After leaving Thomas with my mom and dad, plus John's mom and dad, (as if he'll even miss us!), then picking up Erica and Brad, who'd left Emma and Grace with Heidi and Todd for the weekend, we made yet another escape! Heading down to Portland was filled with talk of race details, training specifics, food consumption, mile post markers, calories, heart rates, splits, Quiznos, goos ( don't ask) lube (don't go there) and body funtions (don't even want to know!). Meanwhile, Erica and I talked about kids, rings, shopping and running topics besides the ones listed above. Oh, we also talked country music, and Brad swears he didn't skim or delete my specific email regarding going to Keith's Vegas show! I'm thinking he's a skimmer! We're trying to figure out who and when our next concert/travel adventure will be, and before the Portland Marathon is even over they're talking about Sacramento and Vancouver. I'm voting for some marathon in the Caribbean, though. Somewhere where I can drop them off at the start and head to the beach to wait it out!
Got detoured off I-5, but curiously, Oregon must not pay for detour signs, and we were on our own trying to take the back road into Portland. Pulled up and valet parked at the hotel, only to realize our room was not much bigger than the closet we stayed in up in Vancouver in the Red Light district for our first marathon experience. Now, let me qualify something for you. Erica referred to our Vancouver Howard Johnson hotel as the "Ho-Jo". Now, I'm going to continue to believe my loving husband did NOT intentionally make Thomas and I sleep in any building with the word "Ho" in it, but the prostitution and drugs happening outside really left a sour taste in my mouth. Our Portland hotel, although not much bigger, was a huge step up in quality. Not sure the Posturpedic beds helped much...Brad reports about 4 1/2 hours of sleep and many potty breaks during the night, with John not doing much better, although we also had troubles with short sheets. Hmmmmmm...
We spent our free evening checking out the race expo, where I ran into an old friend, Scott Schilter, and then off to do a little shopping. Envisioned buying cool jeans for John at Nordstrom, but poor service and a lady telling him to just crawl under the dressing room door had us bolting. John's comment was "You'd think that when you're holding two hundred dollar jeans in your hand you wouldn't have to crawl under a door." John helped me spend my birthday money on a great pair of jeans. Now, this may all sound silly, but I'm passionate about my jeans, and I've looked forward to checking out nice jeans for awhile now. John helping me find just the right ones made my trip even better.
After initial trouble finding a spot to carbo load for dinner, we had a relaxing dinner together. I did throw somewhat of a fit over the brief discussion of just eating at the mall's food court when several restaurants reported two hour waits. I remember my tantrum consisted of "You've got to be kidding! Here we are, in a great city, WITHOUT our children, and we're going to eat at a FOOD COURT!?????!!!" I'll admit, not one of my finer moments, but eating at the mall food court was not in my fantasy getaway adventure! Although Erica and I had big plans of hitting the town and spending our free night having fun, we quickly realized that crawling into bed early sounded so much better. Oh, well. It was a good thought. We spent the end of our night debating coffee for morning (the guys need caffeine before they race in the morning)--- the merits of bad room coffee, lobby coffee, expensive room service coffee, or the corner coffee shop that didn't open early enough for Brad's body time schedule. We even took advantage of the Conciege to help us determine coffee options. In the end, Brad had room coffee and John had his RockStar (toothepaste tasting!) drink.
The race started well, the weather held up nicely, and we managed to see the guys at all three checkpoints. I even ran alongside my friend Tonya for a brief moment, which was the extent of my running this weekend. Our biggest problem was finding a coffee shop open. We killed time in the lobby of a hotel, then made our way to the finish line. We saw lots of silly guys with bleeding nipples, a woman throwing up at the line, and many struggling bodies, but nothing was quite as thrilling as seeing John crossed the line at 3:36, 20 minutes better than his Vancouver time, and Brad came in at 3:59:59, for a sub 4 marathon! Incredibly, despite very little consistent training and non-existent long runs, Brad's body held it together, although his bladder is another story. Ask Brad about the porta-potties in Portland if you ever need some direction! John looked so great at the line. He was in a great mood, and he felt great. I was so happy for him, and excited to see that he didn't look as beat up as he had in Vancouver. It was very impressive, and I'm so thankful his training paid off for him. He worked so hard for this! We congratulated the guys at the finish, sent them on to the hotel to clean up and rest, and we finished up our shopping. The lady in the chocolate shop asked me if I was finishing my marathon race or marathon shopping. I smiled and told her both, as I think supporting a marathon runner through city blocks to checkmarks deserves some credit, and a bit of shopping, too! It's hard being the support, and don't let anyone tell you differently. It's long hours away from them while they train, lots of extra sweaty, stinky laundry to do, anxiety about injury while they're running, the stress of finding coffee while you wait, and then not knowing exactly what to say when they cross the line saying they'll never do that again, only to hear them discussing their training and plans for the next one over dinner that night!
We had a great time, the guys did a fantastic job, and we'll be deciding in the next little while what will be the next challenge they face. Brad mentioned an IronMan a while back. Without much training for this marathon, I'd lay money on him doing it, with a big piece of his training missing, too! He'd just be crazy enough to do it!
A big thanks needs to go out to our parents. Without them, this weekend wouldn't have been anything like it was! It means so much to us to be able to leave our son behind and know he will have a fabulous time and will be well cared for. There are no worries when we leave him, and we are so grateful for our moms and dad who watch him with such love and devotion. You make this possible for us, and we thank you so very much!!! Heidi and Todd, a big thanks for watching the girls. We had a blast, and hope you know how much we appreciate you watching the girls so Brad and Erica could run away with us!
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