Headed home….

….But not before celebrating National Doughnut Weekend at the famed VooDoo Donuts in Portland with Sarah and Emilie and Larry.

I cannot get over the perfect weekend we had on the west coast but I am so excited to get home to the 98 degree weather in Memphis and the million percent humidity…..seriously though.  I have a pretty fantastic life there – a new roommate, an enthusiastic (most the time 🙂 ) running group, an improving beginners’ running group quickly approaching their first 5k, classes to teach, classes to take (Human A&P starts tomorrow at University of Memphis!), races to run (Gibson Guitar 5k anyone?!), and friends to see.  I don’t have another state planned yet but will be looking for one to participate in before the St. Jude race in December.

What’s the plan now you ask?  I need to rest my achy right knee and sore left hip flexor but will be back to the Wednesday morning Pack run this week.  There will be lots of 5ks to run as we enter that season.  As the heat increases, my weekly mileage will decrease slightly as a few runs each week are replaced by Spinning or swimming.  I consider June and early July to be my off-season and late July to August to be the pre-season.  So the intensity and frequency of running will back off a little as I focus on strength, flexibility and cross training to get to race weight by the end of the month (gonna have a long way to go after this weekend…..remember those three cakes from Friday?!?).

Don’t worry, that doesn’t mean the blog or the group runs disappear…I’ll keep you in the loop – especially in growing anticipation for St. Jude (and hopefully inspire some of you to run it with us!)  I’m on a fantastic blogging streak and I’m hoping to keep it up – so let me hear from you what you want to hear from me!  What do you want to know about Memphis?  About my life in Memphis?  About fitness?  About wellness?  Remember I’m not just a runner, I’m a trainer too!  Email me – jlsprenkel@gmail.com!

The Most Exhausting Post-Race Ever….

….

Normally I would celebrate a big race with a good meal, a bath and a mega-nap.  Not in Oregon.  We had things to see.  While we waited around for our results to be posted (unaware of our fantastic age-group awards!), we gathered our goodies.  This included fantastic tech t-shirts, finisher’s medals and snacks galore.  I even was chosen to receive a free massage!

Medals and tech shirts!

great shirt and medal, each with an outline of the mountain and an evergreen tree.

 

Getting ready for the post-race rubdown!

the brave souls from central Oregon graciously gave runners a post-race rub down.  my muscles were sore and tight and she could tell!

The Runners and their support team (which thankfully did not include the ambulance in the background!)

 

Post-race fuel! BIG burger, fries and oreo milkshake!

We enjoyed re-fueling at a place called Huckleberry Inn in Government Camp.  Big ole burger and oreo shake for me!  Well deserved by all I’d say!  Little did I know how much I would need that fuel for the whirlwind tour that lay ahead….

Mt. Hood - so much snow!

 

First stop –

Caulk the wagon and float or ford across?

Mt. Hood and the river.  Would you have caulked the wagon and floated across or tried to ford the river?  I chose to ford it.  It looked to be a pretty shallow one.

 

A little out of practice....I'll get it back!

In celebration of my return to yoga, I started doing Royal Dancer poses again….a little rusty.

Second stop-

The Columbia River Gorge. So close to Washington!

Columbia River Gorge – that’s Washington across the river!

Third and Fourth Stops –

A series of waterfalls along the base of the gorge

 

Falls along the River

The Portland skyline - my dad took this picture out of the sunroof of Larry's moving car! Pretty talented I'd say..

Big thanks to Uncle Larry for chauffeuring us all around Oregon.  And to Nathan for putting up with the in and out of the car.  The rest of the evening we celebrated with my Aunt Heidi and her crew of Brian, Kevin, Stephen, Katie and Shawn at Buffalo Wild Wings.  We’re a wild group together and the cousins almost had Nathan and Dad convinced to try the Buffalo Wild Wings Challenge – but they dodged a bullet there….

 

 

State 6: Oregon, Timberline Half Marathon

Good morning readers and runners!  It’s a travel day for me again (the skies here are getting gray, it’s time to leave…) but as promised, here’s the story from the race yesterday! 

Now, I would like to thank all of you who believed me when I said we ran our fastest time ever.  And I would especially like to thank the loyal fans who believed we did it in 1:28:19 (that would be fast for 13.1 miles for me) – you must have forgotten about that extra mile!  Now before you get all fired up at me for lying to you, you should know that we DID get a personal best (the beauty of running obscure distances!) for a 14 mile race and we both placed in our age groups!  My dad was first out of one and I was third (out of 14…the beauty of running small races!).  Our official time was 2:19:33 (avg. pace 9:50).  I finished 20th of the female runners and first in runners from Memphis!  Enjoy some photos (and thank me later for carrying the disposable camera the entire 14.2 miles!)

State #6!

I am so official with my disposable camera!

Our first Gu stop, also a great photo op - Lake Timothy in the background!

The trail running was a completely different experience!  It would be great for any runners who have an attention or focusing problem because you’re constantly having to watch where you’re stepping!  It does make it hard to enjoy the scenery sometimes though because you’re always looking at your feet!

Action shot! Look at that trail!

Everyone on the course was really friendly.  It must be a trail runner thing or an Oregonian thing…lots of laughing, comraderie and sportsmanship – here are a few things we heard:

• “Keep it up sister, you look strong!” in response to my “This city girl is not used to the hills…”
• “Don’t worry, I’ve already fallen three times and I’ll share my band-aids with you” in response to Dad’s “Whoa, almost fell there (tripped on a root and really did almost faceplant)”
• “Want me to take a picture of the both of you?” at our first Gu stop.

Our cheer squad was waiting for us by the dam (about mile 9). I was so surprised and happy to see them!

More than halfway and still feeling strong!

There we go.....

Another Gu stop, and another photo op!

I can't get over the beauty! Incredible views!

By this point my left hip flexor and right knee were in a lot of pain so I was happy for any stop we took!  They’re both still a little sore today – I’m hoping it’s just a combination of roots, rocks and ups and downs.

Another action shot!

Our last ascent back to the finish line....it was killer!

We hit our last patch of snow and luckily I had one photo left on the disposable!  There was a big patch in the middle (also our slowest mile) where we spent most of our time hopping back and forth across the trail trying to avoid the giant mud puddles.  The “real” runners took no such time to avoid any puddles, they plowed right through it!  City girl didn’t want to get her feet wet!

There was snow sprinkled throughout the course!

 

This post is not quite complete but we have big plans for one last morning of touring…..VooDoo Doughnuts anyone?!?!  See you back in Memphis!