Great Columbia Crossing Bridge Run 10K

Drove over to Astoria this weekend to run the Great Columbia Crossing which goes across the bridge between Oregon and Washington. You get on a bus at the Red Lion hotel in Astoria and ride over to a rest area in Washington and start there. My friend Kevin came along, his friend Denise (my swim teacher) was going to come also, but couldn't. Stayed at the Red Lion (picture is out the back door), so out the door and on the bus, that was great. Had to wait for an hour over at the rest area and a young girl kept looking at me, so I asked her some question and holy cow- she was off and running so to speak. She told me her life history about running with minimal input from me. She managed to mention her husband after a couple minutes even though she looked too young to be married. Later as I was getting lined up to start I saw a girl with iron-girl on her shirt so I asked her if she'd done an ironman. She laughed and said no, that'd be nice- that threw me- I'd been ready to talk tri's, so I just said oh, ok- smooth! The race started just after the rain started, only in the Northwest would people cheer when it started to rain. It was a light mist and once I started running I didn't notice it anymore. Kevin kept up with me for at least a half-mile, that's new. Him and Denise have been doing track work once a week. At mile 1 we turned on to the bridge which is 4.2 miles long. The kid standing by the mile 1 cone was reading off times and I heard 8:11 as I passed him. Up and over a short up part and then several miles of flat running.
at mile two the kid said 14:52- whoa. At mile 3 I heard 21:04 and that matched my watch- 7 minute miles!! No, bad mile marking as it turned out. Mile 4 I was still keeping a 7 minute pace and then the 205 foot climb according to one web site. I tried to not stop, but almost to the top my heart rate was soaring and I walked for about 100 yards and then started back up. Passed mile 5 right before the top and had a 7:42 pace between 4 and 5, but the bridge is 4.2 and mile one started at the beginning of the bridge, so 5 should have been right before the end of the bridge. At the end of the bridge was a cone with mile 6, but nobody there reading time. After the bridge the run wound around some streets before heading back to the hotel to make the last 1.2 miles. At the end I could see the finish and was slowing I guess because tons of people passed me. Then I saw the clock and it was at 51 something, so I kicked it in and finished at 51:57 a new pr by over a minute!! An 8:23 pace for a 10K- yeah. In the results I finished 198th out of 609- top third!! 24th of 35 for my age group and only 24 seconds ahead of Kevin. I really like this run because of the scenery and being able to go across the bridge on foot. It was super foggy, so no full bridge pictures. In the finish line picture you can see the walkers still on the bridge. They had over a 1000 walkers. They had chowder at the end and the hotel had free hot chocolate and since they sponsored the race, check out time was after you cleaned up. For lunch we ate at the Silver Salmon cafe and had a fresh grilled tuna special. I was going to look for the Goonies house, but it was too foggy.

The day before, Saturday, was beautiful and we had brought our bikes, so we did a ride. Started in Warrenton across Young's bay from Astoria and rode by Fort Clatsop and then around though the back side of Astoria and back to the start.
It was clear, but only 62, so cold in the forest and warm in the open. At one point we went over a bridge that had a button to let the drivers know we were on the bridge.
Stats for the ride- 20.9 miles at a 17.0 average. After the ride we met a guy from work (Wayne) that bought a weekend home in Astoria and was there working on it at a restaurant by the water. Great seafood pasta.