Portland in a nutshell

Let me start by saying, wahoo, it's all over finally!!! We will get to the run later but here is a quick rundown of our timeline for our 48 hour trip to the PACNORTHWEST! We managed to get the kids and the dog dropped off at my mom's house and get to the airport on time, it's so much easier to travel without toddlers! We took some lunch on the plane and enjoyed a 4 hour plane ride with a couple of kids screaming, but hey at least they weren't ours! I barely even heard them, I am immune to kid noise I think. Me and Stan caught up on our reading, I finished 320 pages in my vampire book (thank you Shayla!) between the two legs. We got to Portland, checked out the race expo to scout out the competetion and pick up my packet. By this time my nerves were completely getting the best of me I think. We even stopped to take a random pic in the cool weather, notice the long sleeves and jackets: Well what trip to Portland would be complete without spending most of it in bars watching football games? Well we started with the Texas vs Colorado game. Here we are rooting for the Horns!

Here's the best pic we could do, my dad has chronic can't keep his eyes open issues with the camera flashes:Then we went to have a pasta carb up dinner before heading in for the night. We stopped at a great little place and had really good food. During the dinner, it was hilarious to watch my dad, sis, and Sandra with their Iphones/Blackberry's watching the rest of the Texas game "live" at the table! Oh and did I mention my dad using his GPS while we walked the streets of Portland, who needs a map or directions anymore? After dinner, me and Stan stopped in Pioneer Square for a quick random picture:


Well after a horrible night sleep, I woke up to head out for the big event. Here are some pics from before the marathon:

After fighting through the crowds I finally got lined up behind the 5:30 group. I had no idea how long this marathon would actually take me. After my wave started I realized this was going to be a long run. I remember passing mile 1 and thinking, wow, there are still 25.2 to go, I'm in trouble. Here's a pic they got of me about mile 2, I'm waving and still looking like this is manageable:

Shortly after that picture, a friends of mine from Dallas ran up behind me and we ran together through mile 9! What are the chances we would run into each other? We trained together with Luke's but this was the first time we ran together. She was pacing for a 5 hour marathon, a bit to fast for me but I hung as long as I could. We ran with the 5 hour pace lizard until I had to take my first of 6 potty breaks (once you go once, you feel like you keep needing to go!). I took zero on the Maui marathon, so I think 12 minutes at least got wasted here. I ran into the family at the start, mile 2, mile 5, mile 12, mile 20, and then at the end. Thanks for the support guys! When I saw them at mile 20, my sis ran the rest in with me. She talks alot and makes me run more than I want, so she was good to have to get me through the end. I would say I didn't hit my "wall" until mile 22 and then it got hard. Did I mention that it rained the ENTIRE marathon? Well it started about mile 5 and didn't let up the rest of the race. I was even cold at points because I was so wet. Here is a pic after my sister left me to go with the rest of the family, about mile 26.1 or so:

Here are the after pics, I look much happier in these pics. After you cross the finish line (5 hours, 43 minutes, 08 seconds), they handed me my medal, my heat blanket, a tree seedling, a pin, a rose, my finisher tshirt, my food, and best of all this orange ice cream bar. It was a dream.
So that was that. Six months of training for less than 6 hours of running fun!! After the race, I went back to the room and showered and then we headed off to watch the Cowboy game! We had some lunch at the bar and then I headed back to the room for some relaxation time. I hung out in the room with Stan watching horrible TV and realizing that my muscles had already stiffened up so much I could barely move or get comfortable. We went out for a nice seafood dinner that night and then pretty much went straight to bed. The next day we didn't get to do too much but I was able to go have lunch with one of my best friends from high school, Mandy. She lives in Portland now and we were never able to get together when I was living in Seattle. So we went out for lunch before we got back on the plane and headed home:
Now the trip is all done, and for now there are no more marathons in my sights. Maybe a couple of years from now, but for now I am happy with half marathons instead!