Well I didn't keep up the blog as intended, but I did keep up on the training and fund-raising & those were most important. For all those that supported me, encouraged me and made donations to LAF, THANK YOU! Here's a short recounting of the event.
The Portland LiveStrong Challenge was awesome and I owe you each a round of thanks for your encouragement and support. I was extremely honored to be part of an elite group of 49 people (out of 3,000) that raised over $3,000 in support of LAF. All told the participants raised over a million dollars!
The heat wave which had me concerned did materialize but I'll take the heat over cold/rain for riding in any day! As long as the bike was moving the air movement kept the 102 degree heat at bay. Trip started out w/ some *hiccups* but ended very well, I hope you get a laugh out of this and don’t simply think me a goofball.
~Plane from LAX to SF was delayed 40 min due to smoke from fires, this left me & 2 others *racing* to the connection w/ 0 minutes to spare, but it worked out, they had held the plane.
~A minor altercation between a man & woman (not traveling together) a few seats up - made for a bit of drama. Thankfully no physical violence! Cops were waiting at the gate as they deplaned.
~Dinner w/ the team & friend of a friend Friday night at Imbrie Hall was great fun. We did have a long wait for our food, the place is very popular. Some resident spiders dropped in (literally!) along with an unseen nut tossing squirrel which periodically pelted us with discards. Did I mention we were sitting outside?
~A minor altercation between a man & woman (not traveling together) a few seats up - made for a bit of drama. Thankfully no physical violence! Cops were waiting at the gate as they deplaned.
~Dinner w/ the team & friend of a friend Friday night at Imbrie Hall was great fun. We did have a long wait for our food, the place is very popular. Some resident spiders dropped in (literally!) along with an unseen nut tossing squirrel which periodically pelted us with discards. Did I mention we were sitting outside?
~I neglected taking my hosts address with me and drove around 45 min at 11:30 PM Friday night after dinner trying to find their house. I was getting a bit frantic. I tried to call them but turned out they had forwarded their cell # to the house and had accidentally mis-dialed the # so it went into the great unknown.
~The night time conditions made it nearly impossible for me to read the map (this despite having a small flashlight). Dismayed I went and purchased a pair of “readers” the next day.
~The night time conditions made it nearly impossible for me to read the map (this despite having a small flashlight). Dismayed I went and purchased a pair of “readers” the next day.
~Saturday I locked the keys in the car - oops. Thankfully a fellow participant was armed with some bungee cords and I was able to fish the keys out in record time.
~The Saturday night appreciation dinner (fund raisers over 3K + some guests) was awesome, excellent food, very inspirational. Lance spoke and presented awards to the top fundraiser (over 35K) and the top fundraising team. Evan Handler was also present and did a reading from his book It’s Only Temporary: The Good News and Bad News of Being Alive.
RIDE Sun was hot, but much better than last year’s rain! The bike I rented from Waterfront Cycles was great. I chatted with team members Mark & Susan off and on during the ride and another gal about bunnies (she had a stuffed bunny on her bike). I shaved a bit of time off from last year, I was much more comfortable and the mild hypothermia from last year was far from my mind. Fields of hay stretched along much of the course which wound around mostly Washington County, including Beaverton, Hillsboro, Cornelius and North Plains. It is really a beautiful area, if you have not been I encourage you to take a long weekend and visit Portland.
One of the best benefits this year was being able to TAKE A SHOWER after the ride!!! Nike world headquarters is in Beaverton and they are they were the lead corporate partner for the Portland LiveStrong Challenge. Being able to see their beautiful campus was well worth the registration fee. The fitness center (AKA The Lance Armstrong Fitness Center) boasts full Olympic sized pool, rock climbing wall, gigantic equipment room with dozens, if not a hundred spin cycles, lounge, and *the nicest* locker room. Complementary product and nice towels abounded. I understand the second story has several conference rooms and other amenities.
Went to the awards ceremony and got team pix w/ Lance: the one above isn’t it, but it is “the team” right before the pix w/ Lance. Hung out, eating, drinking and being merry for a few hours afterwards. It was great to be able to get to know the folks (more) this year & add some new faces to the mix. Took the bike back w/o incident (had to pull both wheels off to stuff it in the rental Yaris).
Monday went on a hike in Forest Park (off the trail head at Pittock Mansion), with my hosts Keith & Elizabeth down to the Audubon Society. Beautiful forest - trees/shade/happiness. Toured the mansion, very cool. Tuesday I took in the rose garden & Japanese gardens & hit the Ram's Head for a to-go smoked mozzarella sandwich - yum. Parking in that area is a bear!! Was short on time so didn't get to explore or even hit the Moonstruck shop. Got to the check-in counter at the airport w/ about 10 minutes to spare & 9 minutes worth of people in line. The 45 minutes was *just* enough time to deal w/ security and chow down the sandwich before boarding. Flight home was uneventful - yippee! I could do a Portland trip every 3 mo I think! Thank you FOR BEING THERE WITH ME!
