Run Like Hell / Portland

this past weekend we headed down to portland, oregon. andrea found a half marathon [13.1 miles] that sounded like fun. every year portland puts on the 'run like hell halloween marathon.' costumes were encouraged, though seldom were seen. as andrea ran, brooke rode his bike around this beautiful city to cheer on the runner in the family. once again, andrea conquered the pavement and finished ahead of her 2:30:00 goal by finishing in 2:11:54. CONGRATULATIONS wonderful wife!

leaves on the ground, crisp air, good running weather.

sporting the marathon bling!

look at the smile. still upbeat after 13 miles!


run like hell scott ryan...run like hell.

we spent the day before the marathon checking out the city. portland is a nice town with colorful flavor. we could have spent longer after our recent finds!

while in pioneer square, we rounded the corner to find people hanging
out of this building and yelling. hip-hop was blaring which could
mean only one thing... i snowboarding contest in downtown portland!
brooke searched the crowd vigorously for mike weyer; sensing that he
would be present at a downtown snowboarding competition. mike,
were you there?

this is what downtown portland and snowboarding have in common.
there was a little ski shop that threw up some jumps and covered them
with snow behind their building. very entertaining....very portland.

we even saw some "Benson Bubblers." installed during the logging-era by
timber king Simon Benson to keep loggers away from the 'evils of whiskey.'

brooke found two new friends.

and another friend who likes salmon almost as much!

she said she wanted a family of river otters.

three of a kind. [still sporting the marathon bling.]

after we got cleaned up from running and biking, we headed over to
the 'hawthorne district' to meet up with brooke's friend josh who has also
recently relocated to the northwest to intern for portland fellowship. brooke
and josh went to college together and were both involved in campus crusade.
it was great getting reacquainted over brunch at 'jam on hawthorne.' we
hope to be seeing a lot more of josh in the days to come...what a quality dude!

a great end to a great weekend!

if the shoe fits...run 900 miles in it.

i'm not going to lie. last october i went to my nearest DSW and bought this pair of asics GT-2110's because 1) they looked cool. 2) they fit my foot. and 3) they were in the right price range. i had no intentions of ever running any sort of race in them, let alone a marathon. i simply wanted a good pair of shoes that i 'might' do some running in.

a month later i signed up to run the full flying pig marathon and began my training end of november.

as some of you may or may not know, picking up a pair of running shoes because they look 'cool' is a terrible idea. i heard horror story after horror story of injured runners, leading back to a bad pair of shoes. i sank low in my seat when they told us that at team in training...promising myself that if i felt any pain that might be from my shoe, i will throw them away and get fitted for a real pair of shoes.

just for the record:
from a rough calculation, i have logged about 900 long, trying, sweaty miles onto this pair of asics. and oh....they have been so good to me the past 900 miles. they have seen plenty of sunshine, rain, mud, sleet, snow, ice, mud, gravel, and more rain, and more mud!!

after running a daunting 6 miles on tuesday, i told brooke i'm not going to run another mile until i get a new pair of shoes. so today i went to my local running store to finally get fitted for a pair of running shoes. the guy examined my shoe's wear patterns, watched me walk/run and brought out the newer version of the same shoe i picked up at DSW last year!! it's the Asics GT-2120's. he said it's the perfect fit for my type of foot. wow. what are the odds.

i took my new kicks out for a light 3 mile run today along the cedar river trail. it's a spot that brooke and i regularly frequent throughout the week....me on my run, and us on our bikes. it's a beautiful trail, where, if taken north for a mile, dead ends into lake washington (pictures to come) and if taken southeast, will run you out along the cedar river, through the ferns and moss of the rainforest. it's a beautiful trail, the perfect place to run.

i showed brooke my new shoes when he got home from work. he said, 'cool! they're very....blue. soon, they'll be very....gray.'
what can i say, i like to run in the mud.

well, now that i have my new shoes, maybe i'll have to check out the 'run like hell' half-marathon in portland this october.



doctor's warning:
if you're going to do any sort of serious training on a shoe...get it professionally fitted. it's free, and for you cincinnatians, i would highly suggest Fleet Feet Sports in blue ash. for any of our new seattlite friends who might be reading, i had a great experience at The Foot Zone in Issaquah.