portland marathon … finished!

October 5th, 2008Tags: , , ,
| crazy, family, friends, fun, good stuff, marathon, running | chris | 2 comments


today i finished my first marathon. it was a blast to run with a few thousand people all around this beautiful city of portland, get cheered on by many of my friends and even my parents, and have the energy to cross the finish line.

the start was slow as all the athletes made their way through the starting line. after about mile two the pace picked up significantly and i started to get into a pace. down below you will find my splits and my pace throughout the race. i’m most proud that i finished under 4 hours but the fact that i kept a negative split through the entire race, meaning i continually went faster and faster, makes it even better.


the race itself was awesome, but it wouldn’t have been the same(and i probably wouldn’t have finished) if i didn’t have all the support i had on the course. deeann and my parents were spread out along the course, my good friends gabriel and jaclyn were there(and gabe even ran with me for a good 4 or 5 miles), and my housemates justin, brooke, lindsay, and ian all came out and cheered me on. it was awesome to have them out there! thanks guys!

check out pictures. more will be coming soon.

going for a run

June 3rd, 2008Tags: , ,
| crazy, fun, marathon, portland, running | chris | 1 comment


after moving out here to portland leaving my racing bike back in iowa, i knew i wouldn’t be able to do any triathlons. since moving i’ve had an itch to get back in a road race. tonight i registered for the portland marathon.

. . . stay tuned.

rose garden run

February 5th, 2008Tags: ,
| portland, running, running routes | chris | 1 comment

knowing from the traffic in and out of this site, approximately .6 of you a week show interest in my progress as i run around the streets and trails of portland. so i thought i’d show the .6 of you where these runs are and how they are coming along.

so this run is the rose garden run. it is approximately 7.1 miles round trip and so far my favorite route. this run gains around 150 feet within the first mile-and-a-half and another 300 feet by the half way point. it is a fairly challenging run but the views keep me distracted.

starting at home and crossing interstate 405, i make my way towards the west hills via sw vista ave which has a beautiful long bridge to cross with views of the city, and when its clear, mt. st. helens and mt. hood. then i make my way up through the curving streets by the rose garden and later the hoyt arboretum. these roads are gorgeous as they are surrounded by towering trees, not to mention that they have a small amount of traffic and what traffic they do have is kept at 10-20 mph. the views of the city, mountains, trees, west hills, and soon-to-be-blooming rose garden, are what make this run my favorite so far.




west hills

October 26th, 2007Tags: , , , ,
| autumn, beauty, portland, running | chris | 0 comments

this graph doesn’t even begin to tell you how beautiful my run this morning was. i ran through a portion of the west hills of portland. it was gorgeous. the morning sun pierced through the turning leaves.

monday. the start of the flow.

October 22nd, 2007Tags: , , ,
| beauty, bike, portland, running | chris | 0 comments

what a day.

this morning i woke up with deeann who had to get up at 3:50am to get ready for her first day of work. the morning was very peaceful. we both made our way just fine. it’s about a 6 minute drive from our apartment(at 3:50 in the morning. a little longer in the afternoon). she’s thinking about taking her bike to the bus stop in front of the apartment, taking the bus to work and riding the bike home. both OHSU and the VA are up this ginormous hill that overlooks the city to the east. the view is unbelievable.

the sun didn’t show up until about 7:30, which surprised me. i started my day with a delicious cup of coffee. since the skies were quite clear i thought i would go for a run down to the riverfront to watch the sun and the city wake up. it was one of the more amazing runs i’ve been on. crisp air, leaves turning, sky painted all sorts of shades, people going to work, and mt. hood showing up. it was my first glance at mt. hood in it’s completeness. mountains always leave me in awe. it was such a blast running along the river and over the different bridges. it will for sure become one of my regular routes.
after i made my way home i starting cleaning and organizing. that went well. every now and again you have to turn up the tunes and sweat out some good organization.

then i went to get deeann. slightly busier at 5pm than 4:45am. however, it was a site to be seen.  as everyone gets off work and makes their way home you realize among many many other reasons(portland really goes out of its way to be environmentally friendly. more to come on that.) that the people of portland care about the earth. you would have thought there was some kind of bike fair or cycling event going on. nope. just people getting of work. EVERYWHERE. bikes all over the freakin’ place. it was AWESOME! all sorts too. custom single-speeds, fixed gears; you name it, it was on the road. can’t wait to break mine out soon. i’ll keep you posted on that.

then deeann and i went for a bit of a walk on the waterfront. the skies were so beautiful all day. perfectly blue and clear. you could see both mt. hood and mt. st. helen’s all day. there are just a few pictures from the day here.

tomorrow: laundry. can’t wait.

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