8 miles/1:29:12
Actually, this was probably more like 8½ miles...
I was expecting another Terwilliger run to give us plenty of hills to prepare us for Helvetia, and was surprised when the route took us out onto the east side of the river on a long straight route to 32nd or so for the turn around.
I had forgotten that the east side has hills too.
I set off with one of my regular Saturday running buddies, C, and crossed the Hawthorne bridge. What was really cool was that we got to see the bridge open! I have been on roads waiting for a bridge to come down again so I could cross, but actually being on the span when the sirens and the flashing lights are going off and trying to get to the other side before it starts moving was pretty exciting. This was all in aid of the end of Rose Festival, when the naval ships which have been berthed in Portland sail away again.
Just on the other side of the bridge C had to abandon because of a persistent Achilles injury he's had problems with. I suddenly found myself off the end of the group of runners, but that was because most of the yellows had been stopped on the west side of the bridge whileit cycled through.
Heading away from the river, I remembered that the east side does indeed have hills - shallow hills, to be sure, but long. It was up hill for all of that 32 blocks, trundling along the pavement avoiding tree roots (although the pavement was a better bet than the road because the camber was so large).
There are some nice residential areas on the east side which we ran through, like Irvington and Hawthorne. We looked in both of these areas last year, but they weren't practical for commuting. Still pretty, though.
The flip side of uphill is the downhill on the other side (or the way back, as in our case). Good training for shortening your stride and doing heel to toe on the really steep bits (all that moorland rambling I did as a kid has paid off there), and just letting gravity do the work.
Good run, and a nice thing to be doing on my birthday.
Posted by Dunx at June 12, 2004 06:03 PM