Bridge to Brews, or how the sun made an appearance in Portland.

Yesterday was awesome.

 My second event of the year happened! Bridge to Brews is an 8k/10k course that crosses two bridges and finishes up at Widmer, one of Portland's first breweries (and home to one of the first beers I actually enjoyed, the ubiquitous Hef). The sun decided to reappear for the event, something that I know most of the runners were praying for. It was super cold, but when you have the sun instead of rain, you can't complain!

This was a challenging course. Right after the starting line, you had to climb an intense hill and then follow it up with a long uphill onramp onto one of my favorite bridges, the Fremont Bridge!

The Fremont is a car only bridge, but is opened to pedestrians a couple times during the year. Crossing that bridge has been on my mind a lot lately. I LOVE the view from the car and being able to stop would be heaven. And it was.

 

 I am a super giddy nerd.

The rest of the course (after the very long downhill portion, weee!) was pretty flat and took the runners through NW Portland and past my favorite tattoo studio. We then got to cross another bridge, the Broadway bridge, another favorite of mine.

That last mile was a tough one for me. My farthest distance before this was 3.7 miles, so my legs were definitely feeling it. But I tried to run as much as I could and beat my previous per mile time by 10 seconds. I am so proud of myself right now. I never thought of myself as an athlete, let alone a runner. It's been a hard journey but crossing the finish line makes it all worth it. Oh, and so does this:

I ran with my friend Libby and new friend MJ. My sister in law also ran this course! She gets huge props, she is deathly afraid of bridges and has been battling some foot problems. She finished barely 9 minutes after me!

After we finished slopping beers all over ourselves (it was COLD and the cups were full!) we decided to get breakfast in NE Portland at a great little cafe called New Deal. They had tofu scramble and I was able to sub veggie sausage for a buttermilk biscuit. I cleaned that plate to its former sparkling white self.

I also wanted to add my finish line photo, because it's so great. I'm working on actually smiling for cameras, and this was the result. I kinda love it.

(thanks to Libby and Karen for the photos!!)