5 Miles and Portland Pictures

Ran 5 miles this morning. That distance feels a lot better than the 3 miles I have been running. I have time to get settled in a bit before I'm finishing up. After a little mixup, I received the correct links to my Portland pictures this morning. I am pleased that the pictures pretty much confirm how I felt during the race: running easy and comfortable through 24 miles then working to the finish. Picture #1 is approximately 17.1 miles after crossing the St. Johns Bridge. This is just after I looked around and said "see ya" to the runners around me! Picture #2 is at 19.1 miles as we passed the University of Portland campus. Picture #3 is mile 21.1. The runner in Purple ended up finishing nearly 7 minutes behind me! Picture #4 is on the Broadway Bridge at about mile 24.1. I had just begon to contemplate closing so the effort level was incrasing about here. The last picture is pretty typical. I'm always looking at my watch as I cross the finish line. I never remember to look for the camera or celebrate finishing.

OK, now I have relived the race one last time. Time to get ready for bed!

One last thing: I love telling a bunch of runners to go run 7-10 miles and they DO IT! I keep getting more excited about what my runners are going to do in February!