Running for Doughnuts in Portland!

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Once again it is the Friday before race day and against my better judgement, I find myself running around like mad trying to get everything done so I can be on the road early tomorrow AM... but that doesn't change the fact that I AM SO EXCITED we are headed to Portland this weekend to run the Rock 'n' Roll Portland Half Marathon!

I loved this race last year, in fact it was my most favorite of all 16 half marathons in 2013!

The weather was perfect and the course was so neat! With 2 really cool bridges, exciting live music, and an gorgeous scenic route, you just can't beat this race! And with that, I'm going to share some of my favorite photos from last year because coincidentally I also think these are some of my best race photos. I've never gotten so many photos in a race, I wonder if it was the colorful outfit?

Checking out the view at the start line pre-race.

One of my favorite parts about this race is that the corrals were really small (about 100 people) and I stood at the front of mine so when we got to start I was at the front of the pack for a while and got a few really neat solo pictures. 

You also can't beat 2 really neat bridge crossings! The first bridge is normally only for vehicles so the ground is actually a metal surface and they had to put carpet down so people wouldn't slip. It was kind of a funny surface to run on, but wow I never thought I liked running on bridges (because there's usually an incline) until I came to Portland!

The finish line is right after you come off the second bridge (2nd picture) back into the downtown core and you get a birds-eye view of the crowd and everything before you run the final stretch. Once you see the Geico banners, you are pretty much finished!

This was nearly a PR for me in 2013 and though I'm not trying to beat any time goals this year, I just can't wait to do this race again! I hope Sunday is as much fun as last year!

If all else fails, there's always doughnuts right?!

Yep, that's right I'm going to stand in that line again, why? For these.

Enough said. See you soon Oregon.

Cake Doughnuts

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This recipe didn't turn out exactly the way I had hoped but I'm working at figuring out how to make a cronut. In case you don't know, a cronut is a newly-invented fried pastry, basically a cross between a doughnut and a croissant. I have yet to try one anywhere, but they sound interesting. Since I've made croissants before, I decided I should give doughnuts a try and then try to combine the recipes, so watch out for that one soon.

INGREDIENTS

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/3 cup milk

1/2 cup butter, melted

4 eggs, beaten

2/3 cup sugar

Vegetable oil for deep-fat frying

Cinnamon-Sugar or sifted powdered sugar

DIRECTIONS
In a bowl combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg; set aside. In another bowl combine milk and melted butter. In a large mixing bowl combine eggs, and sugar; beat with electric mixer until thick (about 5 minutes). Add milk mixture; stir with a wooden spoon to combine. Add flour mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until smooth. Cover dough; chill at least 2 hours (dough will remain slightly sticky).

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll dough to 1/2-inch thickness. Cut dough with a floured 2-1/2-inch round cutter. Use a 1-1/4-inch cutter to cut the hole for the doughnut. (You can also use a standard doughnut cutter.)

Fry 2 or 3 doughnuts at a time in deep hot fat (375 degrees F) for 2 to 2-1/2 minutes or until brown, turning halfway through cooking with a slotted spoon. Drain on paper towels. Repeat with remaining doughnuts and doughnut holes. Makes about 15 doughnuts and doughnut holes

Shake warm doughnuts in a bag with Cinnamon-Sugar or powdered sugar. Serve warm (or reheat each doughnut 8 to 10 seconds in microwave on high).

The donuts were way better fresh, they were no good the next day which is a shame because there were so many of them. I think a yeast doughnut might work better in that regard.    

 

Race Review: Portland Rock n' Roll Half Marathon (Part 1)

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Unless you're following my FaceBook Page you may be wondering where have I been this week? Well, we were in Portland for the race this weekend and within hours of returning I came down with the stomach flu or food poisoning, still not quite sure what's going on. Feeling the way I feel right now it's hard to believe I had such a fun-filled race weekend but I really did. I've decided to break this post up into two parts since it was a whole weekend of events and I have a lot of photos and a lot to say about it!

On Saturday AM we got up very early and headed towards the border, I have to say that at that particular hour I wasn't feeling very excited about a long drive but off we went. Cody (my husband) made sure to dial up the "90's on 9" on Sirius for some great tunes HA HA!

After the longish wait at the border we had a great drive to Portland with only one stop! I took lots of pictures entering Oregon as I haven't been there since I was a little girl and I don't remember it anyway.

We stopped for a quick bite to eat and off we went towards the expo. I was excited because I had a feeling the Rock n' Roll Marathon group would put on a great expo and I certainly wasn't disappointed. As much as I loved all the race branded Brooks gear I decided not to purchase anything this time around and maybe wait for Seattle.












Picking up my race bib was easy as pie... but it was funny finding out that there was someone with my mother in law's exact name on the list right above mine (who by the way is also a runner)?!? We made sure to send her the photo and asked why we didn't know she was running the race, of course she wasn't because she was back home in Vancouver babysitting our little guy but it was funny none the less:


After that we headed over to the Brook's Run Happy Calvalcade of Curiosities, where there was a set of carnival themed activities you could do to win discounts on Brook's gear or other neat things. I won a t-shirt and Cody won a foam finger for me which is supposed to replicate the "Facebook Poke Button", it got kind of annoying after awhile but at least he had some fun at the expo...









We took our time touring the Expo seeing as how we didn't have any definite plans for the rest of the day. I left with a lot of free samples and of course my giant bib.
This is one of my only complaints for this race and I'm not sure it's really a complaint or more of an observation but the bib really is huge, I had a hard time fitting it above my race belt.

I even got an opportunity to see some of the race bling I'll have coming my way after completing the Portland Rn'R Half & Seattle Rn'R Half!















As we left the expo it started to rain, though I knew it was a definite possibility I wasn't thrilled about it, I was really hoping for a dry race day. After checking into our hotel we ventured out into Portland on foot to explore. Despite the rain we headed over to a local hot spot called "Voodoo Donuts"... When we got there this is what we saw:

Yea - that's right a lineup just for donuts! Could they be that good? We sort of wanted to find out so we agreed to stand in the line for a few minutes and see how fast it was moving. After 10 minutes it really wasn't moving very fast but we'd already wasted 10 minutes so we decided we were in it for the long haul.

Was it worth it? I decided I was only going to have one of my chosen donuts (we each chose 3) before race day and save the other two for a post race treat. It was a pretty glorious doughnut I have to say. Worth an hour and a half wait? I suppose that depends on how much you love doughnuts and the company beside you in line, but I certainly had fun even in the rain.

After standing in the rain for that long we decided to trash the going out for dinner plan and put on some sweatpants, order room service, and watch a movie. Another glorious idea I might add because I sure was rested for my race the next morning!














Before I finally went to bed I laid out all my race stuff in preparation for my 15th half marathon, wow I can't believe it -- 15! That's 9 in 2013 alone!