Race for the Roses Pre-Race Update

Race for the Roses looms around the corner, this Sunday in fact! This half marathon covers a solid chunk of beautiful downtown Portland, its waterfront, and two bridges along the way. And 91 cents of every dollar from each participant's entry fee goes directly to the Albertina Kerr Center, an organization dedicated to helping adults with developmental disabilities, among other things. The race holds special significance for me, as it was the first half that I ran with more than just an intention of finishing. That was three years ago now, and I'm excited to know that I'm coming back as a much better and wiser runner than I was then. My lovely girlfriend Tara is making the trip from Spokane to run the half as well! Though not new at all to distance running, it will be Tara's first official half. I have run quite a bit with her, everything from short and easy to long as fast, and she is in great form (though she will drop dead before admitting to such). She'll definitely be surprising herself quite a bit with this race; let's just say my time from 2008's race will be in jeopardy, and I would love to see it go down. My good friends Joe and Laura will also be running. Laura ran her first ever half last year at this very same race, which I had the pleasure of watching. With more miles and experience this year, she'll no doubt improve on last year's showing. Joe has recently picked up the training; after running with him a week ago, it's clear that his time from last year will be shattered on Sunday. Much thanks to Joe, as I might not ever have wandered into the realm of distance running if it weren't for him. Good luck to all, happy running! Danny

Rocky Butte Trail "System"

Thought I'd throw this up here as a resource. I haven't really run across the info anywhere else on the web.

The three trails that I know of are as follows:

1)The Westside trail, which takes off from the uphill end of the tunnel on Rocky Butte Rd. Basically as soon as you get out of the tunnel, you hop the guardrail on the right shoulder, a few barely runnable switchbacks and about 1/4 mile later, youre at the bottom of the retaining wall for the loop road at the top. You can go about 200' to the left and up the rail-road tie stairs, or about 10' to the right and up a short but steep slope. From my house via this route its almost dead-on a mile to the top(with a 400' elevation gain), and I've never managed to break under 8 minutes on it. Its brutal.

2)The Eastside trail, through the state park. This one is a little tricky to find because there are a bunch of little paths out to the top of several rock climbing walls...do not sprint down a random path your first (or tenth) time there. The runnable trail is the one furthest to the south. Coming down from the top of the butte there'll be a guardrail on your right, as you get close to the dome buildings at City Bible College and the guardrail stops, hang a 180 to your right (or like a 170 if you want to get all technical about it). The trail heads southward down the slope, then cuts towards the north at the bottom and spits you out on the road just east of the Grotto. For the adventurous there are a few scramble-able routes from the bottom of the cliff back up. Yes, a couple people have died falling of the cliffs recently, yes, there is occasionally an abundance of garbage and bums wandering about, BUT...its one of the more random little trails you'll ever find, and I quite like it.

3)The Northside trail, from the top loop down to the Bible College. This one is damn hard to find...I still have trouble finding it from the top, but its generally in the NW corner of the loop road, looks the most like an established trail vs. the other various little goat trails in that vicinity, and does a couple zigs and zags before meandering down through lush foliage, and a little meadow that I just may be imagining, down to its base near the beach volleyball court at the Bible College. The whole College property is allegedly private property, so I'd peer around for security guards before running out of the forest onto the nice lawn looking all muddy and crazy, you might get tazed. But probably not.

If anyone knows of any other routes on the Butte, I would be super excited to hear about them!

Congratulations/New Adventures

Well, we've been in blogging hibernation for a few months now, but are slowly making our way back. The cold winter months definitely hampered the running, and our competition slowly tapered out. During that time, however, at least one glorious thing happened--new life entered the world! A congratulations to Joe and Brie on the birth of their daughter, Elizabeth (Ellie). I had the pleasure of meeting and holding the little one just over a week ago, and have since decided that she might be the cutest thing that the world has ever seen. Ellie is just over 2 months old now, weighs in around a whopping 10 pounds, and has some of the best facial expressions I've ever seen from a baby. So again, congrats to Joe and Brie; we are very happy for you!

As for the blog, small changes and tweaks are in the works...soon to come will be an update on the Wildwood Trail Ultra that Joe and I did this past New Year's Eve, and a report from the Race for the Roses Half Marathon in PDX on April 11. We look forward to getting back into the swing of things. Enjoy!

Salud,
DB

Beermileage Weekly Round-up

So this past week I got out to another strong start with my mileage, 32 miles in the first 4 days...which was followed, not atypically, by 4 miles over the final 3 days. This is definitely something I need to work on...

Anyhow, here are the numbers:

1st Place: Brian - 27 Miles - 15 Beers = 12 pts

2nd Place: Danny - 24 Miles - 13 Beers = 11 pts

3rd Place: Joe - 36 Miles - 29!! Beers = 7 pts

Lofty Goals on Frozen Ground

Frigid weather has definitely hit the West Coast hard already with DC beginning to feel the chill as well. Both Portland and Spokane have been ice cold this past week and i'm sure that it has put a damper on the running communities there. Joe, however, seems to continue to laugh in the face of nature as he has climbs towards a new beermileage record. This time, its in miles!

Before we go and hand Joe the trophy, let's look back to last week's competition. Going into the weekend Danny was the mileage and points leader with Joe and myself close behind in miles. Joe had taken a quick lead on the beers consumed, but keep in mind that he had the Ducks to thank for that mid-week total. We ran the final tally on Monday to find major changes by Joe and decent progress by me.

Joe: 17 miles - 31 beers = -14 pts.

Danny: 21.5 miles - 11 beers = 10.5 pts.

Brian: 26.5 miles - 17 beers = 9.5 pts.

If we were playing golf, Joe would have embarrassed us. We, however, are not. Though the ducks weren't playing, Joe was still celebrating. My assumption that Danny was going to practically double his mileage most likely jinxed him, yet it did not help me in the end.

Congrats to Danny for the victory!

As for this week, danny had finals early on so his start is understandably slower than normal. I've tried to get out a steady number of runs and was feeling confident against my competition. That is of course until i realized the show that Joe was putting on for us to watch. As i mentioned above, Joe is approaching new realms of mileage per week for the beermileage crew. I won't jinx him here, but his goal is lofty, yet far from unattainable by him. Considering that he is doing this in frozen temperatures, i'm really looking forward to his final total Monday morning.

The current totals are:

Joe: 32 miles - 17 beers = 15 pts.

Danny: 7 miles - 6 beers = 1 pt.

Brian: 20 miles - 6 beers = 14 pts.

A lot of potential with these current numbers. We'll see who can grit their teeth through the cold and knock out some more miles. One mentality that we all share is that the best part of running during winter is that nothing warms you up after a run like a few beers.

Pre-Weekend Tally

The beermileage challenge resumed this week after taking some time off for the extended Thanksgiving weekend. Nothing too crazy with the numbers so far (for example Joe hasn't put us to shame with a 30+ mile showing like he did a couple weeks ago), which makes me think that this weekend will be fairly competitive.

Danny: 18 miles - 1 beer = 17 pts

Joe: 17 miles - 17 beers = 0 pts

Brian: 14.5 miles - 4 beers = 10.5 pts

In terms of mileage, its looking really close. As for beers, Danny and i need to find a reason to drink, hopefully in celebration, and then keep throwing on more miles. Joe has already had his celebratory beers after the big Ducks win last night so i wouldn't be surprised if he catches up in points pretty quickly.

Winter is definitely starting to kick in as we watch the temperatures drop and the hours of daylight continue to vanish. My hope is that this isn't a deterrent for us as we take advantage of some more adventurous and obstacle-laden trails. i found out firsthand last night that when the moon is out and the temps are above freezing there is no better time for a night run with the headlamp turned off. Hopefully, that wasn't my last of opportunity to do that this season, because it would be a great way to sneak in some extra miles Sunday night.

Recap of Last Week's Challenge

I should have known better than to go running my mouth like I had last weeks challenge sewed up on thursday. Over the last 3 days of the week I logged a grand total of 6.5 miles as fatigue from work and running slowed me down and the overwhelming desire to watch college football and drink beer put a stick in my spokes and launched my ass onto the couch. Anyhow, here are the numbers..

Danny: 35 Miles - 10 Beers = 25 pts *New Challenge Record*

Joe: 39 Miles - 23 Beers = 16 pts

Brian: 12 Miles (bum knee) - 10 Beers = 2 pts

-Joe