What does one say?

I think this past weekend was near perfection. It was also a weekend that was all about me. So -perfect in the sense that I did something totally and completely for myself. I forgot about work, selling the house, and all of my other responsibilities for a total of three and a half days - and it was AMAZING! I will preface all of this with - yes - I did miss my family very much.

After what was a very stressful, sad, and extremely busy week at work, I came home on Thursday night, packed my bags and went to bed with a plan for the weekend.

On Friday - I got Jessica ready for school and dropped her off right at 8:40am. Ran over to the office to drop off work things and then headed out on my grand adventure.

First stop - the trail head to Angel's Rest. A 4.6 mile round trip hike up (1500' elevation gain) to an amazing view point of the Columbia Gorge. It was awesome! I was giddy as I started out on the trail. The emotions were strong and weird. The happiness I felt at being able to do this hike. For so many reasons. I could not have done this strenuous hike just a few months ago. I found a series of three letterboxes on this hike and then a single box at the top. As I neared the bottom, Cindy called to see where I was. I thought for sure I was running late, but she assured me I had plenty of time to make another stop.

Second Stop - Multnomah Falls. I have always - ALWAYS - wanted to hike to the top of these falls. I tried once in high school, but I was in such bad shape, I quit at the bridge not 1/4 mile up the trail. This is steep climb. A two mile round trip hike. I made it to the the top! I was the first finder for a new box planted up there. Near the bottom I did something any of my friends will know is not the norm for me - I asked a stranger to take a picture of me with the falls in the background. Me - asking to have my picture taken - there is a first time for everything.

Third Stop - Walla Walla for the night. Tired for sure, but excited for what lay ahead.

Saturday morning found us up early and headed out for a walk to the Whitman Mission and up to the top where the memorial is located. Another wonderful view of the valley. A little over five miles to start a terrific day.

Next we found ourselves picking up three wonderful travel companions for the weekend and headed to Spokane. We arrived in Spoakne around 12:00pm to register for the Bloomsday Run. The dowtown area was crawling with people. At the time I did not realize there would be over 50,000 people planning to do the race. We got ourselves registered, our ankle bands checked in, and took in the tradeshow. I found an awesome pair of shoes and an armband for running that I really love.

Headed to Northtown to get in a little shopping and then back downtown to check into the Davenport. A wonderful old hotel just a few block from the starting street. Had some wine, cider, cheese and crackers, before venturing out for dinner. We happened to sit by a couple who were in town to run their 30th Bloomsday race. Talk about inspiring!

Sleep was hard to come by and we were all up early. Although we had plenty of time as we were in the lilac group and were not scheduled to start the race until 9:45 - 45 minutes after the official race started and about 15 minutes after the winners would have already completed the race!

About 8:45 we headed down to meet up with the Lilac group - the largest group of the race - the group who expected to finish the race in about two and half hours. It was unreal. People everywhere and a people watchers heaven. But totally cool. Because everyone was there for the same reason. It was dreadfully cold, but okay. It was hard to believe with as cold as it was - there were all kinds of discarded clothes in the trees - a race tradition.

Before we knew it - the race was starting and our group was moving towards the starting line. It was VERY crowded and seriously elbow to elbow. It was wonderful. About a half a mile in - it was clear that walking was not going to be enough and we started to jog our way through to opening here and there. And when we could we would run some pretty good distances. The course had several smaller hills before hitting Doomsday hill between mile four and five.

All along the race route were bands and musical groups. People cheering people on and a few fun hecklers in the crowd. My favorite was the smart alec who kept asking people if they would run and get him a beer. One very inpsiring moment was when a man with a prosthetic leg, who had already finished the race had come back to the race course to encourgae others to keep going. Good people being good.

Cindy and I stayed fairly close most of the race. At seven miles she ran ahead for the last half mile. She finished at about 1:47:00 or so. Pretty darn cool for someone who just started training a few months ago.

I finished 1:51:46. I grabbed my finisher tee-shirt and some pictures of the finish line. And for the second time in two days - asked a stranger to take a picture of me.

21,269 out of 44,690 paricipants.

The experience was outrageous, crazy, glorius fun and I cannot wait to go next year.

Until then, we are scouring the web looking for other race opportunities.

Next week - CARDV in Corvallis and another 5K in June.

I will post pictures in a seperate post.

A few random comments:

I love Spokane. It is wonderful old city with fantastic old buildings and structures. It was fun to remember and see things long forgotten from when I lived in the area 17 years ago.

I love going to my brother and sister-in-laws house. They are laid back and fun. The kiddos are great.

There are some more great hikes to be had in the gorge and I can't wait to get to them.

Finally -

Let's finish up the stats for April - because they are good!

April miles moved - 143.35
Calories burned - 27,056

Total miles moved in 2009 - 327.06

Percent of original goal - 65%

May numbers coming soon - I need to get caught up.