with good times.  We introduced them to Addy's dad since he is running Hood to Coast with us as well.  It was awesome to see them and get part of the team to meet before we all run together in August.   

After the run, we went to get a big breakfast at Macadam's in John's Landing.  We had a good time talking with the Vials and hanging out.  We played Tripoley the rest of the day back at our place and bbq'd a big dinner.  Mark and I kept checking the time till we could check our times on the race website.  Finally, halfway through Amazing Race (best show, ever), they finally posted the times.  Mark and Addy did great, but I was not able to make up the time I lost in the portopotty on the second half of the race.  Oh well, I guess I'll just have to post good numbers at the Pear Blossom in a month.  

All in all, it was great to have Addy's parents up and I'm glad we ran, even in the terrible weather.