Innagural Rock and Roll Portland

I Don't know if I have ever signed up for a run so far in advance but when Melanie saw that Rock and Roll series was coming to Portland we bought our spots (yes a year in advance.) We had heard all the rave about the rock and roll's and how fun they are. To say the least we decided this was our chance to go have some fun. This is also a good preview for my upcoming Marathon in 2 weeks.

We arrived early enough to drive the course and check out how many hills and what lied ahead for us. There were some tough spot-I mean yucky. In fact it looked as if the drawn out hills would never end. I was a tad bit scared and not sure if I should have drove the course prior. It was nice knowing that,  yes a 400 foot incline was on its way and the only thing I could do to prepare now was to just not die.
           Melanie and I then headed to the "big" expo where you could do so many fun entertaining things. We won shirts, got our fortune, did a free gait analysis, played a little ski bowl and tried to win some free shoes-which we were not successful at. However we did find some nice Elvis get ups and we were able to let out our inner rocker child.

After spending lots of time and lots of money it was time to go find our hotel and meet up with Alexis. Luckily as we were getting our items out to prep for the run I discovered I had left my running socks in the dryer at home-we had time to find more, phew. Lex, Melanie and I stuffed our faces with chicken burgers (sad thing is mel and I like to eat it the exact same-nice and fattening, lex was smart to hold off on the ranch). The chicken burgers were loaded up with extra pickles and some dipping ranch and we tore into those babies. Sadly I walked away wishing I had never heard of Red Robin. Oh I didn't feel so good, terrible pit in the belly.

After taking some natural sleep aides we parted from Lex early and headed to bed hoping to get a good night sleep. Well we did get a good night sleep but we still had to get up at 5:30 for the run. It was a bright and early wake up and if you can tell by these photos we were still trying to open our eyes and rise and shine. It was going to take us 15 minutes to get to the max and then another 20 minutes or so from there to the race. We did get to the start line with plenty of time however, and we put those good ol' porta potties to use 2x.

While we chilled out for an hour trying to stretch and get ourselves mentally prepared. We watched 11,000 people come join in with us and I lost my ear buds while taking a photo. The major bummer part was that it meant no music for me the entire run. I thought I might be ok without it since I do many long runs with no music. I was hoping to maybe play some of my music out loud but there were too many people and I didn't want to bother them with some of my weird music.

Melanie and I started in corral 4 and went at a mighty good pace. I knew that I couldn't keep a great pace for long and Melanie could so I told her to go on her way and PR. Mentally I felt sluggish but mainly I have to make myself not hurt for the upcoming race. I could only give so much. Hills are not my specialty but I made sure to push through them and make it to the top. After mile 6 I decided that at every water stop I would walk it and grab a drink and breather. It was a great help to me especially being able to re cooperate after those yucky hills.

 (OH MY GOODNESS MELANIE WE ARE WEARING THE SAME CLOTHES!!!!! J/K We actually planned the tank tops this time and I brought my black skirt and Melanie bought a black skirt-funny thing was it was the exact same one. What can we say we have good taste.)

 I saw Melanie up ahead a couple of times and then she was gone like the wind. I am so proud of her, she gets in this competitive mode with complete strangers and goes for it. I on the other hand am so busy watching the complete strangers that I just get a little air heady. I have to say I only had one hill where my knee hurt but other than that I did great and I had no other aches. I do admit that I had many thoughts of, " I am never signing up for a competitive run again, I am not doing my marathon in 2 weeks, I hate running, I don't know why I thought this was a good idea, I want to stop, do you think that the medical tent people might bring me to the start so I can at least get my medal?, how much farther is this da-----race. etc---" Yes I know the negative nancy snuck up on me and I sucked it in. However I did finish, I did make it under 2hours but still it was not the greatest of times for me. Instead of getting better with time I get worse. I will say that I ran fast the last mile, too bad it doesn't make up for all the rest.

 Melanie and I met up with each other at the finish line to enjoy in the completion of the race. It was so great to finish and see tons of people already done and plenty more finishing.

 I decided that since my knee was aching to go ahead and ice it right away so that maybe it would heal better. I was sweaty but it did rain the entire time too. Did I mention that it was the absolute PERFECT WEATHER. I really couldn't complain one little bit about the weather because I do love to run in the rain and I love to feel a gentle breeze while I run in 64 degree weather.

I was grateful for these little shells-finishers wraps, plastic bags? It seems that even though these things are thin they still keep you nice and warm (as long as you don't touch anyone.) The rains continued to come so we gathered all our free food and then watched some of the runners come in. We never get to just hang out after runs so it was awesome to see so many people giving it their all in this 1/2 marathon. We checked out some of the music, and believe it or not found my ear buds at the lost and found- yeah I know ridiculous that there are still amazingly honest people out there. Now my husband wont kill me. Kara Goucher won the entire race-go figure. I was right on her heels but ya know once a winner always a winner. (ha)

 

After our wonderful run Melanie and I soaked in a hot tub, relaxed in a shower, walked around aimlessly in stores and patted ourselves on the back. We did a great job and one more run down.  We are feeling mighty fine about the day and happy to have completed this rock and roll run.