The Big Race...

Well, guys, we did it. Kristin and I ran the First Run in downtown Portland at midnight New Years Eve. It was a blast! We started out the evening at Jer and Lisa's for a few appetizers with friends (here we are looking all pretty, didn't last long)

We left Jer and Lisa's soon to be old house in search of our pre-run meal, something light of course. But wouldn't you know it, all the restaraunts we wanted to go to were closed. Even Subway was closed. What is this world coming to? Anyway, we went back to my place and had settled for Pb & J's (great food for running by the way), changed into our clothes that would hopefully keep us warm and somewhat dry, and headed downtown. Aren't we cuties?

There were 930 people that participated in the 3 mile run/walk. Kristin and I huddled together in the masses and counted down the clock until midnight, celebrated the new year for about 3 seconds then heard the starting buzzer. We crossed the starting line and we were off. We ran up Broadway, turned left on some street that I can't remember, turned left on Front St. and stayed there till the Steel bridge then turned a U and came back up Front St. and back up the street that I can't remember and then back on Broadway for the big finish. It was great, when you cross the finish line they call out your name. It's great to hear your name over the loud speaker, almost makes the whole run! :) Kristin and I got split up near the beginnning and didn't meet up again until after the race. This was Kristin's first race and she did fabulous!!! She said that she ran almost the whole thing and only walked for just a tiny bit at the end (which was up a hill, totally understandable). She did it in 32:35 minutes which is definitly not bad for a first race. WAY TO GO KRISTIN!!! Hopefully, this has peaked her interest and she will run more (maybe even with me again even though we don't actually run together). I did mine in 25:51 (which breaks down to 8:37 minutes miles, not bad but now I can't wait to run another race and try and beat my time. Oh, and I should add that the iPod worked great until it froze at the end of the race. Sunday was spent fixing it and redownloading all my music (fun times). But don't you worry, everything is working properly again. It was so nice to have music while I was running, helped a lot, thats for sure.

We capped off our evening with soup and roasted artichoke at Doug Fir and about a hundred other very interesting folks. Let me just say that it was a fun place to people watch. We had a couple of gentlemen join our table and ended up talking to them about Christ and about our relationship with Him. Very interesting conversation. I forgot to mention that we took turns changing our clothes in the backseat of the car while the other drove around the back neightborhoods. A little risque but doesn't it make the evening and the story that much more fun? And we cleaned up rather nicely, wouldn't you say? :) Anyway, I didn't roll into bed til about 4:00, wwaaaayyyy past my bedtime. :)

All in all, it was a very eventful New Years! I'm glad Kristin wanted to do the run cause it was a blast and something new and different. It was a night full of memories! Thanks for a fun night Kristin, another eventful new years with you! And now, maybe we can do another run together. Let's get Trina too. :)

Bye for now!