Girls Gone Wildwood

It was a beautiful sunny morning to get out and stretch our legs before settling into the cooking and feasting marathon that defines Thanksgiving Day, here in the US. Ann dug up our route from  5 years ago , which made for a mellow (FLAT) run. I can't wait for our longest run in ages this Sunday: 24 miles. We've put off our annual birthday Wildwood End-to-End for an extra two weeks so we can work back up to the distance. With all of our travel, family events, etc, we haven't gotten in the mileage to make it enjoyable. It's nice that doing our own self-supported run like this means that we can change things around to make it right for us. Happy Thanksgiving to all-- to the many things we have to be grateful for, the miles, the trails, and the delicious food that awaits us later today!

I needed a short run because I had a guest in town. Ann wanted a bit longer. So I created this ~10 mile loop with a ~5 mile add-on. It's nice to have options!

Ann recently reminisced about our 21-miler to Salt & Straw  last year, and we decided to recreate it. We met up with Anna and Leslie for the first ~12 mile loop, then took off for the ice cream shop. I added a mile to the first part, and because Lower Macleay is currently closed, we ran down Aspen and some neighborhood stairs, through the neighborhood to Salt & Straw. It wasn't as hot as last weekend, but the cold treats were still deliciously welcome. Ladies on the trail

success! Last Thursday Susan sent me a text that Salt and Straw  had a new vegan flavor,  coconut mint chip whoopie pie . My first reaction was, "let's go". With the next obvious question being when? We both live close to different Salt and Straws, but I wanted to experience this new flavor together. The next time we were going to see each other was for our long run. Then like a light bulb going off over my head, I had the brilliant idea of running to Salt and Straw. The Salt and Straw in NW Portland is only a few miles away from Forest Park. And that is exactly what we did! selfie with Anna and Leslie, before we took off to Salt and Straw I met Susan at Salt and Straw Saturday morning, leaving my car there we drove her car to the trailhead at 53rd and Wildwood, where we met Anna and Leslie. We ran the first 10 miles of our 21 mile route with them. Then we ran 11 miles, mostly downhill to Salt and Straw. It started to rain a few mile...

This Thanksgiving we want to give thanks to all our friends and family who enable, tolerate, cheer on, our crazy running habit. We know you don't always understand why we would possibly want to run 50+ miles, but you are always there for us. From driving us to trailheads at 4am, to flying half way across the world to wait at the finish line for us, or simply being Mr. Mom every Saturday morning.  This Thanksgiving several of us met at NW 53rd and Wildwood for a Turkey Trail Trot. Susan was adventurous enough to even bring her running stroller along. Most of the group ran about 4 miles, Sally and I did a 10 mile loop. We both ran into several other people we knew along the route. We are very lucky to have such an amazing running community and trail system in Portland. Happy Thanksgiving! Our Turkey Trail Trot crew Route: 53rd and ww (9.20 - 14.5) - koenig: 5.3 koenig - maple : .27 maple - leif : .38 leif - dogwood: 3.3 dogwood - ww: .34 ww - 53rd: .71 tot...

Ann needed to run Sunday this week, so we decided to run 10 miles in order to pre-fatigue-- but not over-fatigue-- before our day-off run on Monday. Luckily, Anna posted on our running group that she was looking to run 10 miles on Sunday, so we joined forces.  Not pictured here are Sara and Dana, who also joined us but took a different route back. It was so good to run with these awesome women and trade some stories. Hopefully they won't hold this hilly route against me... A blurry photo of Susan, Anna, Ann & Sally, taken by a kind stranger Start at Springville trailhead. Springville to Trillium-- .13 mi Trillium to WW (18.57)-- .25 mi WW (18.57) to FL5 (16.69)-- 1.88 mi FL5 to Leif (6.58)-- .23 mi Leif (6.58) to Maple (le 6.44)-- .14 mi Maple to Saltzman-- 1.18 mi Saltman to Leif (6.20)-- .83 mi Leif (6.20) to Gas Line/FL7A  (8.03)-- 1.83 mi Gas Line to WW (19.96)-- .28 mi WW (19.96) to Springville (ww 22.49)-- 2.53 mi Springville to car-- .33mi ...

Friday morning run - only a few inches We have been pretty fortunate to have a pretty mild winter in Portland so far, it has been so nice in fact that it almost felt like spring. But that all changed on Thursday around 11am, snow started to fall and hasn't stopped much since. Susan and I had a 20+ mile run planned for Saturday, which I wasn't sure was going to happen or if it would just turn into a snowshoe trip. Friday  Friday Since I live a 1/4 mile from a trailhead I did a quick trial run on Friday. The snow was light and fluffy and a lot to run in, though I was wishing I was snowboarding in it instead of running. Forest Park being covered in several inches of snow was gorgeous, my own private winter wonderland. I knew we would have a lot of fun on Saturday, as long as Susan could make it to my house. Friday morning - you can still see the pole for the trail sign Saturday morning - the pole is almost completely covered with snow Saturday morning...