Race for the Animals

After a week's worth of being a counselor for students with disabilities out at Mt. Hood I was given a little reprieve from the exhaustive yet super rewarding work. I came back to Portland Friday afternoon and hung out with Erica for the afternoon and then decided to try and get some miles in (which I didn't get a whole lot of while at camp). It was kind of nice though to recover from Bighorn and I was still able to run about 25 miles throughout the week in the stunning Mt. Hood National Forest.

So Friday afternoon I did a nice hilly out and back from home up to Wildwood Trail, Council's Crest (Marquam Trail) down to Terwilliger (Duniway Track) and back for about 18 miles. With the heat wave in Portland I went through about 40 oz. of water and felt the heat take a toll on my body...especially after the long, full week.

Last week I got an email from someone telling me about a Race for the Animals that promotes vegan lifestyle and that it was taking place right down the street from where I live on Saturday morning. I decided that it might be different to go throw down a fast 10k trail race to get the legs moving and engine revving again...plus it's on the trails of Forest Park that I'm so accustomed to running. We started and finished at Lower Macleay Park and did a decently hilly 10k loop up to the Wildwood, down Wild Cherry to Leif, up the Aspen Trail, and then back down to Macleay Park.

I went out hard with a couple younger fit-looking guys from Linfield College...named Sean and Scott. After about two miles Sean started pulling away from me in second place and Scott in third. We started hitting some hills and although they weren't huge they hit you hard when running at a high intensity...especially after running 18 hilly miles the night before!

As the race went on I realized that I probably wasn't going to catch Sean but wanted to maintain second place if I could. When I finally made it down to the Aspen trail someone told me that I was in first place! uh oh...he must of got off course! Sorry dude...I know the feeling...been there...done that!

So I pushed on down the Macleay Trail toward the finish and as I was crossing the bridge maybe a quarter mile from the finish I took a look back and I see Scott kicking pretty hard to catch me. I threw in a pretty hard surge and buried him and came threw for the win in 41:23. Sean definitely would have killed it and probably would have went sub 40 minutes if he didn't make the wrong turn. I had a good time though meeting people and talking with locals and also with some people visiting town. It was a gorgeous morning and the trails were dry and fast...and the temps were starting to heat up as we finished. I was also happy to support a cause that I believe in and I think that Northwest Veg does a great job.

I took my prize gift certificate, scooped up Erica, and we headed to a local Indian Restaurant for some lunch. I'm heading out for some more miles tonight, and tomorrow morning in preparation for White River 50-miler at the end of the month....and headed back to camp at Mt. Hood in the morning for another week.

Last week definitely gave me a little taste of what it is going to be like being a parent. Not only in terms of taking constant care of a child 24 hours a day...but in having to sneak in runs when ever you can swing it!

Below are some pictures of Trillium Lake where I camped all last week and where I'll be the next week as well.

Excellent trails to run around the area and not a bad backdrop of Mt. Hood!

(Mt. Hood at dusk from Trillium Lake)

(Getting a little upper body workout and some Vitamin D!)

Here is a little introductory video of the great work they do out at Mt. Hood Kiwanis Camp.