New Route

I went on a new route for my lunch time run on Friday! It kind of happened as a fluke. I was running to the Hawthorne Bridge just as the alarms started going off that it was going up. I looked at the river and didn’t see any boats coming, so it was kind of a mystery. I decided to keep going instead of waiting for who knows how long for the bridge to open up (and I didn’t want to just turn around).

So I kept running along the waterfront to the South Waterfront. It’s the new area south of the Hawthorne where there’s a bunch of high rises and OHSU buildings. I decided to try and cross the new(ish) Tilikum Crossing bridge. It’s the bridge that is just for people, bikes, buses and the Max.

Since I’ve never actually been on the new bridge, I didn’t know where it really was on that side of the water. I got a little lost. Then I flagged down some other runners and asked them. They kindly gave me good directions and I set off.

I found the bridge and it was really nice! It was kind of steep and pretty windy, but the wind felt nice because it was such a hot day out.

It was a decent run, which was nice because I’ve been sick for several weeks with a sinus infection (thankfully the antibiotics are kicking in). My last run before getting sick was awful (clearly because I was getting sick!) so this was much better. Other than feeling really hot, my run was good.

I got to the other side of the bridge and picked up the Springwater trail right by OMSI.

It was cool finding a new route because the same old thing a few times a week can get really monotonous. This new route will be a great way to mix things up!

I ran by OMSI and then crossed the Hawthorne Bridge back to downtown. It was a pretty hot day, even though I went out on my run early. It was 79 degrees and I felt like I was getting overheated. My face felt really hot and my heart rate was pretty high at the end of the run. So I ended up walking a lot more for the last mile of my run trying to cool off and calm my heart down.

Here is the map of my run:

You can kinda see where I got lost and then turned around and found the route to South Waterfront!

I think in the future I will do this route again. If I can get faster and not be overheated and not have to walk so much, I think I can stretch it to the Morrison Bridge. But we’ll see. I do have limited time for my lunch. I think my next run I will try this route again but go the opposite way so I can find the best route downtown to get to the bridge.

Yay for new horizons!