A Birthday and a Marathon

This is the epic post to talk about all the wacky stuff going on.

Most importantly - kiddo #2 turned five. And today I got the call from Kindergarten to tell me class assignments and to arrange his interview. Holy smokes - it made me kind of sad. I was on top of McCullough Peak at the time, dripping in sweat and wanted to start crying. When I got home from work I just gave him hugs and squeezes. I didn't think it would make me all sentimental to have him headed off to school, but it really hit hard today.

He really turned five on the day we got back from Eagle Crest, but we were finally able to do a small birthday party for him yesterday. We went to the bounce house place in Corvallis and then pizza at Papa's Pizza. Jim and Jessica made a Batman cake. You should have seen the kitchen from the making of that cake. I think they were going for the Cake Boss cake. It ended up being not quite so elaborate. But it had a great Batman logo on it and the boys loved it!

I finished my walking class and have joined a marathon training group and for the month of August we are spending our Sundays doing some hiking to build aerobic endurance with hill hiking. Good thing I had already been doing some hiking in McDonald Forest. Also good that I have already been building my distance, because I am joining in pretty late, but have already built a lot of stamina and now need to work on speed and distance. By mid September we will do a 20 mile hike on the Row River trail in Cottage Grove.

Our first hike was into Green Lakes off of the Cascade Lakes Hwy near Bend. We left early in the morning and were hiking by 10:00. It was a 9.5 mile round trip hike into some seriously beautiful mountain lakes. We ate lunch at the base of the South Sister and Broken Top.

This upcoming Sunday we are hiking Mt Jefferson, then we do Mt Hood, and then the Obsidian Trail on the old McKnezie Pass. I am so excited and so happy that I joined to be able to do these hikes. Next spring I am going to look into joining some kind of hiking group and try to get to some of these great trails, but are a little too far for me to feel safe going to by myself. I never knew the Cascade Lakes Hwy exisisted and there must be a dozen or more hikes alone on that Hwy. The old McKenzie Pass is the same way. I haven't even really checked out what is at Mt. Hood.

Another perk of doing these hikes is that I get to hang out with a number of experienced marathoners and they are great for encouragment. Which is why, while driving home from the first hike I had the confidence to say I want to do a marathon. These gals are wonderful and have given me the boost to say I can do this!

So - Wednesday I did it. I am registered to do the Portland full Marathon on October 4th. The friendliest walking marathon in the country. Hopefully I can finish in 6.5 hours or so.

This past week, Cindy and I also committed to doing the half marathon in Las Vegas. Our trip is all booked and were signed up for the half. I can't wait for this fun girl trip. We may change our minds and do the full, but that would really cut down on our play time in Vegas. Decisions - decisions.

This past week has also been full of some great hikes in McDonald Forest. Monday I did a shorter five mile hike at Sulpher Springs. Tuesday I did the Chip Ross Park to Dimple Hill again - for both the nearly eight mile hike and to put a letterbox up there. Go find the Castle on Dimple Hill. You'll get a good 7.5 miles for your treasure hiker quest. Today was a 9.5 mile hike from Oak Creek up to the highest point in McDonald Forest - McCullough Peak. A really wonderful up, up, uphill hike. A great endurance building hike. I threw in a couple of regular walks as well. The osprey are still on the bridge and still start talking at me when I walk by. I keep expecting them to fly off for the winter soon. Not sure why I really think that though. It's been really great weather this week for hiking and walking, very cool and overcast. It's supposed to be much warmer next week.

So - some stats for the month -

August miles moved to date: 70.93
Calories burned: 8087
Daily average - just over 5 miles per day