A Good Weekend Coming

I find myself doing a lot of laps around back Cove this spring. I've really developed a strong dislike of roads lately. For quite a while I have preferred to run on trails but always accepted that road running was a necessary part of getting in decent weekly mileage when I don't have time to get to trails during the week. But lately I can't seem to bring myself to interact with the traffic of Portland in the evenings so I find myself doing most of my runs around Back Cove.

Wednesday I ran from my office after work to meet Mindy for 2 laps. I think it's time for her to hit PLAY.

time: 1:10:14
distance: 8.64 miles
pace: 8:08

Thursday I didn't feel like I had a lot of time or energy so I did a short/quick loop right after work.

time: 27:55
distance: 3.86
pace: 7:13

I probably should have done some kind of warm up and cool down since I came away from that one with shin splints. Not a good idea to go straight from 9 hours of sitting at a desk to fairly fast running with nothing in between.

Both runs were in shorts and t-shirt, but I was surprised to see so many people overdressed going around BC. Lots of tights and jackets and mittens and things. On the shoe front I've been getting a lot of use out of my Brooks Cascadias lately, I think they make a great road shoe, which is what I would typically wear on the Back Cove. I just hope they have enough life left in them to get me through the Boston Marathon in comfort.

About 5 months ago I learned that a friend, John O'Connor was planning to run the Boston Marathon 4 consecutive times in under 24 hours. John has a history of running double Bostons a few times in recent years and when I heard about his plans to do 4 I decided to help him in any way that I could. So Emma and I are heading down to Boston this weekend with fellow Trail Monster Carter to run with and support John on his epic adventure. In addition to testing his own physical limitations John hopes to inspire others to redefine theirs, and he is also doing this to raise funds and awareness for the Wounded Warrior Project, a charity that supports wounded veterans. John hopes to raise at least $5000 for the WWP and he is very close to reaching this goal. Check out his DONATION SITE.

But before I get to stay up all night running on the roads I get to run through Blackstrap Heaven - the Other Side of Hell. Recently a few fellow Trail Monsters suggested that it would be fun to do a spring version of Jeff's Blackstrap Hell run. So with a moment's notice Jeff put together what I'm sure will be another incredibly fun and incredibly challenging course on Blackstrap Hill. The trails are likely to be a lot drier now than they were in the fall for the Hell run, but hopefully we'll get a little rain over night to make things a little more fun!