Girls Gone Wildwood

See that tiny rainbow, and where it ends? Ann & I have run the Columbia Gorge half marathon since its start in 2009. Every year there's terrible weather up til the start (and sometimes for the first few miles). But every year it clears up and we thank our lucky stars for the beauty of the course and the fun of running fast (for us) through the colorful, autumnal landscape. More rainbows and autumn color In 2011 we finally dropped under two hours, and every year since we've improved by a little bit. This year I wasn't sure if we would be any faster. Although we had been doing a speed workout once a week for months, we stopped after our race at the beginning of September and haven't been back since. And I forgot my watch to time our splits. Our friend Sally joined us-- her first-ever race! She was nervous, but when she runs with us on the trails she often pushes the pace. My dad also came out for the race (his fourth time, I think) from the east coast, w...

Susan at the top of Saltzman Susan said to me don't you think we should taper for our 50k next week? I think I said something like sure we can run 24 miles instead of 26 miles. After running 50 miles 3 different times this year I really wasn't worried about tapering for a 50k. I also knew in the weeks after the 50k I would be traveling a lot for work and would miss several weekends of long runs, so I wanted to get in runs when I could.    We have been reusing routes in our blogs in the previous weeks and when I looked up 24 mile routes, I was uninspired. So I came up with a new route, besides running down Firelane 4 and getting soaked by all the plants covering the trail, I really enjoyed the variety of the route. I am not sure Susan enjoyed running 3 miles up Saltzman, but I secretly enjoyed making her do it.  Route:  birch - ww : .22 ww - chestnut (7.5 - 12.33) : 4.83  chestnut - leif : .49 leif - maple : .79 maple - fl4 : ....

Downtown view from Pittock Mansion Looking for 22 miles, we followed this route  from the summer. Last time we did Firelane 4, it was massively overgrown. This time it was a little bit more groomed, but the overhanging leaves and greenery were heavy with rain and dew, so we still got drenched (again). This is a great route for some climbing and descending. I'm sure we'll revisit it soon. Fungus swirl Good ol' FL4