portland run

Last week I decided to burn some vacation time and went to Portland Oregon with a couple of friends. Running in different cities is one of my favorite things to do, and even though I was completely stiff from a four-hour plane trip and a night on a semi-deflated air mattress, I was excited to go out for a quick jaunt on new turf. We were staying in the Pearl District, which is only a few minutes from a nice path that runs along the river.

Portland is surrounded by mountains but running downtown was comparable to running in Chicago or Columbus - very, very flat. We did a couple of bridges but even those weren't too steep. The path is practically IN the river and there were tons of people out running and walking, wearing just about everything Nike manufactures (Nike headquarters is in nearby Beaverton).

Lots of cyclists were on the path too and they were so NICE. I couldn't believe it. My girlfriends and I were running two deep (sometimes three), which made us hard to get around in some spots and no one yelled at us. No one even said "on your left", they just waited patiently for us to move. I guess having good scenery and readily available microbrews makes people happier? In Cincinnati, you'd get growled at for taking up so much space (it is kind of rude I guess).

In semi-unrelated news, I think I'm going to do the Pig. I was talking with one of my runner friends who lives in Portland (and is also a global design director for Nike) and he pointed out that even though I may not get as good of a finish time in the Pig, the hills will help me build up for a faster Fall race. Plus I have a bunch of friends doing the Pig, including my NYC friend. Yay! Official training starts in January...