This week the running got pushed to the back burner a little bit while I was at that conference in Oregon (which, by the way, was fantastic). Unfortunately, the only time I could really find to run was early in the morning, and since I had to catch a 7:10 bus to get to get to the conference on time, that meant waking up at 5:00 on mornings I decided to run so I could get the exercise in, shower, eat breakfast, and still make it on time. You might not be surprised to hear, then, that I'm very excited about catching up on sleep this week!
Still, running turns out to be a great way to get to see and familiarize yourself with a new city, and Portland sure is a pretty one. I think I had just about perfect weather all week -- 50 to 60 and sunny just about every day -- and Spring was just coming around so the cherry blossom trees were just starting to bloom.
And, as I said above, the conference itself was pretty excellent. It was a bit of a mental drain to sit through these rapid-fire 12 to 36 minute talks all day (8:00 - 5:45, with an hour break for lunch), but most of the talks were really quite interesting and at least a few of them gave me some ideas for references to look up now that I'm back in Illinois.
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Monday: Today's cross-training was (drum roll...) walking back from the convention center (about 2 miles) while carrying an overstuffed laptop bag. Not too impressive, I know.
Tuesday: 5 pre-dawn miles along the East and West banks of the downtown section of the Willamette river.
Wednesday: Another 5 pre-dawn miles, this time with more homeless people along the route.
Thursday: Yet another 5 pre-dawn miles... fewer homeless people, more early-morning bicycle commuters.
And Friday, of course, was my day off...
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So, a short comment here (since I really need to get back to work), but the Pacific Northwest is a beautiful, beautiful area. Or at least the small sliver that I saw, anyway. Also, call me crazy, but as I was flying over it, Montana sure made a convincing case as a place to visit and hike around in. Never thought I would have said that...
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Saturday: A beautiful ~5 mile hike in the Columbia River Gorge, and then a 6 mile run along the river downtown (a definite improvement from running the route before it was light out!)
Sunday: I woke up too sore from hiking to do a morning run before my flight (worth it, though -- I definitely miss having mountains around!), so an extra day off today
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One-word trip summary: Awesome
Current estimate of my odds of completing a marathon on May 1st: 90% At this point I think I'm just mechanically inching that number higher each week, without really thinking about it
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