Bridge to Brews

26.2 miles is a daunting distance for someone who hasn’t run over 6. There are heaps of training resources (see links) and groups that assist with training the body to endure the impact that a marathon entails, but I am hesitant to join the most popular Portland Fit group simply because they run early on Saturday mornings. I am not a morning runner. Not at all. Don’t

PDX from the sky

get me wrong, once I get going I really do appreciate the quieter streets, watching the sun rise, feeling the morning heat up and having the bulk of my exercise for the day behind me so early… but it is SO hard for me to get out bed in the morning.

Fist race during marathon training

I mean trying to give up smoking kinda hard (for smokers). I also enjoy running in the evenings – seeing the sun turn to a bright orange behind the hills, the scents of the flowers, the cooler air slowly creeping in… anyway, I’m getting off the point. The point being is that I want to test myself to see if I’m able to train myself to do a marathon – of course with some guidance from books, online resources and friends.  

I started running to the Nike Marathon training schedule; however, this week has thrown some of the distances off for me and I feel as thought I haven’t started properly. I did, however, accumulate around 17 miles last week and started this week with an 8k race called Bridge to Brews. I don’t know my time yet – but I felt good throughout the entire race. I started closer to the start in the chute and was able to keep ahead of the main field the entire way. The start of the course had a few little hills but the actual bridge was a small incline and easily run (not to mention the beautiful views). The B2B race is unique in that it’s the only PDX race that you can run over the Fremont bridge, a multi-level / lane highway that connect NE to NW neighborhoods. Coming down off the bridge was easy and I loved running past all those cars that were probably like, “what the fuck?”. After coming off the bridge, it was around a couple of blocks in PDX before heading up Broadway bridge. At some point, the 8k and the 10k merged and I started passing more and more people. The last leg included one sneaky little hill right before turning into

Running the Fremont Bridge

a downhill finish. The entire time I was running some older guy who looked like Mr. Miyagi from the Karate kid. You don’t get much more inspiration than that! Finial time yet to be posted. 

At this point, running 2 miles to me is kinda pointless – that’s just when I start getting warmed up and into my run… so I might extend that to 3 -3.5. Eight miles will be my first 8-miler and I think I need to plan out a route to ensure I cover the entire distance.