Last Track Day - 09.29.10 - Wednesday (B - 2.8 Miles)

I still can't believe this is our last Track night together.  It was also a very relaxing one since we ONLY had to run 2.8 miles around Cornell, Evergreen, and back to Chevy's Restaurant for our much anticipated dinner.

Thank goodness the company was excellent because the customer service from our overworked waitress was much to be desired.  I am excited for our potential last group run this Saturday which is ONLY 12 miles instead of the usual 20.  I am in awe that I am saying ONLY to these large numbers and that my body has endured with all the hardwork and sacrifice I have put in this program.

When I look at these photos of myself, I am amazed how much my body has changed as well as my attitude towards running and what I can accomplish with positive thinking and support from family and friends.

In two weeks I will be running my first full marathon in San Francisco and I know it will be filled with emotion, tears of joy and all worth this long journey once I cross that finish line!

Week 20 - Day 56 - 09.25.10 - Saturday (B - 20 miles)

Now I know I can run my first full marathon. This was my second week in a row that I ran my required 20 miles. Last week I was suppose to only run 18 miles but instead didn’t take my required turn and ended up doing the full 21 miles as well. I started running at 6:30AM and officially ended around 11:33AM so about 5 hours.


I started strong with the first 4 miles from Duniway Track to the Waterfront’s Steel Bridge and back. I also was strong running up Pill Hill on Terwilliger to the local High School and back since I have been used to this route with my weekly training runs on my own. Then it all started to crumble on the third leg of my 20 mile run.

I got back at Duniway Track and was cheered as I came in. My TNT family told me I just finished about 13 or so miles and had under 7 miles left to get my 20 miles. I should have asked someone in the crowd if I needed to move on since I unexpectedly did my 21 miles last week but felt kinda good and thought what’s 7 miles anyway? Well it was all uphill towards Washington Park and back and by this time I had no more Body Glide to save the bloody rash under my left arm and my back where my bra hooks were digging in. Thanks to Captain Wendy she was so sweet and stayed by my side even though I knew she was itching to run this final part of the course. My feet and legs were just spent and the only thing I kept in my pea brain was to finish.

We got closer to downtown and did our final turn on 4th where we saw Coach Darrell, Mentors Linda, Loretta, Kat, and Diane coming towards us and cheering us in. It was a sight and sound for sore eyes and ears and believe you me I wanted to start crying but knew the Duniway Track (aka start/finish) line was so near. Here are the pics Mentor Diane took of those last yards and I now know I can do this marathon!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Week 20 - Day 55 - 09.23.10 - Thursday (B - 3.56 miles and 102 steps)

What a great day for a run in the Emerald City…Seattle!
I took my time waking up at the hotel and headed outside and ran part of downtown to the famous Pike Street Market and along the pier. It was a cloudy day but kinda muggy. I was able to get in about 3.56 Miles in 0:38:51. Along the way I was whistled at by a greasy looking fella, passed two, no make that three loading dock workers who puffed smoke whilst I ran by.

Here are some pics of the local scenery that I ran past, but have to say our very own Portland waterfront area is much nicer and very runner/bike/walk friendly.

There is no place like home indeed!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Week 19 - Day 54 - 09.18.10 - Saturday (B - 23.83 miles)

Well I got to NW Fit on 22nd and Raleigh about 6:30AM, although the rest of the West and East TNT teams wouldn’t be there until 7PM. I was pretty proud of myself for snagging the front door spot but then was advised by Coach Darrell when he arrived a little before 7AM to probably move my car since the parking police around there were brutal and there were no way in Hell that I can run 18 miles in just 2 hours so I moved Sally two blocks down.

Boy was I glad I did. My trusty running buddy Andrea and I must have gotten the wrong directions or what but we ended up running 21 miles instead and then walked the last 2.83 miles to get back to NW Fit. We did so in 05:33:23 and burned a whopping 2,795 calories. Needless to say we were sore but glad we were there to help each other out. We celebrated our mileage with fellow TNT running friend Karissa at Pastini Pasta!

Below are some of the photos we took along our run today on Highway 30 (lots of Adult Shops/Nude Girls) and in front of Adidas for the last 3 miles of our journey. I can’t believe my TNT Karaoke and Potluck Fundraiser is just hours away, God help me!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

Week 19 - Day 53 - 09.15.10 - Wednesday (B - 2.64 miles) LAST HILL REPEATS

Our last hill repeats at Foothills Park and boy was I glad to get there an hour early.  I decided why not start since I had a feeling it would be the same 3 loops around the man-made lake with 10 hill repeats.  By the time I was done and ran a total of 2.64 miles the rest of the TNT crew showed up.  They were surprised to see me running my last two hill repeats and some looked quite envious too.  I said I wanted to spend more time with the hubby and decided to get my hill repeats done an hour early so it could be done….now onto 18 miles for Saturday…oy vey!

Week 19 - Day 52 - 09.14.10 - Tuesday (B - 3.01 miles)

Decided to run my 30 minutes during lunch time around the trusty old Waterfront. Good thing I did because I was delighted to see a pirate faux sword fight on top of the old Sternwheeler Rose. Apparently this weekend is the Pirate Festival so I assume this taping of this awesome swordplay is being used to promote the upcoming festivities.

Although there were some light sprinkle it was very humid and I was glad I decided to run with my sleeveless Dri Fit shirt. I was able to run 3.01 miles in 0:31:19 near my race pace of 10:23 minutes a mile. I felt great and was able to return back to work proud that I got my run in for the day.

Week 18 - Day 51 - 09.11.10 - Saturday (B - 17.00 miles)

I have this uncanny habit of running more than I need to at the last part of my TNT group runs.  I did this when we ran our 16 miles near the Nike Campus and forgot to take the right left to get back to the group.

I did it again today with missing Sorrento Ridge/125th on Brockman and instead went all the way to Hall and had to backtrack by running down Nimbus and taking my last two rights on Scholls then to the entrance of our starting point at Portland Running and Walking Company.  My teammates were worried that they decided to call me just to check where I was.  The positive thing about this is it probably added another mile of running to my required 16 today, so it's all good.

Boy were my legs tired because the double whammy of hills on the Murray Hills trail and Weir Road were killer.  Here is the photo of the beginning of the trail that still makes me shudder just looking at it.

The only negative was that with all the trees that line these hills, it keeps screwing with my CardioTrainer's GPS and would automatically pause which didn't account for 3 to 4 miles I actually ran.

I was able to end the day with my racing buddy Andrea at my friend Karen's TNT fundraiser and let's just say we had a great time :D

Week 18 - Day 50 - 09.09.10 - Thursday (B - 0.96 miles)

I felt so good after track practice last night, both my running buddy Andrea and I decided to meet at the bottom of Barnes Road hill to tackle it at 5AM this morning. I got there right at 5:00AM and no Andrea, but that’s okay we made a pact to keep going regardless who shows up so I did.

First of all it was dark but good thing there were some light posts on at this early hour that gave me some light. I would run up the hill at 65-75% of exertion and then walk down at the bottom of the hill. In the end I did 4 hill repeats total and I think I scared a poor lady waiting at the bus stop at the top of the hill.










Here is a photo of what it looks like on top of the hill of Barnes in the dark. I must be crazy?

Track Day - 09.08.10 - Wednesday (B - 5.0 Miles)

The weird thing was I missed track day, even though I dread it every week. Today was no exception and had no idea what Coach Darrell would give us since it was starting to sprinkle when I arrived to Sunset High School 30 minutes before everyone else. I decided to warm up and run the track. Once I started, I couldn’t stop and ended up running 2 miles for my warm up. During my warm up run, I noticed a stately looking gentleman walking the track with his cute Scotty dog. I’ve seen him and his dog on the track before on our Wednesday track nights and tonight for some reason I really got a good look at him. He seemed familiar to me for some reason, especially with the combination of the dog. I used to live by this sweet family at Rock Creek who had a Scotty dog named Heather. Well Heather decided to have a tryst with one of the local neighbor dogs and became pregnant with our future family dog Chelsea. Chelsea lived until I believe 2003 so that would make her about 15-17 years old. I thought well I will just call out the dad’s name to see if he reacts and boy did he. I called out Mr. Adams and he looked at me puzzled. My hunch was right and he was my former neighbor of some 22-23 years ago. I explained to him what happened to us, updates of Chelsea, parents, and brother. I found out for the first time that his name is Craig Adams and his wife’s name was Joyce. His Scotty dog today was two dogs over from the original Heather. This cute gal was named Tess. I asked about his daughters Amy and I couldn’t remember the young sister’s name. Both are doing fine, with Amy being a doctor in Las Vegas and married with two kids. Youngest daughter living in New Hampshire, married, no children. Wow time flew by and I explained what I was up to and why he saw our team practicing every other weekend. Can’t wait to waive hi again in two weeks.




Coach Darrell announced he would yell out our times after each run around the track to determine our race pace. We had to run for at least 30 minutes and keep track of our pace and how many miles we logged in. After 10 minutes, I wished I would have saved my legs for this because at the end of 30 minutes and some odd seconds my legs were tired. Note to self, don’t over do it during warm up which would have probably given me a faster pace at the home stretch. Either way, I was happy with my results….



Mile 1 00:10:07

Mile 2 00:20:05

Mile 3 00:30:06



The good thing is even when I was tired at the middle to end of Mile 3 (really mile 5) I was still getting faster during each mile. I was soaking wet by the time I left there but all was good with my race pace and total of 5 miles running in the cool rain…LIFE IS GOOD!

Week 18 - Day 49 - 09.06.10 - Monday (B - 2.69 miles)

Started to feel guilty for taking some time off running on Saturday due to enjoying my long awaited birthday present which was all day of driving $2 million worth of supercars.

So when I awoke today I figured hills it is. Being that it is Labor Day, there were hardly any traffic on the road which was nice so I parked my car at the Subway parking lot on Barnes Road. I remember this hill because almost a month ago, I remember the sheer enormity of it and most of my fellow TNT mates decided to walk it, however both my race buddy Andrea and I still ran it, slow, but we ran it!

Today was no exception. I just looked at the top of the hill and decided to tackle the hill with full force. Man did my legs AND lungs feel it but gosh it was worth it! Now for a 6 inch Subway sandwich to celebrate!

Week 17 - Day 48 - 09.01.10 - Wednesday (A - 4.68 miles)

Got a call from my running buddy Andrea reminding me that both Coach Darrell and his better half Coach Heidi has cancelled our usual hill repeats today.

This has not deterred us so we decided to meet at Duniway Park racetrack and still move forward with our run.

Glad we did, because the run felt good and got a nice surprise seeing my friend Karen run/walking up towards us.  We both then realized that even though the Westside may not have track practice the Eastside was still having theirs.  We saw the whole lot of them at Duniway track when we were cooling off.

So proud of us!