Happy Birthday, America!! Party Hard!!

The US of A turned 237 years old this year on July 4th.  Wow!  Must be all that clean living and exercise!

Event 27 in the 50@50 Project took us to a little slice of Americana known as Wilsonville, OR.  And by 'Americana' I mean lots of strip malls, big box stores and car dealerships, huge apartment complexes and chain restaurants.  The Oregon Road Runners Club was holding a '4 on the 4th' fun run to celebrate our nations birthday.  Of course, I felt this could have been celebrated by eating, say, four hot dogs and four cheeseburgers with four ears of corn, all washed down with four(teen) beers.  But Camera Crew felt it was best that we perhaps take advantage of and exercise on this rare mid-week event opportunity.

(sigh)

She's right.  It was a good little run.  We drove out to the Mentor Graphics campus in the 'burbs, arriving earlier than anticipated.  We checked in and got the all-important bib.  This one was pretty cool because it just said 'Holiday Run' on it - no number.  Smart move by the ORRC becasue they can order of bunch of these and use them for all their special events.  As long as they provide a bib, we're good.  Remember, the bib number is the race artifact that we use as the physical reminder of accomplishing this crazy goal of ours.  It goes on the string in the Hall of Fame, a daily motivation to keep going.

There were many people dressed up in red, white and blue - including Camera Crew, who was rocking a red/white running skirt and blue tech shirt along with the white visor.  I showed my patriotism by wearing black shorts, a blue shirt and my orange hat.  For this I was promptly chastised by Camera Crew for not putting more thought into these special event runs.  Guess I'll have to work on some color coordinated clothing for... Labor Day.  Does labor day have a color scheme?  Help me out, people, and I will wear it!

There were quite a few people sporting big Uncle Sam hats, lots of stars and stripes confetti/ribbons in hair, USA colors in shorts and tutus and shirts.  Very patriotic.  Us serious runners, however, wear what is comfortable.  Hahahahaha!  Hoo boy...

This was a fairly small group, probably because most folks were firing up their smokers to get the pork ribs on early or were attending various parades in the metro area.  The route was four miles on the roads around the large Mentor Graphics campus made up of some gently rolling hills, quiet roads (due to the holiday) with spots of shade here and there.  The course was well marked and they even had volunteers out at most intersections, just to be sure. 

The end of the course was a little out and back section and, sure enough, after I made the turnaround I saw Camera Crew - always enjoy seeing her smiling face during a race.  I hit the finish line and just behind me was CC, coming in with a grin.  We hung around long enough to watch the kids' 1k run, enjoy some ice cream sans lip injury, then took off for home.

With this run in the books, it was time to pack up and head for the far northeast corner of our beautiful state for the Lostine River Run 10k!!