Cascade Lakes Relay - Brent thought I was Crazy, and I Agree!

Top: our first middle-of-the-night runner, Kelly, who kicked some butt on her leg and other teammates Larry and Eric

Bottom: Me finishing up my first leg

In attempt to make some friends and not spend every day wallowing in my loneliness, I joined a running group called the Red Lizards (http://www.redlizardrunning.com/). I joined this particular group because, in addition to training and running races, they go out, eat, drink and do volunteer events. I love running, but if I only met hard-core runners in a group - like the kind of group that's made up primarily of runners that weigh 100 pounds that I could eat for breakfast if it weren't for the fact they have no meat - I'm not sure I'd enjoy it. The Red Lizards are awesome. I've met so many wonderful and fantastic individuals of all ages and running abilities.

So, anyhoo, I was asked to join a group of 11 other runners to partake in the Cascade Lakes Relay (http://www.cascadelakesrelay.com/) because the 12th runner had to drop out. Now, having just discovered this, the Cascade Lakes Relay is the longest relay in the country at 216.6 miles stretching from Crater Lake to Bend, Oregon. Each runner runs three different legs - I ran leg 12, 24 and 34. The baton is passed off just like any other relay, from runner 1 to runner 2 to runner 3 and so on. In total, our 12 runners took about 33 hours to cover the 216.6 miles. My team was fantastic in every sense of the word: supportive, funny, laid-back, and didn't take the race too seriously.

I'll tell you why I do agree that engaging in these sorts of activities is crazy. First off, my second leg was at 4 in the morning after 1.5 hours of sleep. Secondly, you get to know your five other van mates really well and only a runner would be able to take the stench of the van. Third, you're running... and A LOT. But, I loved every minute of it. I loved the challenge, I loved the running, I loved getting to know these five practical strangers. I loved the fact that I tried to go out after the race on Saturday and fell asleep in the chair at 10:30pm.

Here were my three legs. I ran a lot faster than I thought I was capable of. The weather was atrocious (90-100+ during the day) and the elevation of most of the runs was at 4000-5000ft.

Leg 12: 5.3 miles, 5pm, 4300-4500ft elevation: 42:55
Leg 24: 6.6 miles, 4am, 4300ft elevation: 55:02
Leg 34: 6.0 miles, ~noon,all downhill starting at 5800ft and ending at 4500ft, but in blazing heat: 45:45

If you move to a new place and don't know anyone, join some sort of athletic group. It's worth it.

Wedding Pictures

Soooo, it's about time I organized my wedding pictures. Going through 2000 is no easy feat. Now that I've picked what I think are the 250-300 best ones, how do I organize them?! I'm thinking about putting them in one of those photo books. What do you all think? That way, I don't have to painstakingly put them into the plastic covered slots in a photo album. Doing that for 300 photos would make me want to drink an arsenic shake.

For those of you who (or like the 3 people that read this blog) want to see the pictures, I organized them into two albums:

1: http://www.kodakgallery.com/ViewSlideshow.action?&collidparam=28345398805.507485360805.1249450066468

2: http://www.kodakgallery.com/ViewSlideshow.action?&collidparam=28345398805.507485360805.1249450066468

Hopefully those should work. Moms and relatives: I intend to also get you a photo book album, but I want to order them first to make sure I like them before I get them for everyone else.

Beer Fests

(Above: Crowd at Oregon Brewers Fest on Saturday,
Below: Brent and Marianne enjoying tasty microbrew)

(Above: Marianne at Bones and Brew)

If you like beer, you'd like Portland. Even if you're a non-beer fan, you'd still like Portland, but this post is dedicated to the wonderful world of beer. Portland is the microbrewery capital of the world. THE WORLD. Cool, huh? I can't even begin to name all the different big and small breweries out there. What I do know is that every weekend we've been here we've been able to find some sort of festival dedicated (or partially dedicated) to tasting beer.

Oregon Brewers Festival 2009 - July 23 - 26 - http://www.oregonbrewfest.com/
Depending on when you go to this festival (it's a four day affair), the event is either really enjoyable or you feel like you're trapped in sauna with drunk frat boys surrounding you while the smell of porta potty drifts down in your direction. We decided to go two nights. Thursday night was more the the former. Brent and I decided to bike to the festival instead of drive. Since it was the opening day and a Thursday, it was a little slower, easy to get a beer, and no one falling over drunk. I can't tell you how many people we met from Wisconsin!!! Oregonians and Wisconsinites share a love of beer. A few of Brent's fellow residents came out (they are a great bunch). After a few beers, we biked home (don't worry Moms we weren't in danger of getting a Bike DUI).

Saturday, on the other hand was... interesting. We went late afternoon while the sun was blazing and the temperatures were in the 90s. The place was packed (see picture), we had to wait in line for 5 minutes to get a sample, and half naked drunk-off-their-ass frat boys had taken over the place. So... next year, we'll try to avoid Saturday late-afternoon/night.


Bones and Brew - August 1+2 - http://www.rogue.com/events/bones-and-brew.php

Bring together really delicious Rogue Beer and BBQ and you've got this small, but fun festival. Having just finished the Cascade Lakes Relay the day before (I will post about this later, but I ran 18 miles in 24 hours), I thought I deserved food and beer - and a lot of it.

We became Rogue Nation members and were sworn in before the rib contest. I have a Rogue Nation tattoo that, given my luck, will never come off. There was a kobe beef stuffed with blue cheese eating contest that I totally wanted to enter, but Brent wanted to leave because it was too hot. Booo, I am such a good eater, I bet I would've won! One of these days, I'll enter an eating contest and win. I seriously think I could part of the IFOCE - International Federation of Competitive Eating - http://www.ifoce.com/.

We left earlier than we probably would've because it was so darn hot out. There is a new record in Portland as we've had 10 consecutive days of 90+ degrees. Ugh. It's supposed to cool later this week though.

Just a side note, there was totally a Stuart look-a-like and the picture we took at the festival was REALLY trying to get him in it. It was kind of awkward and starting to get really obvious so we gave up. But, Stu, you have a look-a-like in Portland!

The rest of New England Trip.... finally!

Alright, this time, I'm going to stay on top of my Blog. I was going to write more about my trip to New England, but I'll sum it up in a few sentences. We went to a fabulous wedding in Booth Bay Harbor Maine. Brent's med school classmates, Noah Hoffman (who was also one of Brent's groomsmen), and Sarah Goodrich got married. The wedding (July 18th) was absolutely beautiful and the weather cleared up by Sunday to enjoy some of Maine. The only thing was that my hangover did not clear up until noon on Sunday (eventually the main desk called us and told us we had to get out of there so I had no other choice) so there was only limited Maine enjoyment. We got to see quite a few friends (Kelly Murphy, my L-town girls: Kara, Bridget and Amy, Marius and Brittany, Ben, Gabe and Jen and their new baby) and I saw all of my immediate family!

Stuart, thanks for your post about Trivia. You HAVE to go again. You guys rocked it.

Trip to New England - Flight Over

Okay, I have completely sucked when it comes to updating my blog. No real excuse... I was in New England for a week, but what was I doing the other two or so weeks... I don't know, maybe drinking too much, watching too much Michael Jackson coverage, sleeping in too late. But, I'm back on track.

Trip back home was fabulous. It started off with a few freebees on the flight over. First off, on our charter from Portland to Seattle on Horizon Air (yes, remember this wonderful airline) we got a free drink. When was the last time you got a free drink of a flight? Like, I'm not talking the standard soda, tea and coffee. I'm talking about 9 ozs of red wine in a plastic cup. Then, in Seattle, instead of reporting when the last call for our flight to Boston, I HAD to get my food... they were taking forever, but I am so grumpy when not fed. I'd be better off missing my flight. Brent told me to forget about it, only paid for our drink (which I didn't realize) and I took off with my pizza bagel. I still feel bad. Sorry, pizza bagel place.

Arriving in Boston, we were totally wiped. The flight from Seattle to Boston was a red-eye that was only 4.5 hours. We arrived with little sleep on Thursday. But, after a short rest at my super brother Stuart's condo, we were able to take a walk around Boston and pump ourselves up for Trivia. For those of you who aren't familiar with my sketchy past, I used to be a trivia jockey. I went to bars and... well... uh... just kidding, I just read trivia questions in bars over a microphone and kept score. We went to one of my old stomping grounds, Newtowne Grill. Man, I totally missed that place. The bartender, Carol, the $10 pizza and pitcher special, the locals... it has it all. Stuart and Maria joined up with us about half way through and good thing they did. They kicked ass that night. We ended up in a three-way tie for second against like 25 teams. After a tie-breaker (what was American gross for the movie The Wedding Planner), we came in third and got a $10 gift cert. Pretty good...

On Friday, we headed up to Maine for Noah and Sarah's wedding (Noah is a med school classmate of Brent's and was also one of Brent's groomsmen). I am going to write about it next post.

Sunday on the Bikes.

So, Brent and I seem to be reliving our pre-marriage/engagement days when we would sleep until 1 or 2 in the afternoon. Although Sunday morning wasn't THAT bad, we didn't get up until 11. Sometimes the bed is just so comfy, it's virtually impossible to leave it. Today was dedicated to exploring Portland on our bikes. Our first stop: The Blues Festival. Now, Brent and I are not huge Blues fans, but it was entertaining nonetheless. This was due mostly to the $1 meat-on-a-stick and interesting collection of individuals attending. See picture and movie for a better grasp of what I'm talking about.

(1st: Brent and his meat sticks. 2nd: Video of Blue Festival, check out random dude dancing)

After the Blues festival, we decided to trek out bikes around downtown and look at future neighborhoods to live. Along the way, we stopped at the Rose Gardens in Washington Park (an item on the Residents "must do" list, see other blog). It was pretty. Brent's ferrocious appetite made him nearly eat the rare types of rose. Silly Brent. I was getting tired and hungry (I am seriously dead to the world when I'm hungry), so we biked home. All-in-all, a good day.

Happy Birthday, America! We love Silver Falls.

Okay, since we were... umm... sluggish in our start on Friday, we said early rise on Saturday. We did fairly well, getting packed and ready for our trip to Silver Falls in Oregon by 10:30am (that is good for us). It might have been closer to 10am if Brent didn't have to visit the bathroom 10 times. Thank goodness for Immodium or else we'd never get anywhere. I digress. Silver Falls is home to Canyon Trail, a trail that "is a nationally recognized trail system that leads hikers along the banks of the north and south forks of Silver Creek. It takes you to 10 majestic waterfalls, ranging from the grand South Falls (177 feet), to the delicate Drake Falls (27 feet)."

This place was gorgeous. We ended up hiking about 8 miles. The hiking was moderate at it's worst, which was fine with us. I don't have much to say other than if I had visitors, I'll be sure to take them there. I don't even think the pictures do Silver Falls justice. I love Oregon (New Hampshire, don't get jealous, you'll always be the #1 state in my heart. Live Free or Die, baby!)!

We went out on the 4th to one of Brent's fellow resident's (and his very nice doctor girlfriend) house who so kindly invited us to their party. Their home was immaculate and enviable and they've only been in for two weeks. My friend (yay, again, I have a friend) Emily came out to the party sans medical boyfriend (he was working), she rocks! The party provided good times, great food, and absolutely gorgeous views. We could see like ten different firework displays across Oregon from their roof deck. Alas, I forgot my camera and have no photos to prove that we actually were invited to a party. You'll have to trust me. :-)

We came home, passed out on the couch. Unfortunately, I don't have any wild crazy stories from the 4th. Send me yours so I can live vicariously through them.