The Oregon Coast

After running the 10,000m at the Portland Track Festival on Friday night, Andrea and I had a full weekend in Portland/Oregon before we had to fly back to SLC on Sunday night... we took full advantage of our time, as you would expect!

Forest Park - Leif Erikson Drive

We kicked off Saturday morning with a run at Forest Park on Leif Erikson Drive - a gravel / dirt road closed to traffic. It was very cool, like a rainforest back there (I guess maybe it actually is a rainforest?). From there we headed out to the coast and spent the afternoon/evening in Seaside, OR. I don't even want to tell you how much ice cream we ate... the amount is slightly embarrassing and you wouldn't even believe it. Lets just say that they had $1 cones at the beach, and Safeway has the best Moose Tracks. Good thing we went for another afternoon run on the beach! :-)

On Sunday, after Andrea knocked out a good tempo run (accompanied by her personal pacer, me), we did a lot of walking around Cannon Beach and Ecola State Park. These areas were classic Oregon coast - big wide beaches, towering rock monoliths, and it was always chilly!

You would think that a stop at Dairy Queen would have been the highlight of the drive back to Portland on Sunday afternoon, but that is actually debateable. The clouds broke and with the clear skies, we had some amazing views of Mt Hood and Mt St Helens. Seeing those mountains made us think one thing - we need to get back to the PacNW with our skis!

Women's 10K at PTF - 4 of these gals went under the OT "A" standard of 32:45

$1 cones in Seaside!

Seaside

Can't really get far off the ground the day after a 10K! Achilles don't bounce back that quickly!

She can fly, though!

Our hotel was along this river, 2 blocks from the beach

The good stuff!

Cannon Beach

Ecola State Park - Crescent Beach

Very cool to see a forest with giant trees right next to the ocean

Stop on the way back to Portland

Mt Hood!