I won!
Friday night Housewarming
Friday night I went to a coworkers who recently moved into an awesome house literally next door to the Hawthorne Buffalo Exchange; she lives with two musicians who run a recording studio out of the house, so they have 2 huge music rooms (living and dining/rec rooms to the rest of us). We actually managed to stay out until 1am which was pretty damn impressive for me; a few other of the my coworkers showed up too, so we got to drive Alex insane talking about work. :)
Before the party, me and Alex went to a place on Alberta called the Tin Shed, which is HIGHLY recommended; most especially the mushroom ravioli. Oh hell yes.
Ride Report
Saturday I didn't feel like crawling out of bed until the insanely late time of 9:15am, which is too late to ride with Portland Velo. So I ate some toast and sat around, finally dragging myself out of the house to go on a pleasant, although rainy, ride around Portland (Terwilliger > Sellwood > Mt Tabor > Terwillger). For some reason when i'm sitting in my apartment in the morning with my hot cup of tea, and I look outside and its all grey and dark, the thought of venturing out on my bike always seems so insanely difficult. But once I'm out there, I love it. Such a strange thing...Saturday was nice because it was super warm, I was even wearing shorts; although then, with no rain gear, it proceeded to begin raining about 10 minutes into my ride and didn't stop the whole rest of the 2 hours I was outside. Suffice it to say my legs were unbelievably dirty.
RACE REPORT - SHAMROCK 5K
With 5 hours of sleep due to the time change and starting the movie TransAmerica too late (and thinking I would fall asleep halfway through but finding it too interesting to do so), I set out at 7am for the Shamrock run, which is one of the biggest races around, and also the beginning of the racing season. I think somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 people turned out for all the races (the runs are 5K, 8K, and 15K, plus a 3mile walk). It was a record turnout, and despite the very dark clouds looming, it never rained. Actually it was quite balmy at 60 degrees, and I was rather sad I was wearing pants. Thank god I ditched the long-sleeved shirt.
I decided I would just take off fast and give it my all the whole race; my goal was somewhere in the neighborhood of 8-9minute miles. I felt fairly awful in the beginning, just really not warmed up at all and sluggish. After about 6 minutes I wondered if I would even finish. Plugging along, I came to the first mile marker and was rather surprised to hear the time reader say "7 minutes 50." That perked me up, and I tried to keep up my pace.
Around this time, my upper back, shoulders and arms really started to ache, I guess I must have been really tense. To be honest the whole thing was a battle, especially since mile 2 was all pretty much uphill broadway. I started to get a bit wheezy on those last hills and thanked god for the downhill when I crested the last one. I think the only way I got up those hills without puking was hearing the 2 mile time reader say "16 minutes, 20 seconds". Right on time!
However, it was also around this time when I realized I had eaten very much the wrong thing for breakfast, ie, I ate breakfast. Because it was at this time that the toast decided to remind me that it was there, and it was mad. When we got onto Naito Parkway for the final stretch, the finish line practically in view, my stomach seized up and I was on the verge of puking. I just kept thinking "hold out, hold out, you're almost there, you can puke in a minute"; when I saw that finish line, I wanted to sprint to the end, because by this time my legs felt really strong, but I knew if I ran too much faster, I would definitly projectile vomit on anyone within a few yards of me. So I picked it up as much as possible and ran strong to the finish, clocking in at 24 minutes and some seconds. The best of my goal time! When I stopped abruptly to go through the chute, I started dry heaving and just kept thinking "don't throw up on the volunteers, don't throw up on the volunteers", I really thought I was going to though. It was awful. Thankfully after a few minutes I stopped almost throwing up, and I could revel in my awesome time.
Suffice it to say, I did not end up drinking my victory beer (you get a beer at the end for finishing). However, in looking at the times from last year, I might well have finished in the top 50 for women, in a crowd of 1500 women. Boo ya!
Friday night I went to a coworkers who recently moved into an awesome house literally next door to the Hawthorne Buffalo Exchange; she lives with two musicians who run a recording studio out of the house, so they have 2 huge music rooms (living and dining/rec rooms to the rest of us). We actually managed to stay out until 1am which was pretty damn impressive for me; a few other of the my coworkers showed up too, so we got to drive Alex insane talking about work. :)
Before the party, me and Alex went to a place on Alberta called the Tin Shed, which is HIGHLY recommended; most especially the mushroom ravioli. Oh hell yes.
Ride Report
Saturday I didn't feel like crawling out of bed until the insanely late time of 9:15am, which is too late to ride with Portland Velo. So I ate some toast and sat around, finally dragging myself out of the house to go on a pleasant, although rainy, ride around Portland (Terwilliger > Sellwood > Mt Tabor > Terwillger). For some reason when i'm sitting in my apartment in the morning with my hot cup of tea, and I look outside and its all grey and dark, the thought of venturing out on my bike always seems so insanely difficult. But once I'm out there, I love it. Such a strange thing...Saturday was nice because it was super warm, I was even wearing shorts; although then, with no rain gear, it proceeded to begin raining about 10 minutes into my ride and didn't stop the whole rest of the 2 hours I was outside. Suffice it to say my legs were unbelievably dirty.
RACE REPORT - SHAMROCK 5K
With 5 hours of sleep due to the time change and starting the movie TransAmerica too late (and thinking I would fall asleep halfway through but finding it too interesting to do so), I set out at 7am for the Shamrock run, which is one of the biggest races around, and also the beginning of the racing season. I think somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 people turned out for all the races (the runs are 5K, 8K, and 15K, plus a 3mile walk). It was a record turnout, and despite the very dark clouds looming, it never rained. Actually it was quite balmy at 60 degrees, and I was rather sad I was wearing pants. Thank god I ditched the long-sleeved shirt.
I decided I would just take off fast and give it my all the whole race; my goal was somewhere in the neighborhood of 8-9minute miles. I felt fairly awful in the beginning, just really not warmed up at all and sluggish. After about 6 minutes I wondered if I would even finish. Plugging along, I came to the first mile marker and was rather surprised to hear the time reader say "7 minutes 50." That perked me up, and I tried to keep up my pace.
Around this time, my upper back, shoulders and arms really started to ache, I guess I must have been really tense. To be honest the whole thing was a battle, especially since mile 2 was all pretty much uphill broadway. I started to get a bit wheezy on those last hills and thanked god for the downhill when I crested the last one. I think the only way I got up those hills without puking was hearing the 2 mile time reader say "16 minutes, 20 seconds". Right on time!
However, it was also around this time when I realized I had eaten very much the wrong thing for breakfast, ie, I ate breakfast. Because it was at this time that the toast decided to remind me that it was there, and it was mad. When we got onto Naito Parkway for the final stretch, the finish line practically in view, my stomach seized up and I was on the verge of puking. I just kept thinking "hold out, hold out, you're almost there, you can puke in a minute"; when I saw that finish line, I wanted to sprint to the end, because by this time my legs felt really strong, but I knew if I ran too much faster, I would definitly projectile vomit on anyone within a few yards of me. So I picked it up as much as possible and ran strong to the finish, clocking in at 24 minutes and some seconds. The best of my goal time! When I stopped abruptly to go through the chute, I started dry heaving and just kept thinking "don't throw up on the volunteers, don't throw up on the volunteers", I really thought I was going to though. It was awful. Thankfully after a few minutes I stopped almost throwing up, and I could revel in my awesome time.
Suffice it to say, I did not end up drinking my victory beer (you get a beer at the end for finishing). However, in looking at the times from last year, I might well have finished in the top 50 for women, in a crowd of 1500 women. Boo ya!