Fall Creek State Park

Session Saturday was again upon us and today we decided to combine one of the training sessions with a visit to another of Oregon’s scenic parks. The ‘Fall Creek Run-Around’ race started at one end of the Fall Creek Reservoir and ran to the other end. That was for us 15km participants. For the lucky souls doing the 20miler, one whole lap of the reservoir was to be completed.

We had decided that I would run in the 15km as a training run - so a hard but not flat out effort, whilst Chris would bring the bike and have a bit of a bike-around. The state park was very scenic and very quiet. The route followed the road around the lake and it was a bit of shame that there were high trees at either side of the road which prevented you from getting a good view of the reservoir whilst you were running. On closer inspection following the race, it was interesting to see that despite it seeming to have rained a lot of the time that we have been here, the reservoir was very very low. Apparently much lower than it has been at this time of year previously.

Anyway, back to the race, it was pretty enjoyable despite being quite undulating with a one mile of pure uphill right at the end. It wasn’t a really big race so I ran most of it alone with only some random cyclist with a camera who kept speeding past me, taking a photo and then speeding off again, for company. It turned out to be quite a bit longer that 15km but we weren’t really that bothered it wasn’t accurate as it was a good workout anyway and a fun morning. I finished 2nd overall so came home with a jumper and a medal - I would have been pretty happy except I am already going to have to wear multiple layers on the flight home to avoid paying the heavy luggage fee!

I had quite a restful afternoon recuperating whilst Chris spent a long time making a video of the race. Then it was off to the track for another reps session. As Saturday evenings are when everybody goes out and does fun things we felt obliged to join in the excitement so headed to Wal-mart for our weekly grocery shop and then sat watching TV in our apartment until about 9:30pm…bedtime…

Below is the video that Chrissy spent half the afternoon editing. I personally like the camerawork after mile 5. Hope you enjoy it ;)

Stress Tests and the Crazies

We had plans to go to some of the state parks in the vicinity of Portland this morning, however the rubbish weather put those plans to rest. Instead we hit a local shopping mall. Lui was looking for some shoes and we just fancied a general browse before heading to the cinema to watch a new horror film - the Crazies.

As we were wandering around the mall we stumbled across a stall for ‘free stress tests’! Obviously there was more to this than a free stress test and the game was given away by the tower of ‘Dianetics’ books by author L. Ron Hubbard - a science fiction writer who started the cult of Scientology in the 1950’s. Lui didn’t want to pass up an opportunity like this so immediately gave it a go. They got him to hold onto a little contraption called an ‘E-meter’, which scientologists claim measures stress, and then asked him a series of questions about stressful periods of his life. Lui enjoyed the experience but was annoyed that he didn’t ask them any probing questions about their beliefs. A missed opportunity perhaps.

Fully converted to Scientology Lui rejoined us and we went to the cinema to watch the newly released Crazies. Set in Iowa the film follows events in a remote farming town over the course of three days as things get drastically worse for its crazy inhabitants. We all enjoyed it. The mark of a good horror movie is whether any of the characters did anything stupid in it. The crazies wasn’t too bad for that apart from a few times the lead characters saying to one-another ‘wait here’. Why would you separate from each other when there are all these crazy things going on! No rational person would do that!! Suitably scared we got ourselves some lunch in the mall and a milkshake in a 50’s style diner before dropping Lui off at his hotel and heading back to Eugene. A fun few days in Portland.

The Raging Bull

The day started early for Chris and myself as we headed out first thing to explore Forest Park in Portland - America’s largest in-city park. It was reported to have over 70 miles of hiking trails so we were looking forward to an enjoyable early morning run before Lui surfaced. We got lucky with the weather, it wasn’t raining for a change, but we were in for an unwelcome surprise with the trails. They were long and pretty, but very hilly and after a tough few days training I did wonder if it would be quicker to walk up some of them. After an hour of shuffling/waddling/crawling we decided enough was enough and made our way back to our airport motel where Lui was waiting.


Forest Park

Yesterday, despite visiting Nike Town, we hadn’t quite satisfied our need for Nike so as a matter of priority we first went to the Nike Factory Outlet which was near where we were staying. My quest to find a snazzy racing singlet to make me run faster is still ongoing and we were again out of luck here, despite almost hitting gold with a bright orange top which we discovered (fortunately prior to purchasing) it was actually a tennis top. It was fortunate that we went though as despite not finding the vest, we suddenly realised that we actually urgently needed other stuff…in this case a new watch for me and a mini basketball for Lui.

With our wallets feeling lighter we left the shop quickly before we ended up buying other stuff we desperately needed like a pair of shin pads or tennis skirt. The weather was still nice-ish so we headed down to Portland’s Japanese Garden which is situated just West of Downtown Portland. Although the garden’s weren’t particularly big, they were pretty and I enjoyed being chief photographer - a rare event due to my amazing ability to take a terrible photo. Below are some of my best attempts!


Pretty tower thingy in the Japanese garden


My first arty shot!


Chris totally unaware i snapped him!

Finally in the evening we made our long awaited trip to Duke’s Country Bar and Grill, a local establishment found on the internet and an extremely exciting prospect for boys because of the presence of a mechanical bull. It turned out to be a great place and despite being three hours (!) too early to ride on the bull, we entertained ourselves with a few games of pool, dinner, and a free line dancing lesson (Maybe I’ll stick to photography after all). At 9pm, it was the main event. At the front of the queue to ride the bull were Lui and Chris. Chris went first and made a reasonable attempt at staying on the bull, but Lui stole the show. Despite looking like a cross between a raggy doll and a sack of potatoes, Lui stayed on the bucking bull absolutely ages before finally being dumped on the landing mat. To make it even more entertaining he had a massive grin on his face the whole time!


Lui owning the bull-ride

Portland

Today we went to Portland to meet Lui, a friend of ours from Nottingham. He had been at a conference in San Diego and then had flown to Portland University where he had had a meeting with some people he is collaborating with. We decided to meet up in Portland for a couple of days before Lui flies back on Saturday.

In the morning Andrea did another track session. In yesterdays scheduled session Andrea had felt bad and so we pulled her out after a couple of reps. With this time of year being pretty important for transferring base fitness to more specific racing fitness we thought it would be a good idea to give the session another go. Thankfully it went a lot better. However, doing the session meant we were a bit late for meeting Lui and so we had to rush to get our stuff together before hitting the road for Portland.

We then picked Lui up from his hotel on Portland campus and dropped off all of our stuff at where we would be staying for the next couple of nights. We then drove into downtown Portland where we visited the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. It was really interactive and a lot of fun. We later found out from the Lonely Planet that it was highly recommended for kids! Maybe that was why we liked it so much. We then went on a walk around the shopping district in search of the worlds largest independent bookstore - Powell’s. Of course we stopped at the Nike store on the way - after all Portland is the home of Nike!! We eventually found the bookstore and spent some time looking around and then a lot more time looking for each other! It really was that massive!


Lui playing with the water rockets


Andrea and Lui playing with boats


Me as a South Park character

In the evening we found a Hawaiian restaurant near to the hotel for dinner. The food was great and the staff really friendly. The only thing that spoilt it for me was that even though my food tasted great it was insanely hot! I ended up drinking 3 glasses of water with my meal and was still suffering. I think tomorrow we’ll find a proper American diner for Lui - he has to have a proper greasy American burger before he leaves doesn’t he!! Burgers aren’t going to be as hot as well surely?

Two for the Price of One

The last two days have been fairly uninteresting, so rather than risk my fingers in the thick treacle covering the keyboard, for one day only you will be treated to two blogs in one. I suppose it’s not really a treat, as there is still not very much to say, but maybe it is. A day off from Racing Around the World. Haha don’t get used to it!

We have had a couple of low key days. After our adventures last week we have kind of run ourselves into a bit of stop, not going outside Eugene, not even going in search of new kinds of weird and wonderful wildlife. No particular reason. Perhaps the prospect of our trip to Portland tomorrow for a couple of nights has meant we wanted to save a little money, or maybe we just wanted a break from seeing stuff.

The time has been spent…can you guess? Yep training. Lots and lots of it as per usual. Combine that with getting either very cold or drenched every time you step out of the door to train, and hence long periods of time sat directly in front of the heater in the apartment, and suddenly you find time passing you by.

One thing we have done which was quite interesting was go to the cinema to see ‘Crude’, a documentary about an ongoing lawsuit between the indigenous people of Ecuador against Chevron -Texaco for the mess left by the company and the resultant effect on the health of the people living in those areas. It was quite interesting to see how the lawyers on both side went about proving their respective points, and the case rumbles on. It wasn’t my usual animated film (my favourite) but was pretty thought provoking all the same. The fact that we got in for $4 total for two of us made it all the better. Tuesdays is buy two for the price of one, and may mean our Tuesday evening for the rest of the trip are taken care of!

Below are a couple of videos you may be interested in. The first is a KiwiRun promotional video but together by the KiwiRun team. We think it’s great but we were there afterall.




The second video is of my 10000m. I think the camera is primarily focusing on the men, but I was in the race so you may see me. Unfortunately I haven’t had time to moderate the video and check if I am actually in it. If you do get to watch it let me know! Enjoy!!

Buddy's Diner

We had been deliberating all week where we would go for our Sunday lunch this week. We wanted to go somewhere different to back home, somewhere typically American if possible. In the end, we stumbled across Buddy’s Diner, a 50’s styled diner serving your typical burgers, breakfasts, omelettes and steaks. We went for lunch after we had done our long runs/cycles in the morning and had to fight past all the other guests to find ourselves a table (it was a bit of a free-for-all). We both ordered milkshakes and burgers - what else!. Both of the burgers were a little disappointing, but the milkshakes were awesome, definitely some of the best we have had. I went for a standard chocolate option while Andrea went all adventurous (not like her at all) and went for peanut butter! Both were amazing and despite the awful sounding combination, Andrea’s was definitely the better of the two. We needn’t have bothered ordering food as the milkshakes were huge. In the end neither of us finished our meals but we both made a point of finishing the milkshakes. See we are proper athletes!!


Andrea posing with both our milkshakes - she wasn't being greedy - promise!!

We then headed straight to the Cascadia state park around 50miles away from Eugene. There are so many beautiful parks around Oregon, we are trying to see as many as possible. Cascadia was by no means an exception to that rule. The park was really quiet as we only saw two other people on our walk. We followed the trail which took us up to the Soda (Water) Falls. It was a fantastic forest with lots of rock outcrops and fallen trees. It would have been great for bouldering or if I was a bit younger - hide and seek.


Andrea enjoying the forest


Me looking for inspiration from above

In the evening we watched American Wedding (American Pie 3), both of us were bored after about 30minutes of the brain dead humour. It was then that I decided that it was about time Andrea watched all of the (nearly) 200 episodes of South Park starting tonight. We managed one episode before falling asleep. Maybe we will get through two tomorrow…

Cinnamon Roll Saturday

Okay, Okay so it’s not perfect alliteration and neither does it rhyme. But that’s what the University of Oregon running club call it. It basically means that today is the day the running club meeting for a run which is then followed by cinnamon rolls and other tasty treats round at Tom, the club coach’s house.

I had my own session to do this morning but that didn’t stop us from partaking in the festivities, so after my workout and a quick shower back home we dashed round, luckily arriving before everything was eaten. We had a good couple of hours getting to know a few of the athletes, who were also able to advise us on the best eateries in the area - our list of fast food restaurants to visit before we leave is getting longer by the day.

It was also interesting to chat about some of the differences between UK and US university sports clubs and we learnt that there are actually two different National university running championships….the NCAA’s (for the athletes on ‘the team’) and then the NIRCA’s (for athletes belonging to university running clubs). The NIRCA’s sound much more like the BUSA’s we have in the UK where every and any student can compete whereas the NCAA’s are more elite. I wasn’t so sure I liked the idea of having such a divide between the elite and not so elite athletes - we all experience the same pain after all! However, I suppose that having the NIRCA’s may encourage more athletes to compete in races as it takes away the pressure and fear of racing all the serious super speedy people. Also at Oregon, whilst the team and the running club do not train or compete together it was still good hear that they do seem to all know each other and socialise together….so it’s not as though their paths never cross.

The afternoon was spent at the track (in an attempt to become super speedy myself) and then plotting which restaurant would have the pleasure of feeding two hungry post long Sunday run/cycle athletes tomorrow. I also wrote a pleading email to a meet organiser asking to be let into a 1500m(!) race. Must be something in those cinnamon rolls….