Turns out I was wildly optimistic (next-to-last paragraph) about my 6.5 mile run. I finished the route in 1:13:31, for a pace of 11:15.5 or so.
Full disclosure: I had to stop the clock just before the 5.5 mile mark, and use the bathroom in Sellwood Park, which gave me a break of about 10 minutes or so. But my intestines would have burst if I hadn’t…
Ugh. Hard to breathe, had to stop and walk quite a bit. It wasn’t overly warm. I mean, it was warm (in the high 80s when I started out around 6:15 PM) but not like Texas heat or anything. Stupid allergies.
After I crossed over the Bybee Bridge, I discovered that my route coincided with a section of the Hood-to-Coast relay (specifically Leg 12), so for a couple of miles I was running with company. There were volunteers along the way, and they would clap and give me encouragement just like the runners in the race. I didn’t tell them that I wasn’t an entrant, even though, technically, they should have noticed that I didn’t have a bib number on, but maybe it just didn’t matter. I was a runner and they were encouraging me.
I was worried that the lady volunteer at the spot where my route split from the race route was going to yell at me for not following directions, but she just gave me a glare and let me be.