Over the Hill (work) and Birthday Cake... (Chocolate Stout Cake with raspberry frosting)

Saturday's awesome hill...

The tip of the arrow touches the top of the hill where I start my decline.

My sweet husband drove me to the top of this hill with the goal to meet me at the bottom and drive me to the top again for a total of 5 miles of running down a 14% grade hill.  I'm training for Hood To Coast's first leg starting at Timberline Lodge.  It's a doozer of a leg... quite the incline (err, decline!).... but lucky for me I found a great hill!  Steeper than the popular Terwilliger Hill in Portland...

And this hill I found is quite the run.  I ran one mile down it and was incredibly sore in my calves.  Yikes!  This is a great workout!  

When I got to the bottom of the hill, one mile complete, my run plans were dashed when I found my husband with his head under the hood of our broken down car.  It was running, but would not disengage from park.  Something was up with the transmission?  Well, after ditching the car and going home to do some research, he found that the solution was a 10 minute trip to the autopart store for new fuses.  I'll have to tackle this amazing, steep hill some other time.  

In the meantime, while hubstud worked on the car (at my hill), I analysed my amazing hill's decline to that of Hood To Coast's first leg.  Huh.

My one mile descent was 400 feet.

Leg one at HTC covers an average of 500 feet in a mile... (unless I'm reading the graph wrong...)  One hundred more feet per mile, I'm venturing to guess, is going to be quite a difference.  Oh boy.  Feeling nervous.

Well, when I was done fretting over the hill work and hubstud finished working on the car, it was time to celebrate his birthday.  Last year's cake was the "Mario and Princess Peach" Toasted Pecan Cake (and a blog post about how supportive and amazing he is to help me with my training... I'd like to also state that he isn't really a runner.  [Not yet anyway... ;) ]).

So, I suppose to stay consistent, here's the recipe for this year's cake.  As you can see, he is still amazing, super supportive and helpful with my running.  :)  

I'm a lucky girl. 

Chocolate Stout Cake with Raspberry Buttercream frosting

Cake:

2 C flour

1/2 C unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/4 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

2 sticks of unsalted butter

1 1/2 C light brown sugar

2 large eggs

~ 2 cups (or less) of Rogue Chocolate Stout  (save the rest to drink with the completed cake, or just drink it while the cake bakes and enjoy the Voodoo Doughnut Pretzel, Raspberry & Chocolate Ale with the cake!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Butter/grease a 9 inch cake pan.

Mix together flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt. 

In a separate bowl, beat together sugar and butter until fluffy.  Beat in eggs and then stir in half the flour mixture until well incorporated.  Then stir in half the beer, mix and the rest of the flour and mix.  Then the rest of the beer.  

Pour into cake pan and bake about 35 min or until center of cake is cooked.  (Insert a "cake tester" or toothpick and if it comes out clean, cake is fully cooked.)

Frosting:
1/2 C salted butter (to go with the pretzel theme of the ale... unsalted is fine also)
3 to 4 C powdered sugar

1/4 C raspberry jam

splash of milk if frosting is too thick...

In a mixing bowl, cream together (with electric mixer) jam and butter until incorporated.

Add powdered sugar (one cup at a time) until desired consistency is achieved.

If it's too thick, add a little milk.

Spread on cooled cake!

We enjoyed the cake.  Here's to loving life... and loving some hill work in my future.

Do you think my hill is good enough?  

Race recaps from a volunteer perspective: Crazy cornstarch raves and hiking up a hill in 80's costumes.

April 26th and 27th I volunteered at two local races. 

Two completely different races.... supporting one cause.

A friend posted on facebook about a new race that needed volunteers, so I thought "What the heck?  Why not?  I'm not racing so why not go help out?"  (And it's a cause that is important to me.) So I emailed The Portland chapter of Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America and signed myself up to volunteer for their Sunday Morning race "The Rad 80's Run".  The email also stated that if I could volunteer the night before at "The Cosmic Run" that race would donate $80 to the CCFA.

Okay, sure.  A chance to be at a race that I couldn't really afford to run and help make it fun for others.  That sounds good to me.

This is an account of my adventures.

Sat. April 26th, Cosmic Run.  Check-in time, 7pm.  Weather, rainy and cold.

My first clue that this wasn't the typical type of "fun run" that I was used to was a great majority of the volunteers were smoking.  

Eww.  Not my thing.  

After politely moving myself upwind from the smoke, we broke up into groups and I was assigned the "pink station".

After looking at our watches and determining that we had an hour to kill before we were needed, some went to their cars to keep warm and dry from the cold drizzle and others huddled under the staff tent.

One of the volunteers in my group asked if anyone wanted to go for a run to try to keep warm?  Certainly not keep dry, but keep the blood flowing.

"Sure, why not?"  I replied... just as two other volunteers asked "Why?"
"...um, to keep warm.  To see the race course?"

That was my second clue that this wasn't a typical type of "fun run".

While out on the course, we were stopped by staff working the event... not once... not twice... but FOUR times "What are you doing?"

"Running the course."

"Why?"
"To kill time and stay warm."

"Why?  Running?"

The fourth time they made room for us on their golf cart and asked if we needed a ride.  

"You just ran 3 miles?"

I couldn't help but smile, I had ran 6 miles earlier that morning too.  I really wish I could convey the amusement there.  It was just so funny to be asked by the people hosting the event, a race no less, why we were running.

I believe the event's focus must have been the concert at the end.

There are 4 color stations in roughly 3 miles of gravel path.  Each station is under black light lamps and the course ended at a concert complete with a light show and a DJ to entertain participants.

my shoes under the lights at my color station.

I wish I had planned accordingly and wore some crazy colors or something that would glow.  The race is most probably not my "thing", though I am looking forward to doing "The Color Run" and have done "Color Me Rad" in the past.

This race is different in that it is after sunset, not many children or as much of a "family focused" event and the general atmosphere just seemed different.  Perhaps the mission is the dame and people will do something like this and get excited about running?

It was fun though, since I was kid-free that night.

Photo credit:  Miguel Mendoza

And when it's raining.... cornstarch and water make a Newtonian liquid.  That is always fun!

After the party was over and volunteering was done, I hurried off home to get some rest before the event the next morning...

Sunday, April 27th, The Rad 80's Run.  Check in at 8am.

This was held at the beautiful Mt. Tabor park.  I had never actually been there before, so I showed up early to run a couple miles to stay both warm and check out the area.  Luckily the rain held off until the event was over!

Participants in 80's gear and wigs 

The event the night before had over 1,000 participants while the 80's Rad run had roughly 100 participants.

VooDoo Doughnut provided some treats for participants (and volunteers) to enjoy.

As a volunteer, I wish there were sandwich boards on the road that said "runner on road" as it seemed that there was some difficulty with cars stopping and waiting for runners to pass on the fork of road that I was standing on to direct runners. 

I also wish that I had a safety vest or orange flag to wear or wave as one car tried to go around me a little too closely and another was not going to stop as I was flagging him to do so.  When I explained to both drivers that the road I was standing in the middle of was closed for a race, both were angry with me for not having a sign to explain that.

Hopefully something this organization will invest in if they continue to do fun events like this.

All in all, it was very pretty and I hope that the participants had as much fun doing the race as I did watching them conquer the hill of a road I was standing on.  I think the race was practically all up hill until they got to the finish stretch. 

As the last runner went past I followed up the hill and quickly got lost.  I think someone moved one of the mall signs made to direct runners.

Go that way...

After calling the race director and having her husband come back up the hill to retrieve me and take me down the hill, I was able to find the finish!

I think it's a cute little race that has a lot of potential and perhaps I'll try it again as a participant instead of a volunteer.

If bling is your thing, they have a cute concept as a finisher's medal.  They have converted a cassette tape with a label with the event information and a ribbon to wear it.

There is a bit of a difference however with what is advertised on the facebook page (on the left) and what participants were given (on the right).

The cassette tape also had the correct date on one side (pictured) and the opposite side had the 28th printed.  Ooops.  The ribbon is also a cheap ribbon used to wrap gifts with a knot tied on the ends, while the one on the left has a visible seam from being the type of ribbon that is sewn.

Just a small detail to point out.  If I had done this race for the bling (as I have done in the past with some races) I would have been disappointed.  Luckily this was for a cause that I feel needs more exposure and more research done for a cure.



Have you volunteered for a race? If not, do you make a point to thank the volunteers you pass on the course?  ;-)

Have you ran a race solely for the finisher's medal? Or for the cause they supported?  Tell me about your experience!

Race Recap: Superhero Fun Run 2k 5k 10k

On August 3rd, my family participated in the second annual "Superhero Fun Run"

A bit of the pre-race party

I had been looking forward to this race like a kid looking forward to Christmas!  I love comic books and superheros... and Free Comic Book Day just doesn't come around soon enough.  My family needed another super fix.  

That's why I wanted to cry the night before the race when hubby started to lose his cookies in the bathroom.  "Well, there goes the race."  I selfishly thought.  

Wait... is that selfish?

I frantically got on facebook and started begging for a double stroller.  I could take both kids on my first 10k, right?  It was a "Fun Run" and no matter how slow I ended up being, it would still be a PR. Right?

I secured a double stroller (and backup arrangement,)  justifying it that if hubby was sick with something he ate or drank, or a virus, he'd like some rest the next day.  (I'd like to race!) ...And it would be good to keep the girls busy out of the house.  

Well, poor guy pulled an all nighter at work and then didn't sleep at all that day, so he was convinced that his episode of being ill was completely based on exhaustion.

Wow.

He couldn't be convinced to stay home.  I guess he was looking forward to this as much as I was! 

So after a night of rest, off we all went to the super race!  And exhausted ourselves again, even more than before.  :)

I am such a bad judge at how many participants are at these types of things, but it was an intimate setting and not a huge crowd.  Maybe 300 people?  I do know that I registered a week before the event, and the first 200 people got a free cape.  I was one of those first 200 people.

The price was right too.  Get a group of 4 runners and pay $6.25 a piece.  Nice!

Hawkgirl

The Superhero Fun Run is a race created to benefit the charity Oregon Music Hall of Fame (which supports music education in Portland's public schools and offers scholarships for continuing music education in college).

Before the race began, there was a fantastic pre race party.  There was a DJ blasting upbeat tunes to get your heart pumping and lots of superheros to get photos with. 

I don't think I have had so much fun before a race!

My friend, in her sexy batgirl costume, attempted to teach me the Oppa Gangnam Style and I'm pretty sure I came off completely clumsy... even in a Wonder Woman outfit.  

Dr. Strange and Spider-Woman

Before the race began, it definitely was a big party scene. This might not have been in everyone's favor. A bit of constructive criticism received on the event's facebook page stated it very accurately: 

"...I know this was labeled a "Fun Run", so when we signed up to have our kids run their first small race (Dad runs marathons so we are familiar with races), we thought it would be a bit more organized. We are used to races with registration, bibs, and a start and finish line. The idea is fun, but to be honest we were pretty disappointed. Maybe this can be corrected for next year otherwise we will probably never do this again.

With bringing young children to these events, there is usually some semblance of order and not a big crowd of chaos. My autistic son had a very hard time, so in the end we left before it even started because we couldn't even figure out where to go to get away from the noise without leaving. Why were the streets not closed? This doesn't seem like a very safe idea."

 While the street was not closed, I also didn't notice any cars attempt to even enter our block. However, that alone doesn't make it safe, or a good idea.

 

Superhero Fun Run responded:

"We are only in our 2nd year, and like all things, it takes time, but we always appreciate feedback, so thank you. Please understand it takes money to do this and more, everyone volunteers their time freely.

We would love to have more sponsors, but raising sponsorship takes time, as they don't all just jump on board, as we grow more sponsors will come on along, and thus more money, so we can afford to close the street (that is not cheap). We’d love to have more volunteers?

We paid for the permits out of our own personal pockets; $1,156.00 dollars today, to us, it's not about how much, but to build upon what is raised goes 100% for music education, as we donate 100% to the charity, again we're growing, so if you hang in there, we promise things will only get better.

We can't have a finish line, gun start, etc. just yet, as the city won't allow it on the Esplanade. We're not big enough for the streets yet, not until we reach about 4 to 5 thousand, as that takes again a lot of money to close streets.

We heard concerns, as we actually went around and asked runners, we heard a lot of positive things as well, and next year the street will be closed, also we’ll offer bibs, shirts, and a pre-registration (two days prior to the event). We will also have volunteers with signs at each turn of the races. Again, we work with what we have now, but we’re growing, and we love all of your support, but we promise to keep getting better!!!!!!

The goal is to keep the same cost, offer more, and always donate 100% to the charity."

I completely respect their response and really have no idea what it must be like to plan an event like this. Especially without a lot of financial backing. I've taken for granted that the races I've registered for are hosted by larger venues who have held races a dozen times.

It would have been nice though to have a little sidewalk chalk directing our paths a bit. It doesn't take much for me to get lost and in no time at all I was the only superhero trotting along the sidewalks of Portland's Waterfront.

Homeless people flicked dimes at me.

But some nice shoppers at the Saturday market cheered me on "Go Wonder Woman!" and every single runner I said "Good Morning" to happily responded with a "Good Morning" back at me or a wide smile.

It wasn't a complete loss... I had signed up for the 10k and in the opposite direction of the 10k route, the 5k racers were to compete (with less loops). I saw a lot of 5k superheros pass by and wasn't too lonely with my lasso of truth swinging from my hip.

The race was a 2k, 5k and 10k... with the 2k being a kids' fun run. I left the kiddos with "Super Dad" to participate in the 2k together, but he got confused and didn't que up with the 2k participants.  

Probably for the best.

 If I had known it wasn't going to work out for them though, I'd have taken Bugaboo along with me. She loves to run and really was disappointed to miss it.

But not as disappointed as to miss out on doughnuts.

On the race's facebook page, they had posted that VooDoo Doughnut was a sponsor and that doughnuts would be available for runners at the finish.

There were none.

Race volunteers seemed confused by my questions about the doughnuts and their existence so I dropped it. ...but it is really hard to let it go when you're three years old and have been promised a doughnut. Maybe even bribed by it to get out of bed so early and get to the race that morning.

I know. Bad Mommy!

It really would have been nice for the doughnut to have been there. Not just to console an unhappy Bugaboo... but I had really wanted one. I was looking forward to it! After a walk around the corner to VooDoo Doughnuts, the line was a 45 minute wait.

Maybe next time. (Even though 45 minutes is considered a short wait time. I was ready to get off my feet and go home.)

So, with that, Batgirl and I made a slow journey back towards home... (Our running partners Supergirl and "Mother Nature" had already wandered to their next destinations).

Even though we passed the mural "Keep Portland Weird", we were ogled a bit in our attire and asked to pose for photos. One man offered to be our "spiderman".

My fantastic running partner greeting me at my finish.  First 10k done!

The party was definitely before hand.  The "big after party" fizzled out as soon as racers finished.  It seems that people went and retrieved their free comic book, and then either got in line for a caricature drawing or just went straight home.  No group dancing and no unified spirit as it had been before the race.  Oh well.

I had fun.

I'm still undecided if I would do this event again. 

The charity is good.

The swag, not so much.
It was tons of fun before hand.  Festive environment.
The finish was a bit of a let down.  Run your distance and wonder to the pub to get your comic book and go.

Next time I'm down town, I'll probably don some more traditional running attire and check out some other paths featured in Runner's World.  

The geek in me can't let it go.  If you don't know me, my hobbies outside of running include:  comic books, Dr. Who, Nintendo, pinball, dice games... and a couple other geeky things.  So I sent them a facebook message asking if I could help out next year.  They haven't responded... but I think I'd make a damn good volunteer.

Do you volunteer for races?
How have you handled races that were a bit disappointing?