Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Run 1.51/1.52 - Animal Butts Are Cute!


This past weekend wasn't all about racing, although it almost was. Cilley Girl and I actually toyed with the idea of running a 7K race the same night of the 5K (run 51 of this training cycle) we did -- but the heat swayed us to instead hit the pool! Oh and how lovely the pool was! But first -- the Oregon Zoo!! CG and I both have an affection for animal butts so it was only natural that we take Man Friend with us to the zoo to check out some cute, furry (but not always furry!) buns.


More pictures, less talk.... I loved the animals. I baby talked to a beaver (duh), I took too many photos, I bitched about all the kids and strollers, I found the shade, I ate a lot of fries, I looked at bat balls (duh), and had a pretty close encounter with a giraffe! And all day long we sang one of the greatest songs of all time (with the appropriate words tossed in) ... "I like bear butts and I cannot lie", etc... Tons o' fun was had by all!


Next was the Oregon Bite, which was a huge food festival. The beauty was we paid $5 to get in, then had all the free samples and never had to actually buy food. Score! But it was insanely hot. So we ditched downtown Portland and went to CG's pool instead. Glorious! Our muscles and feet really appreciated it. But we needed more food (duh). Our little trio hit up this new restaurant for pizza and mozzarella sticks (duh). It was wood fired, too, which is fun for a different taste to the pizza! Pretty sure MF was having too much fun flirting with our server - but hey, it got us great service. Pretty sure the server must thing CG and I were actually the couple!

And then we slept. And DVR'd the marathon. And woke up at 5:45am for our long run. We all had 10 miles on the calendar, so we followed CG's suggestion and hit the Banks Vernonia trail. She was NOT kidding when she said it was 5 miles uphill. 


At 1.84 MF and I were hating her. BUT after the turn around we loved her again. She was right, going back toward the car you feel like a rock star! Run wise it wasn't bad. We did steady intervals on the up and only had a couple tiny walk breaks on the way down. Beating the heat was great, plus the scenery was just beautiful. So peaceful, and I found two benches for photo ops! MF and I spent our run discussing work and more important .... our upcoming trip to Las Vegas! With the change in elevation, posing on a bench (laying down was a bad idea), and the fact that I have Meniere's Disease - there were a couple moments of funky things happening in my ears. But it passed. I'd just drift to the right every now and then and eventually end up back on the path. AFTER the run I saw the sign telling us we are in bear and cougar country and what to do in case of a sighting. Um yeah, I should have read that BEFORE! Now I want to run that route again and find myself some animals ... and their butts!

Have I shared WHY I take these photos yet??

4 comments:

  1. Did I tell you that right after we started our long run, I hear this weird noise in the woods and was all freaked out for about ten minutes? I was sure I was being stalked by a mountain lion!

    The only animal butts I saw on that run were horse butts. "I like horse butts and I cannot lie!"

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  2. Ah, you were in my old neck of the woods!! I went to high school and graduated from high school in Banks :)

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    1. Oh how cool!! I had no idea I was in "cougar and bear country". Did you ever see any?

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  3. No you haven't told us. Spill.

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