After finishing Day 3 of Christmas Camp I was truly wondering if I would be able to finish this beast: I was tired, sore and not enthused. Turns out it was most likely I was just plain done with all the snow running. It is amazing how much the slipping and sliding adds weird aches and pains to the body.
Sunday we planned to run 21 miles.
In the morning before church we were going to do the loop around the waterfront as in Day 3 and then do neighborhood loops to make the other 9 miles.
We started out from the Old Spaghetti Factory at 7:30 with a smaller group than Day 3 but just as enthusiastic. It was surprisingly warm and not too windy or rainy. And the best part: all the snow was GONE! Wahoo! It was amazing how much faster and easier the same loop was from the day before. I even had the urge to pick it up and drop some marathon pace miles as we went through Oaks Bottom on the Springwater corridor. I could hardly believe it when we reached the Selwood Bridge. And then the crowning glory was all the water was gone from Willamette Park. Now if only they would open the outhouses in the off season! With a little time to spare after the loop Trisha and I did a little out and back to end with 12 miles in the bank. The rest of the group finished up with a reverse loop.
After a great church service with awesome Christmas music from the worship team (thanks guys!), and some quiet time with visiting brother, sister-in-law and Grandma it was time to hit the road again.
Trisha and I did 2 loops of the neighborhood at a nice pace. Both of us were again surprised at how good we were feeling. Trisha then peeled off to do a walk loop with Grandma. I figured I had nothing to lose so I dropped the hammer for the last ~5km loop...around 21 minutes. Felt great to finally do some faster running after all the sloggin' in the snow.
After taking the family to Five Guys (were I resisted the temptation and only had some peanuts to stay on the fueling plan for bootcamp) we headed to the zoo. I seriously considered logging the miles we did walking around the Zoo Lights...I think they need to work on their traffic flow :-) Saw the new baby elephant, the light display and rode the train. I was getting tired, cold and hungry but we still had lots of fun and it is always great to see things through the eyes of the kids.
Today was pretty much a rest day. I did bootcamp in the morning (no rest there for the arms...ouch!) and then burned up some of my "extra" miles to only log 5.1 miles. Trisha was trying to wimp out and do 7 treadmill miles since it was raining hard this morning. But she stepped up and headed out into the elements when all the treadmills were full at 24 hr Fitness.
The great part is it appears that winter is over for Portland...none too soon for my liking! We even got mail today (after about a week) and I heard garbage trucks in the neighborhood (after no pickup for almost 2 weeks).
Christmas Camp total for the 5 days: 62 miles (100 km).
Hope every is enjoying there own end of year challenge?!
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