19th
31 Mile Stroll in the Park
I always want to run the entire length of Forest. Forest Park, in all it’s beauty. sits above the city and menaces me. I think Forest Park is the crown jewel of Portland. So, today was our run across Forest Park. I believe this is probably my 10th or 11th time doing this. But it had been 4 years since the last time I did it.
We had planned to start at 930 this morning but we ended up starting at 9:10. Such genius of planning. This was my first time running with Lisa and TJ. You get to know a lot about people when you are in the woods running. There is plenty of time to talk and these two were such great company. One story was told about a friend who who had jumped into crusty snow escaping a house fire and you know what the story never concluded. (Kind of like the joke in The Breakfast club where the guy falls through the ceiling and never finishes the joke.)
Well back to running as I really enjoyed the New-Berry to Germantown part of the trail. It is usually my least favourite part, however the hills didn’t seem as big as before. The trail was also great out there. It was all wet dirt with very little rocks. I run in Vibrams and rocks on trail would later be my Achilles heel.
My wife packed Coconut water for me which worked quite well. I munched on Trader Joe’s peanut butter Pretzels and one of my favourites Black Licorice. The other two were huge fans of Red Fish, Cliff Shots and water. We cruised through the halfway mark with relative ease. I always like the fir trees up on Saltzman rd.
I ran into trouble at about 24 miles when my feet started to get bruised from every single rock. My only other downer was having to go to the bathroom mid run. Sorry for the bad play on word as that is always a crap shoot for me. Little But Buddy (his hash name) seemed to have no problems at all and Lisa has problems with her knee. I hope it is not a problem with the Iliotibial band.
She finished about fifteen minutes after us and Little Butt Buddy (LBB) went looking for her on trail. Of course she lost trail and was back at the car soon after he set out to find her. Of course, he lost all phone service and we could not notify him that she was back. An anxious half hour ensued and LBB was soon back in car safe and warm.
It took us seven hours to run the trail today. That is slow for me but so what. It was a great day to be in nature and run the Wild-wood trail. Special thanks to my lovely wife for helping with the shuffling of cars and sending us words of encouragement on trail.
My son said I would come home from the run and curl up in a ball on the sofa. I never do that as I am usually energized by a long run. But Max was right as fell asleep as my wife was making supper.
It felt good.
