Friday night I went out for a 10 mile tempo run for the Portland Marathon which happens this Sunday. My goal was an 11 minute pace (my goal for the marathon). Somehow I managed sub 11 minute over the 10 miles with at least one pretty substantial hill. Definitely more hilly than the marathon course will be! Hopefully I feel that good come Sunday. We did happy hour at Oswego Grill with Deb on Friday night after my run.
Saturday we drove down to Crater Lake. On the way there we passed LOTS of smoke and drove right past the central command for a large 11,000' acre fire. Apparently there were two pretty big fires going on in the area. When we got to Crater Lake, the smoke was obvious to our eyes and our noses. It was a beautiful warm and sunny day but the entire lake had a bit of a haze over it taking away from the would-have-been crystal clear skies. It was still quite the site! We did a few short hikes, the first of which took us from 7400' to 8000' and the top of "The Watchman". On the top we had amazing 360 degree views of the entire Crater Lake area. This trail is actually a spur trail to the PCT and was bore the familiar PCT trail sign marker. We took lots of pictures and I'll post them soon (pic above is from google images). We definitely plan to go back on a day that is not so obscured by smoke and have some other things we want to do there.
After Crater Lake we made the drive up to Bend and checked into our hotel. We went out for a few drinks and strolled around in Downtown Bend which is quite beautiful at night (and during the day). We stopped by Oktoberfest but didn't have any drinks there. It was pretty crazy! At our last stop we had a drink at the bar and got hit on by a group of guys (one of whom looked like he was 12). They were pretty multi-cultural though coming from Mexico, Oxnard and Guatemala. I told the guy from Oxnard that it sucked there and he tried to disagree with me until I said "why are you not still there then?" End of that disagreement..
Sunday we hit the shops in the Old Mill District which was down by the river. River. Old Mill. Makes sense right? It was an incredibly gorgeous day to be perusing the outdoor mall. We made an outlet mall stop after than before heading home and to a birthday dinner in Nob Hill with Lindsey & Amanda (and a couple others). Then we picked up Tobey and the weekend was over. Wow! Not sure if we could have fit much more in but it was quite wonderful. Today is a recovery day. Ahhh.. Mondays...
6 days to Marathon #6...
Happy Running & Dirty Feet,
Jessica
My parents keep asking me to come up there while I have the time. Seeing the photo of Crater Lake and hearing that Bend is an all right town is starting to convince me.
Posted by: Anne | 29 September 2009 at 08:57 AM