Andy Carson's 40 miles of Fun (plus a little more)

In February at a Portland Running Company group run, I had a chance to meet Dave & Paula Harkin (the owners). Paula told me about a 40 mile fun run with Andy Carson. I was very interested. Andy Carson is a weatherman for Portland's Fox TV station. He was celebrating his 40th birthday by running 40 miles. The run was benefiting the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. While it was not a race, and doesn't count as a marathon according to the Marathon Maniacs, I still felt like it would be a lot of fun.

So Tim Lawson and myself decided to join Andy. Given that it was a Wednesday, I didn't know how many would be running the full 40 miles. The course was a 10 mile loop around Portland's waterfront. Some people joined for one or two laps. Only eight people (including Andy) ran all 40 miles. Tim and I were the most experienced. I've run 40 miles or longer five times before this run, and Tim has run four official races at least 24 hours, and many personal runs at ultra distances. There were a hand full of runners that had run marathons, and one who had never run over 10 miles. We all survived and had a blast doing so.

I woke up at picked Tim up and was dropped over in the southern waterfront at 7:30am. We had a chance to meet Andy and talk a bit. The run started at 8am with about 40-50 runners. We all had a blast and were excided about the task at hand. We ran the first loop in a time of 1:47:37.

As a note the weather was great. It was mostly overcast and cool in the 40's. There was a little drizzle here and there, but no real rain. The give credit to Andy for that. In the second loop Paula and her friends joined us. It was a large group and more than half were women. It was enjoyable and I would sometimes run ahead and take a few pictures. With finished a little slower with a time of 1:52:34.

The third loop has a tough one. Many of the runners left after two loops, leaving just the eight of us and a few others including Dave Harkin. A figure there was about 10-12 runners. It was nice to be in a smaller group, because we had a chance to talk more. Dave kept Andy and myself entertained with a few stories. We ran that one much slower and finished with a time of 2:00:25.

I figured the last loop would be fun. Paula and many others joined in on the final loop. It was exciting to know that we were close to being done. I was feeling fine and Andy looked strong. The first three loops were all a little more than 10 miles, so the final loop was cut short to make it an even 40 miles. I figure the final loop was about eight miles. Andy's family came and joined him for the final mile and we were finished. We ran this eight mile loop in a time of 1:42:32.

After finishing we hung out a bit, before joining Andy for a shot on the 4 o'clock news. After that McCormick & Schmick's provided a most run meal that Tim and I took part in. Then we said farewell to Andy and the gang before going home.

Forty miles is a strange distance. It's more that 60k, but less than 50 miles. We usauallly join the Portland Running Company on a group run on Wednesday nights, so in order to make it an even 50 miles we did our normal group run, and little extra in order to get 50 miles. For me the extra 10 miles were slow and relaxing 1:39. I ended up running the 50 miles in 9:02. It was a fun day and I'm glad I took the time to do it.