ROAD TRIP!!!

above: Oregon is for runners

below: Sonja was pretty good on her first road trip

Ted and I did a road trip to Sisters, Oregon (which is about 20 miles from Bend) this weekend where I participated in the Peterson Ridge Rumble 60k. All in all, I would say we had a nice weekend. First, Saturday was the first time we had driven past Spokane and the first time either of us had seen central Oregon. I woke up without a voice and was very congested, but didn’t feel sick. We hit the road around 7:30 a.m. I love love love roadtrips. This was a particularly neat trip, because little did we know that both Washginton and Oregon have vast areas of landscape that can be best described as desert. No trees, lots of scrub brush and nothingness for miles and miles. This is why I love roadtrips – you really get to experience the country in ways that you can’t when flying overhead. Ted and I had a nice time chatting and eating new candies that we had never had before. Our new favorite is Annabelle’s “Big Hunk.” We also had a Abba Zabba, which was previously known to us only as a Captain Beefheart song.

When we arrived in Sisters, we checked into our room which was a “pet room.” We stayed at the Best Western and were really impressed. The room was very nice and very large, and the hotel was a lodge directly adjacent to National Forest property. Sisters appears to be a touristy little town – very cute and pretty upscale. I was curious about Bend so we had dinner in Bend at a place called Kababa, which was incredibly good. I am not normally a big fan of falafel (it’s usually dry and not super flavorful) but their falafel was amazing. Ted thinks there was a strong clove flavor. I just noticed that there was a strong tasty flavor. We had a vegetarian sampler and everything was very tasty and very well prepared. And, I enjoyed a Deschutes Hop Henge Imperial IPA, which was one of the best IPAs I’ve had. I think Deschutes does a great job with their IPAs. And the Deschutes beer is brewed in Bend! So it was very local and I pretty much had to drink it. I did notice that I wasn’t very hungry and didn’t do a great job on my beer, needing Ted’s asssitance, and started feeling very sleepy during dinner. Of course, the lack of hunger could be attributed to the candy and the sleepiness could be attributed to the fact that the beer was about 8% alcohol.

On the ride back to the hotel I started feeling fairly awful. I took a hot bath and went to bed early, hoping I would wake up better. I woke up with a sinus headache and terrifically congested (still no voice) but wanted to have a nice day and willed it to be so. We went all the way to Oregon and I was running this race! I told myself that I was fine and lined up. I met Olga at the start – she is so charismatic and knows everyone! She gave me a hug and the race began.

I quickly settled into pace with a woman named Carrie from Bend. She has done Western States and so she gave me some advice and told me stories about her race. It was easy to forget about my head issue because Carrie was a lot of fun to talk to. The first miles passed pretty quickly. The trail was sandy dirt covered in soft pine needles and it was very pretty. It was a clear day so there were some incredibly vistas – the sisters (big volcanoes) were clearly visible and the sky was very blue. I was enjoying myself. We saw Olga a few times – she was having a rough run but was still chatting with everyone and seemed to be having a great time.

Somewhere near mile 18 the drug of Carrie’s enthusiasm and spunk wore off and I couldn’t ignore the pressure in my head. I thought my head might explode. I told her to run ahead, though she kindly offered to stay with me, and I put my iPod in and prepared for a rough 16ish miles. It was pretty warm and the heat was starting to bother me. But I was determined to finish the run, even if my head exploded in the process. I took great comfort in the fact that the aid stations all served pierogies, which I really love and took advantage of. And, I tried to keep a positive attitude and reminded myself that this was good mental training. If I can run with awful sinus pressure, I can tough out Western States. (At least I will try to believe that.) I had started the race with arm warmers, since it was around 34 at the start, and was able to stuff them with snow and tie them around my neck to cool myself off. This really worked. I will definitely have something at Western States to stuff with ice for my neck. As long as I’m on the topic of gear, I learned that my running skirt’s side pockets cannot be used or my skirt will fall down. Oops. But otherwise I’m loving my newest running skirt and plan to wear it at Western States. I will need to see the race pictures though before I make my final determination. Because I will not have a good race if I look fat or silly :p

I continued onward, trying to stay ahead of the course sweep. Olga had me convinced I was in last place – I was actually nowhere near last and I was safely ahead of the sweep by at least an hour I think. But it helped motivate me to run. It was a pathetically slow “run” but I hardly walked. Suddenly, in the midst of my focused forward movement, I found myself in the most beautiful field of green bushes and saw the most incredibly view of the snow covered volcanoes. The sky was so blue and it was so amazing I was really bummed that I didn’t have my camera. Lo and behold, crouched on the ground around a turn was Glenn Tachiyama, who takes really beautiful race photos. I told him he was famous and that I had arrived in ultrarunning if I was being photographed by him. I think he thought I was nuts but we chatted for a few seconds – it was fun to meet him. He’s a friend of Kendra’s I think.

Most of the rest of the run was downhill, which made it easy to keep moving. Gravity helps. Before I knew it I was finished (in 7:09) and helped myself to the Boca burgers being grilled up at the finish line. I received my cool race socks and the race director,Sean Meissner, a noted ultrarunner, gave me a pretty blue technical shirt for making the trip from Montana. Very nice!

There were showers in the locker room of the middle school where the start and finish was – and that hot shower felt great. However, when cleaning my filthy feet, I discovered a nasty blood blister, the size of a quarter, on my foot. Ted has asked that I not post the pictures here, so sorry. I think the pictures are cool, Ted thinks they’re gross.

Ted drove us home, which was very nice of him. I slept on and off while he avoided the deer that were caucusing in the middle of the road. I’m sure I’ve forgotten some things, but it was really a memorable and fun weekend.