ABOUT THAT RUN

/ janpriddyoregon

Deer tracks, running the bridge, and olives in the enchiladas.

We’ve been seeing deer tracks in the sand most mornings. Sometimes the prints just end as if the deer leapt forty feet east. A mystery, like the tracks in sand in Denzel Washington’s marvelous early film Mighty Quinn.

That’s me at the start with Amy (whose photo does not do her justice because she is genuinely beautiful). We hung together in Dismal Nitch for almost an hour before the run began five minutes early. It was great to have someone so interesting to talk to. Thank you, Amy, for sending the photo.

I’d hoped to beat my time from last year (1:11.9), but I was three and a half minutes slower—a year older and tired before I started, I guess. I hurt all over before the run. Two longish days of weaving gave me sore shoulders and and aching back. I suppose I have good reason for my habit of weaving 10-15″ in a day instead of 20-30″ each of the two days before a 10k run!

Anyway, it was cool, one faint splatter of drizzle but basically dry, a light wind in my face the whole way. I was 2nd in my 70-74 female cohort of 171! (I will be 71 next week.) Ending 2nd was a delightful surprise to me since I knew I was running slower than planned. I received a special medal for my placement. Hooray!

That’s me at right with my sparkly tutu I found at the charity shop last week. I’d wanted a tutu for the run and had planned to sew one from a red and gilt sari but was delighted not to have to do that. Gary took the photo. This is a few meters from the end. Yes, very tired.

We got home, I stripped off my clothing, put on a nightgown and lay still for an hour. Then I pulled a pan of enchiladas from the freezer. Later this week, when we are in Portland, I will pick up more masa to make another batch—two pans. One for dinner, the other to put in the freezer for when I’m too tired to cook.

My mother made enchiladas when I was young. I assume she got the recipe from Sunset Magazine and was encouraged by my dad who spent most of his childhood in southern California. (My great grandmother Rosa Garcia is from Mom’s side of the family and her genes show up in my 23andMe overview, which identifies 2.3% “Indigenous American” but “not likely any Mexican or Central American ancestors” and nothing from the Iberian Peninsula which might have surprised my Mexican great grandmother.) I press tortillas from Three Sisters organic fresh masa. Mom put olives in her enchiladas, but I usually don’t include olives in the fillings which might be beans and cheese or caramelized onion with greens and cheese. I am thinking next time, shrimp, onion, cheese, and black olives too. Daddy would have loved that.

16 thoughts on “ABOUT THAT RUN”

  3. Wonderful accomplishment – congratulations! Was curious about the Dismal Nitch reference, so Googled and was surprised to discover it’s a real place. Wow, what a name. (Thought initially it was a race term:))

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Yes, an actual place name! And on the Washington side. Place names often derive from fascinating history. In the photo I assume you found, you can see how far we ran to get to thuebridge, about a mile, then four miles over the Columbia, and the last/worst on the flat to the end—we all so want it to end right when we come off the southern end of the bridge!

      Like

      Reply

  4. No pictures on Wikipedia where I initially searched, but went back after your comments and discovered the NPS site and now see the picture of the bridge. Gosh, what a run that is. Thanks for another interesting post and a history lesson to boot!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Thank you! HappyOctober to you too!

      Amy has only been running since late summer and ran a 10k in 10-minute miles last month, down from 11.5-minute miles the month before! The official results aren’t up yet, but they announced there were over 3,100 starters at Dismal Nitch.

      Like

      Reply

Leave a comment