Another Busy Saturday

Marie's friend, Rose, spent Friday night with us at our house. She is pregnant and Marie is going to be the Douala at the birth. We discussed education and pregnancies for a few hours and then went to bed. On Saturday Marie and I had a race to get to at 11. We all ate breakfast together and then Rose headed to Portland and Marie and I headed to the Coast Range to participate in the Trask Mountain Assault.

The Assault is awesome. It is a cross-country race sponsored by our high school. They race middle schools, high schools and there is an open division. I ran it last year and was trying to train for it this year. There are 2 river crossings and 4 mud bogs, as well as 2 ...um...puddles is the closest word for it. The worst part is that there is a .5 mile uphill climb to the top of Trask. It is a killer. This year I walked 3/4 of it. The mud is awesome. There is a downhill which they fill with mud, and I sat on my butt and "sledded" down the hill slaloming past other runners. It saved me a lot of time. Marie did the same thing.

I am not sure times or places this week. I finished right around 30 minutes. Last year my time was around 33:30, so I knocked off about 3 minutes. Marie finished under 35 I am pretty sure.
We returned home, sore, tired and filthy. Marie hosed off our clothes, and we both took extended time on our showers.

Marie took a nap, and I decided to finish up a wine rack that was a project I started a few weeks ago. We did not have any nails or screws so I picked up some supplies this week. I made the rack out of wood in our fire wood pile. I have no idea how old it is, or when/where it came from. It is 2 old 2X6's and some tongue and groove pieces that could be from an old floor? All the tools I had were a hand saw, hammer, nails, measuring tape and I used a cordless drill to help make initial holes on some pieces. It turned out ok (better than Marie expected) but it isn't great. It will work for our needs though.

After that, Marie and I drove to Portland to see Beethoven's 9th Symphony from the Oregon Symphony. It was incredible. It is one of my favorite pieces because of the use of voice and chorus in a symphony. Also the 2nd movement is just fun. I saw a fellow Mac Teacher there and Marie ran into a friend at intermission. At the end of the show, people were leaping out of the seats to give ovations. Myself included. When the choir hit the finale and the Ode to Joy that we all know to well, I teared up and my heart was full. Incredible. Afterwards, Marie and I joined her friend, Jess and her boyfriend John, to go to a cocktail bar and had drinks and dessert. It was another big Saturday and Marie asked me which race and concert is next week. My only answer is that the Portland Marathon is next Saturday........