The Most Fun on Two Feet

Most people in Portland know about First Thursday where once a month the galleries in the Pearl District open their doors for an art crawl. However, what you may not know about, but should, is the slightly faster paced First Thursday Run, sponsored by Fit Right NW. It was an evening that combined two of my favorite things: running and cross promotional marketing.

Basically, you show up at Fit Right sometime before 6:00, sign up for the run, grab a snack, listen to the dj, and wait for the map reveal. Once they show the maps, you take note of 14 locations and then you are off! At each location you visit, you are given a raffle ticket for the great give-ways (shoes, massages, gift certificates) at the end. You have one hour to collect as many tickets as you can. I visited at least three shops I never would have thought to visit before that I intend on going back to some time in the near future.

Here's a video from their website that tells all about it:



I hadn't fully intended on running, since I'm still kinda of recovering from the big run on Saturday. I just jogged down after work to check out their new store and to see what the event was like. Once there, however, I felt like I could just sign up and maybe run to a few locations just to get a feel for it. I ended up running to all but one of the locations, crossing back and forth across NW Portland and dipping into the Pearl for a nice 40 minute jog collecting tickets as I went.

It was incredibly fun. I got to try out some new shoes for which I got a free t-shirt, I snagged some free Darn Good socks (and they definitely look like they may be just that), had a bagel, a glass of Deschutes Brewery Inversion IPA and had a good run at the same time. Best of all? It was totally free!

Thank you, Fit Right NW for a great evening. I'll be back to run again next month!

How could I not?

Here's the deal:

For my 32nd birthday at the end of March, I will be running 32 miles of trail in Portland's Forest Park.

Now its official.

I've started this blog to make that statement and to let people who are interested follow along.

Now according to my friend C, there is nothing more boring for a non-runner than hearing someone talk about running. I can kind of see her point. So this blog won't be only about running, it will be about many of the things that make up my life in Portland.

However, because I have precisely one month and twenty one days until I run, there may be a slight focus on that for the first few weeks. I hope you'll stick with me.

In case you don't know this already, I love living in Portland. For those of you who have never been here, visit. Portland is a very active smaller city with allot going on. I've heard that it has the highest number of brew pubs, coffee houses, bookstores and strip clubs per person than any other city in the U.S. Not bad.

It just may be high on the list for miles of running trails per person as well. Runner's World Magazine just voted Portland the Number One Running City in the U.S. I'm so proud! And after all the hours I've spent running miles and miles through Forest Park, along the Willamette River, crossing over many of the city's beautiful bridges and hoofing it through the Portland Marathon last October, I fully understand why.

The St. Johns Bridge - the bridge that motivated me to run the Portland Marathon.