Let's start with the good news ...

I've had a great stay in Portland, OR. I love this city, I love my friend who lives here (and have really enjoyed those of his friends I've met these few days). Everyone here actually seems to understand the gluten thing really well, and gluten-free bakeries and other friendly offerings abound.

My friend Alberto has been a wonderful host, showing me around, introducing me to friends and parts of the city and markets and restaurants and free movies-in-the-park and generally being incredibly generous with his time and energy and also being incredible fun to be around.

Also, I had a good run this morning. It was hot, and I was tired, but I ran well. There were only 19 participants in the 5K event, which made me probably act more competitively than I do when there's a giant hoard and I can just relax and do my thing. When I rounded the corner to get in sight of the finish line and saw that I was going to break 25 minutes if I just sprinted, I ran my little heart out and for a brief, shining moment, thought I had just smashed my personal best by two whole minutes!

Well, I did finish the race in 24:59.

Here endeth the good news.

All in all, this race event was made of fail. First, the races (both the half-marathon main event and the 5K) took place far out of Portland, in Forest Grove, on the Pacific University campus. I knew this when I signed up, so this wasn't part of the fail. But, given that (a) the site was relatively remote from the large city center, and (b) both races put together had fewer than 200 participants, insisting on previous-day packet pick-up was just obnoxious. There was a bit where I could have emailed to make arrangements for Saturday pick-up, but it sounded really "frowned-upon" from the wording on the website, so I waited until a few hours before the Friday pick-up session to email, and then didn't hear back. Finally Alberto and I decided we'd better just drive out there during the cleverly-timed 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. (read: rush hour) pick-up session and lose the hour and a half of our time, to make sure I got my packet that evening and could participate.

When we arrived, there were no signs, and it was almost just dumb luck that we spotted the table tucked away under the bleachers of the stadium. Even though only two other people were there picking up at the time I arrived, around 4:15 or 4:30, the man staffing the table seemed really harassed and annoyed that I was there to pick up my stuff (and I promise I was my very most friendly and pleasant self). He also had no idea what the 5K course was going to be. More on that, later.

Once we got back to Portland, the real fail started to reveal itself. For starters, I realized they had given me two numbers, so someone else may have shown up and gone away numberless. (I emailed immediately to let them know I had it, but I don't know whether runner # 1027 ever showed up this morning.) Next, around 6:30 p.m. (note: by which time the scheduled packet pick-up time was almost over and we had long-since returned from our schlep), I received a bulk email saying that "due to popular demand" there would be same-morning pick-up.

It got worse this morning, as we were waiting for the 5K race to begin, when it became clear that not a single one of us knew what the course was. Also, because the "police guy didn't show," there was no official traffic control to keep us safe on the roads, only a couple of race staffers watching the busiest crossing. The race organizer got us started by pulling his car in front of the starting line, honking his horn, and driving away down the first couple of turns of the course.

But worst of all was, after the race and a little opportunity to enjoy my fictional personal best, I checked my RunKeeper and realized that the course had actually only been 2.7 miles long. That's a full 13% too short. No wonder my time was "so good"! (I hoped maybe the fault was in my app, but I looked at the GPS map online, and yeah, that was where we ran, no more, no less.)

So please, take it from me, if you're looking for a race, avoid anything organized by USRA Half Marathon Series. They don't deserve your registration money.

To finish on an up note, however, I will mention that I came in 8th overall out of 19 runners in the 5K event, 6th among women overall (out of 16), 2nd out of women in my age bracket (out of 4). And with a real pace of 9:16, I believe I tied my 2nd best pace (New London, CT, was similar; Gaspee Days, RI, was better). I can say that I'm happy with my own run.

Also? Brunch at Tasty n Sons seriously improved the rest of my day.

I'm sad to be leaving Portland. Maybe I'll come back and run a real 5K someday.