Portland Shamrock Run

Yesterday was the Shamrock Run here in Portland. Whew! What a morning! The run was attended by 32,000 of our closest friends, with about 7,500 people running in the 15K.

Our view of the starting line

My brother, my sis-in-law, her friend Nicki & I all ran in the 15K. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that's 9.3 grueling miles... and for those of you who do run and are saying, 9.3 miles, that's really not so bad, well, let me show you the elevation map, just so you get an idea of what we encountered along the way. Heather had seen an elevation map that suggested it was entirely up then entirely down... well, as you can see from this, even once you're over the hump (literally), you still have some uphill work to do. It's not until you hit mile marker 6 that you actually are completely done with any uphill battles. As you can see from this, before it is all said and done you have climbed over 1,100 total feet (net gain of nearly 500).

It rained for the entire time we were out there, but fortunately, it wasn't a really heavy rain, just a steady gentle rain that soaked us clear through by the time we'd been out there for several hours between getting ready for the start, running the race and then hanging out for a few minutes after the race was over. Fortunately, I don't think any of us realized exactly HOW wet we were until we got home and started having to literally peel the clothes off. Heather and I even thought (not sure how we ever believed this) that our feet had stayed relatively dry... as if!!! My shoes are down in the laundry room today and they're still wet!

Thanks so much to Heather... she made the run a lot of fun for me yesterday. She ran the entire race with me, which she certainly didn't have to do, especially since my pace is much slower than her own, but it was fun to have her along with me and we tried to talk a bit as we gasped for air going up these hills. Also, Heather had plenty of time to stop and take pictures while I would plod on ahead, then she could sprint (aka fartlek!) to catch up with me. Unfortunately for me, this resulted in her getting MANY unflattering pictures of my backside. LOL!

We did some walking... especially on the uphills, but we really tried to limit out walks to one minute before starting to run again. Let me tell you, one minute goes surprisingly fast when you're battling a hill! As I was looking through other peoples' notes and blogs about this run last night, the general consensus is that this is a notoriously slow race (in other words, don't expect to set too many PR's on this run) and the other thing I've noticed is that this is a race that you either really like or really hate. Most people who have done this can't help but form strong opinions about it... most of it stemming from the hill work. By the way, in the above picture, we are getting ready to go up that large hill directly in front of us. As you near the hill, you can see people making their way up it, so you know what you're in for well ahead of time!

Heather got some great shots on our run... keep in mind we started out at river level...

 Despite the rain and the hills, I had a really good time yesterday. When you finish the 15K, they award you with a finisher's medal in the shape of a pint of Widmer Beer... which you can then go on to imbibe as part of your post-race reward as well (the actual beer, that is, NOT the medal!).

Me, loving the fact that there's only 0.3 miles left to go!

I would say that I fall into the "love" category of people who have run this race. In fact I will go on the record now to say I will readily sign up for this run again... assuming that I can talk my friends and family into doing the same.

Me crossing the finish line... I think this might be the ONLY picture Heather took of my front! LOL!

Heather, my brother & me after the run... believe me, we're wetter than we look!

Race results are not in yet, I will post my times when they become available. I think I did the 9.3 in right around 2 hours... not great, but then I wasn't out to set any land speed records either! Next year will be faster!