3 day weekend - 2 runs

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Saturday Run:
Susan and I had a 20 mile run planned, which somehow turned into almost 22 miles.  She changed the route at the trailhead, deciding that she wanted to go down Saltzman and up Firelane 5, which is shorter but added extra milage. I was fine with that especially since we are training for an 85k in less than 2 months. 


The first 8+ miles were on Wildwood and flew by, then we turned down Waterline, which should be called Mudline. Once we reached Leif Erickson I notice a fire hydrant I had never seen before, I was really curious if it actually worked or not.

 We had 6.5 miles on Leif that I was really not looking forward to, for whatever reason I have a mental block on running more that 2-3 miles on Leif. Luckily just around the time I started thinking, "when the fuck are we going to get off this trail", a guy runs by us and asked us what we are training for. We told him we are training for the Tarawera 85k in New Zealand. We asked him what he was training for, and he said the Gorge Waterfalls 50k. We told him we ran it last year and loved it. This led to him running with us for for the last few miles on Leif and talking about Ultras and running in general. The conversation was so refreshing I forgot about last few daunting miles on Leif. It is funny how certain people turn up just at the right moments, thanks, Dr. Michael! 

 This is a good reminder for the Orcas Island 50k, which I will be running solo in a few weeks. I am very good about keeping to myself, but I need to chat with other runners to help get myself through that run (mentally). 
mystery fire hydrant

random mile marker on Leif

The original route: 
Firelane 5 to WW (16.69)-- .87 mi
WW (16.69) to Waterline (ww 24.00)-- 7.31mi (8.18 total)
Waterline (ww 24.00) to Leif (10.17)-- .35mi (8.53 total)
Leif (10.17) to FL2 (3.71)-- 6.46mi mi (14.99 total)
FL2 to WW (12.74)-- .46mi (15.45 total) 
WW (12.74) to Saltzman (ww 16.01)-- 3.27mi (18.72 total)
Saltzman (ww 16.01) to car-- 1.12mi (19.84 total)

Monday Run:

I had John drop me off at the Saltzman trailhead, I headed down Trillium to Wildwood to Birch and home, which was ~12.5 miles. It hasn't rained much this winter, which might be an issue this summer, but right now I am enjoying the sunny winter days. The days can be a little chilly but I warm up pretty quickly. I was able to catch-up on some podcast, think about running the Orcas Island 50k and get some vitamin D! A perfect 2 hour run. 

shadow selfie 

SUN!


Location: Portland, OR, USA

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