A Fly-Filled Weekend

This was the weekend that one of my partners in crime, the Little Fruit Fly, came to visit!

She arrived on Saturday and we immediately -- well, immediately after watching a little bit of Titanic which was ironically on four separate cable channels at the same time -- heading out for the Heart Breaker expo at Foot Traffic over on Fremont.  I scored an excellent parking spot by exercising my parallel parking skills and then we hit the big tent in the parking lot.  Which was a helluva lot warmer than either of us expected it would be considering it was about 38 degrees outside.  Much warmer than the sweaters and coats we were wearing warranted.  Once we found the booth with the orange grocery bags we were much happier as we were able to stuff our jackets into them. 

We quickly got our bibs then made the rounds of the tent to check out all sorts of upcoming races.  I'm familiar with most of them -- heck, after three yeras I've run most of them -- but the Fly being from out of town was not, so she was sorely tempted to fill up her calendar with all sorts of cool races.  I've started leaning more towards the if-you-live-in-Portland-you-have-to-do-it races like Shamrock and those with decent bling.  We met up with friends Jules and Donna and began plotting.  Suffice it to say, I may be signing up for several more races soon. 

At the expo, the only one I absolutely committed to was the new Bald Peak Half Marathon in June.  The RunOregon blog announced this race just about a month ago and Jules and I immediately were interested.  So many races in Portland are all the same course and after three years, while there is some comfort in knowing a race course, there is also the yearning for something new.  Another reason why I'm excited for the upcoming Portland Rock 'n Roll as it's a completely different course from the usual Portland race.   Anyhow, there are some serious hills on the Bald Peak course but it also promises some great scenery.

And speaking of hills, the Fly was not only doing her twelfth half marathon in twelve months, she also PR'd on the very difficult course which includes the infamous Terwilliger hill.  Our friend Donna ran the 10K and got third place in her age group along with a spiffy medal.  Jules and I.....  did pretty well considering they changed the course from the original out and back flat down Naito and instead went UP Naito for the first mile and a half.  Julie was getting sick, I've still got the lingering yuck which flared up over the weekend and I've run four times since the end of October.  At least the second half was almost all downhill.

I'll let the Fly tell you all about our shopping adventures and the discovery that Portland has the biggest Dick's around.  With lots and lots of balls.  I've got to to find a cough drop.

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl