Beautiful Dog Mountain

Dog Mountain is on the Washington side of the Gorge, upriver from Stevenson. It's a steep and hard hike, with several flatter and shaded areas. And the flowers were fantastic!

Flying Pig Marathon 2009, part 2

There were so many, many people this year, that I actually started on the sidewalk. We could almost hear the national anthem, and the canon start was a big boom! Those of us on the sidewalk merged into the people flow, and it took me almost 8 minutes to cross the start line!

The marathon was fantastic! The rain held off, and got warmer, and I was noticing the humidity. I know there’s more rain in OR, and that makes humidity, but it isn’t usually that warm and wet in the air. I ran the first part into Kentucky and back to Ohio, then ran/walked 4/1s, then at mile 18, I chose to just power walk and easy running sometimes. I have another marathon scheduled for 4 weeks from Flying Pig, and I didn’t want to overdo it with the humidity, and wanted to have a fun rest-of-the-trip! The medical and course staff were very good about checking on walkers and us back-of-the-packers. We had heard several sirens out there, and each time hoped it wasn’t a runner in trouble!
I carried my camera, and got lots and lots of pics! I met the King and Queen, I met Elvis (he was a lot younger last year), I met the Carrot that led the kids’ race yesterday, I got lots of pics of neighborhoods and signs, and crossing the finish line I got a pic, too. The announcer even noticed!
I got my pic taken by as many pigs as I could fine, both on the course and after the finish line.

After the race, I met up with Tonya, and we both got cleaned up and showered, then went to Luis’ house to meet everyone for the post-race party. It was so fun to meet up with Chris again, and meet her boyfriend. And finally to meet Jenny, one of my running inspirations! And the group pic – I still need some names for some of the people!

We slept really, really well Sunday night. Monday was a zoo day – Cincinnati has a great zoo! Tuesday Tonya got me to the airport at noon – and it was time for lunch then the flight to Salt Lake City, then Portland. And Oregon welcomed me home with real rain!

Oh, yeah, my chip finish time was just over 6 hours even. I’ll take it as a training run for the next marathon!

Flying Pig Marathon 2009, part 1

This was a full, fun weekend! I flew out of Portland early Thursday morning, getting to Cincinnati late afternoon. Gerry picked me up at the airport, and drove me to his and Tonya’s house. I got to meet KiKi, the new and really little kitten!

Friday we went to the Creation Museum in Kentucky. This is a beautiful historical museum, with a huge developing botanical garden and petting zoo and planetarium. We enjoyed it (and feeding Gomer, the camel) then drove back to OH to the marathon expo to pick up our bib numbers. We went to bed early that night, for we were going to meet up with computer pals and Tonya’s nephew, running the last marathon mile with his school friends, and it was going to be an early start to the day.

We got to the meeting place before the 10K start, but no one was there! So we watched the start, then walked over to the finish. We had time before Tonya’s nephew came. Watching the 10K finishers, across the street, I thought I saw Mike. I looked again, and sure enough, I recognized his boys from pics, and we called to him. First forumite we were able to meet. Tonya got a message from Luis that they’d overslept (no one doing the 10K as it turned out) and were on their way in for the 5K.

Meantime, Tonya’s nephew came for the kids’ run, and we got pics of him getting ready. There were SO MANY school kids running – great start for future long distance runners. He was so fast, that he had finished the 1.2 miles before we got to the finish line to see him!

Next, we met more friends for the 5K. Joanne was there, I’d been so looking forward to meeting her! And Doc SusanRachel, and the surprise runner, Xanthen! SusanRachel and Xanthen were walking the 5K with Joanne – very fun, and very special! We watched their start, and started toward the finish. Tonya got a call from her sister-in-law that her keys had ended up in her nephew’s goodie bag. So Tonya went off to pick up the keys, and I did a quick up and back on both sides of the bridge to get pics of the Ohio River.

Met up with Tonya again, and we went to cheer the 5K finishers. We went to the top of the hill just before the 3 mile mark, and clapped and cheered and whooped the runners. And we saw Joanne and SusanRachel and Xanthen coming in!

Joanne was ahead of about 150 more people! We stayed and cheered the very last ones – they all did great out there! Best of all, the forecasted rain held off, and it was a beautiful day!

We went to the expo again, looking around and looking for more friends. We called Penguin MaryD, and she’d just gotten to the hotel, so we walked over to meet her. I hadn’t seen Mary since Berlin 2004! We sat and talked, and soon Carol came. Carol had just finished the ½ marathon in Indiana, and had driven straight to the hotel. And was running the ½ marathon on Sunday at Flying Pig. J She got a shower, and we all talked, waiting to hear from Bill (Billiam), Terry (Tater), and Phil. They did call, and were looking for cheap parking, and circled the hotel several times before finally choosing to split the valet parking cost and get checked in. Very fun to meet them all! We went to the expo for everyone to pick up their numbers.

That evening, we all ate from the pasta buffet at the hotel, and really enjoyed getting to know more about each other. And Tonya’s friends, Scott and Mary, joined us, too. They were walking the ½ marathon in the morning with Tonya.

We got up really, really early Sunday morning. Ohio time is 3 hours ahead of Oregon time, so waking at 4:00 in the morning there was like 2:00 in the morning for me. And the race started at 6:30 Ohio time, so 3:30 in the morning for me! We all met at the D gate of the football stadium for starting pics, then we went towards the starting area.

It as raining before the race start – not really rain, just drips. I wore the Tyvek jacket, but not for long!

Time to go to part 2...