I road the bus down 45 minutes before the 15K race expecting problems exchanging Joao’s chip for mine, but not it actually went really smoothly. I tried to see if any L or XL shirts showed up which was a no. But after hearing how small they were I decided to try an XXL, it was definitely big! I dragged it over my inside short sleeve shirt and I tied my long sleeve shirt around my waste. It was still chilly but I knew it wouldn’t be for long.

Time for the races, the 5K was first and had so many entrants that the very last stranglers to cross the start line had to move out of the way for the winner crossing the finish line with a 15:40 time. Man that’s fast. There were a number of guys crossing right behind him too. Phew!

The walkers were next and headed out in the opposite direction. Next up and pretty close to on time it was the 15K when I headed down Naito towards the start. They sent us out in waves which worked pretty well. We were all separated out by our pace, so the start went really smoothly and as quick as I ever had in a big race I was at my pace and we were on our way.

I warmed up with a 9:28 pace for my first mile which was probably too fast (as usual), my second mile was a slightly faster 9:26. The hills started at the star of mile three and my third mile was a still pretty consistent yet slightly slower 9:29. My HR started rising during the second mile and really cranked up for mile 3 through 5 as we climbed for three and a half miles or so. Miles 4 and 5 were a bit slower, but again still consistent as I dropped to high 9:4os. The hills were brutal but I was determined to keep pace and not let up. There were a couple of times  I thought about walking for a bit as my lungs were heavy but I persevered. My hill ego is still pretty high from teh work I have done this winter (pay off time!)

Mile six finally gave us some downhill and my pace crept up to 9:22. My HR was still pretty high averaging between 169 and 167 for miles 6-9. My pace for miles 7 through nine crept up form 9:12 to 9:02. The final bit .44 miles by the watch and I picked up the pace to make my 90 minute goal and did coming in at 88:30. My HR averaged 177 and nit 183 fr the second time in the race (also did once in the hills in mile 4 (supprised me when I saw it as I felt pretty good though totally pushing it)).

I gobbled several sharkies and sport beans I brought with me. I also took a gel at mile 7 which I almost decided against doing, but I thought what the heck. I drank maybe 75% of my water.

I dropped my mp3 player at one point, but fortunately there weren’t a ton of people behind me so no one stepped on it. I was worried about losing the $20 bill I had in my water bottle carrier, but I managed to keep it the whole race and then spent it on a happy Street Roots paper vender.

Overall I liked the race. It is always fun to run with so many people, the 21,000 runners made it the largest race I have ever done. I wish I had a better fitting shirt, but I’ll live. I am pretty happy that I was able to get past the health issue and still do the race. I never felt like  I was over-doing it. I had decided I wouldn’t worry about quitting if I had to. I bet I was breathing pretty heavily during the race as my lungs were a bit congested and I did my share of coughing (though not that bad). Right now  I feel tired but pretty good!

Despite the race’s best efforts to stop me and my own as well, I am awake, fully hydrated and ready to run. Overall I am am feeling about 80% health wise, but I am going to give it a shot. I hope I can get my actual bib number and chip timer. But if not I’ll run as Joao. The temperature is a little chilly and it is totally dark out with the DST. My sleep came really easily last night, I probably got the best sleep I have ever gotten before a race. Perhaps because I am not really going for a goal on the run (to me more of a “run” than a “race”) and since it is my first ever 15K, I am guaranteed a personal best!

I’ll let you know later how it goes.

Grrrr, so far I am not impressed with the race. I could of sworn it was a Nike event, but early bib pickup was at the Adidas campus in North Portland. The website spoke of the police helping out with traffic, I didn’t see any out but plenty of traffic. The website also spoke of plenty of signs. I saw one. I bet the people at the front desk of the retail store were awfully tired of having to give directions. Maybe not, they seemed like the were enjoying themselves.

So I enter the building with the actual bib pickup. I had three people in front of me for the 15K, not bad at all. The buy spends forever searching for my last name FUS (yeah alphabetically it is usually last), actually it was second to last (sense the impending doom? cue dark opera music…) So I get my bib and had overheard the instructions to get the T-shirt which required another wait in line, this one however (at least the one for Mens L, the mens XL and womens M lines were also really long, like 50 people long. So the lines are clearly not marked and the mob is doing its best to figure it all out. And it is moving rather quickly too. I think this is good. Until I realize it is because they are telling us the Mens L and XL shirts and Women’s M shirts are all out, please go over to the lost and found and fill out a form to redeem a shirt at the Adidas employee store when they print some more in mid April. Boooooooo! That was it, I didn’t need another shirt after all.

So out I go to the car and we are driving back when I notice that I have been given the wrong bib packet. Its not so much that I really care about my time, I feel bad for Joau Furtado who is going to have to receive my time! I tried to find someone to call about it and found no contact information on anything I got or their website. So I guess I will go do the day of race bib check in and see if they actually have mine (which is sure to be the last one in the box (not the second to last after all)).

So on top of being sick a bit still, I am really feeling like I don’t want to do this race. I told my wife that maybe the fates are trying to tell me something, she responded maybe they are trying to challenge me.

Another good nights sleep rewarded me with feeling much better today. Certainly I feel better than I expected to. So today I am off to the Adidas campus (oddly we were supposed to do this at the Nike campus…) to do my bib pickup. I could have done t day of race, but this will be so much easier (plus I won’t have to lug my shirt around). So I am going to give it a shot tomorrow. I’ll have my phone with me if I need to quit and bag the race (yeah right!) so I am sure I will be ok.

My race has an 8:40 start so not too early. I just realized that daylight savings time is tonight as well so I am losing an hour of sleep. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate daylight savings? Growing up in Arizona I didn’t ever have to deal with it. You have to give it up for AZ govt, they got that one right. So I’ll head up to Foster to pick up the bus downtown, since it is Sunday my normal bus won’t be running. The walk/run to the stop will be a good warm-up.

I am hoping to not have to wear tights, though I just might anyway. Today is bearable and tomorrow is supposed to e warmer so hopefully I won’t need them.I think I will go with two shirts, long sleeve on the outside so I can strip it off and tie it around my waste. I’ll bring a couple of gels and a pack of sharkies along with my water bottle and maybe a protein bar for after (though they should have a ton of snacks at the finish line.) My only real goal is to finish the race in under 90 minutes which would be a 10 minute mile pace which is super slow for me but I am positive I can handle it. My best case scenario is under 80 mins which would get me up to a 9 minute mile pace. We’ll see, I have to finish first!