Run Faster Always

Running season is in full swing, and summer is trying to hit Bend, which makes it officially my favorite time of the year. It's warm enough that I don't need layers upon layers upon layers for even a long run, cool enough that I don't have to make sure there's a water source halfway through my run, and sunny and gorgeous. Aren't you jealous?

On Sunday, I chose to take my long run up some hills on the West side of town.

Now something you should know that I haven't talked about before. Bend is divided in two: Eastside and Westside. We live on the Eastside, which used to be the less favorable side of town -- and while still developing, is getting nicer by the minute. Westside is still the nice side of town, as it features heights and buttes that allow for expansive homes with excellent views of the surrounding area, including Mt. Bachelor, the Sisters and Mt. Hood.

I prefer the Eastside, because much like the waterfront properties of Manhattan beach, unless you're dropping millions on a home even in this economy, you are living cheek to cheek with your neighbors. Our friends who live in Northwest Crossing, which is a fancier but still middle-class area, literally have four square feet of lawn as their "backyard."

I like a little breathing room, thankyouverymuch.

Anyways, if you want to run hills in this town (unless its Pilot Butte, which is 1.25 miles from my house and then a mile straight up and a mile straight down), you have to run on the Westside.

So I did.

I mapped out my 9 miles beforehand, and went running.

It is amazing how distances shrink when you have to run longer ones. There's a road that loops around a large butte on the Westside that I've been dying to run -- which I included in my run on Sunday -- due to the vistas it provides, and as it takes ten minutes or so to drive it, I figured it had to be long. Even with a generous loop, I still had to do some out and back stuff to get 9 miles in! The place you live in shrinks in size when you start putting the miles under your feet.

It's amazing, it really is.

The main point of this post, as meandering as it has been, was to tell you that I ran a ginormous hill on Sunday.

And then, for kicks, I ran another.

And then one that kept going.

All before mile 5.

And then I reached the top, and was rewarded with a gorgeous view of Bachelor and the Sisters, Brokentop and Mt. Hood. With such a gorgeous sunny day like we had on Sunday, you could see forever and it was amazing. Totally worth all the hills. And the four miles I had to run to get back to my car.

Ciao,
kc