Actually, 12 and a quarter and that’s the miles not the rain gauge, though I suspect it was close. OK, ok I am exaggerating a tad. The rain was constant but not hard and I managed to get 3/4s of the way through before I dragged my foot through a big puddle. Still these warm dry clothes that I write in were highly welcome!

I thought of my route last night before I went to bed. My thought was to head down the Springwater Corridor until I got to the Sellwood Park where I diverted and ran through the park to get to Sellwood proper. Next onto East Moreland where I skirted the edge of the neighborhood past the golf course and nice homes. In my mind last night I figured I’d be about 8-9 miles at this point, but the watch said only 7.5. My original plan was to continue down Crystal Springs to meet up with a shorter route of mine around Brentwood Darlington park and home. I thought I would have to add on some miles to get me to my total I was looking for (12-13). Well, I am not sure where I thought this would take me but I soon found myself in the lower southeast hillbilly bario. Big potholes and even bigger trucks! And I was nowhere near a route that would have taken me to the park in question.

I continued on down roads with huge puddles for sidewalks which forced me into the road and into the way of unforgiving motorists. Surprisingly I managed to not get splashed and continued on my way. I made it back to sidewalks eventually and congratulated myself for remembering to bring a Clif bar which greatly reduced my wooziness from hunger. Actually it was a Clif bar and gel that really made the difference and pulled me away from dreaming of burritos.

Soon I found myself in more familiar territory and the run ended with me buying that dream burrito (actually it ended after I ran home with my bag). All in all it was a good run despite the neighborhood I ran the last quarter through. It was good to do something different. All of my long runs this winter have been different routes though I think I am running out of new local areas. I feel pretty good after.