On The Ocean Fest 2026

Tuesday morning

Another OTO in the books. Tons of friends and family and memories. Not a full wrap up of events but. Here's a bulleted list of the highlights. 

• The Portland Symphony show with the Gusters was probably the GREATEST performance I have ever seen. Hands down. The band was at next-level, the conductor is a Guster fan so he was absolutely into it. Fully packed house. Outstanding energy. Great night and performance. 
• Portland has a crappy after 10pm scene. I'll just say that it sucks when a concert gets out, it is 10:30pm, and you have nowhere to go within reasonable distance to have a late night snacky snack and cocktail. And the one place that we found is open late, that some people rave about, has shitty slow service and costs an arm and a leg. Meh. 
• Lin and I did a service project Saturday morning EARLY. I've always wanted to do this as part of the fest but we never signed up or if we did, we didn't get picked. This year we went to the Preble Street Food Security Hub and helped prep basil for pesto. Their mission and ministry is so bad ass. I want to do this again, and if I find myself in Portland I will give them my time. For sure. 
• Adam from Guster came and helped, so we had kind of a good mini Q&A session with him, Won't share any possible secrets but they're feeling bold and optimistic about future shows with amazing destinations. Let's see what happens. 
• Both Saturday and Sunday shows were spectacular. Cannot complain at all. 
• Sunday I ran a 5k and almost died. More about that later because. You need the saga.
• I feel like I didn't get to see enough people, spend enough time with some individuals, and that is kind of a bummer. Looking at Facebook has been a lovely experience, seeing what people took away from this time, in their perspectives. And it then feels like I got to spend time with them.
• Wrapping up on Monday with a late checkout felt good but I am also exhausted and would have loved to not check out of the hotel and just be a sloth in there all day. But move along, we must. And we did.

We left Portland after 4pm on Monday, Linda had a massive work emergency that she is still fighting with today. We got to C's at about 7 and she had snacks and wine for us. We hung out with her and her cousin. I collapsed into bed at 10. Slept the whole way through the night until C came to wake me up. 

"Come have coffee," she said. "Since I have to leave at 4 in the morning tomorrow for the airport." 

Yes. Yes let's have this time together. 

Bless bless yes indeed.

About the 5k

Alright, so. Let's talk about the 5k.

This was not fun. And not the fault of the 5k itself but so many other factors. Around 4am on Sunday morning,  I woke up with a horrible leg cramp in my right shin. Not my calf, but my shin. Muscles, in the shin, what are you doing? My big toe was pointed basically almost the whole way up, and everything hurt like hell. 

I managed to rub that down, get my toe back next to all its friends. Biofreeze, and water. Tons of water. 

At 6am, my left leg realized it had missed the party and did the same thing. Damn. Wash, rinse, repeat... more water, more rubbing, walking, stretching. 

I was incredibly relieved that Linda and I had our own rooms in the suite, because if we were just in a basic hotel room, it would have been so hard to deal with this. 

Back to sleep, I don't have to get up until 8:15, so, grab a little more rest, Chris. You will need it.

We got to the race site, It was over 90 degrees, dead calm barely any breeze. The two or three times there was a breeze, it was rare and lovely. I almost wish it had rained. 

There was a group photo (this is borrowed from the photographer). 

And then we went to the starting line. They let the very serious runners go first and then everyone else, at your pace. Go. When I expressed a little anxiousness to him, Luke (from the band) told me I had all day to finish, and not to worry. Thank you for the salve for my heart, Luke.

I jogged quite a bit during the first part. It was brutal and hot. I deliberately didn't bring my water bottle with me because it didn't have a handle and I didn't want to deal with holding it the entire time.  

People were running back the other way, including Luke, who gave me a high 5. Obviously they made it to the water station turn around point successfully and quickly. I lost track of the people I had been hanging out with. My friend H, this other girl R, and our friend V. They were all way ahead of me. 

At some point, with the heat and the discomfort, the top of my head and right side of my face felt tingly. 

My thoughts:
Am I having a stroke?

Is this what a stroke feels like?

Body I am so sorry I am doing this to you. But we trained for this, we did. We can do this.

Please to try and kill me. 

Then, the cramp came back in my right leg. You sonofabitch. No. Do not do this. 

I kept looking for the water station at the turn around point. It felt like it was never going to arrive. When it finally did, I took a seat. The guy monitoring the station pressed a cold gallon of water against my shin when I told him about the cramp, and it felt very nice. We had a good chat. My intention was to wait 5 minutes and go.

She did not wait 5 minutes and go. 

A guy walked over to the table and asked "Guster... so that's the band right? I haven't listened to them since college. What are they up to these days?"

Oh, here is my chance to shine and tell you all about the band and extend my rest. He said he had a long drive home that night, and he'd listen to the new albums. I told him to come to the fest next year and have a blast.

I also realized that I wasn't seeing any bibs on runners anymore because all the 5k participants were already heading back the other way. 

Ope. 

"Jim," I said, "I'm officially going to be last now. Gotta go, bye." 

It was brutally hot. Hotter than before. Again, tingly head, dust everywhere. I texted Lin to tell her I was probably about a half mile out. On my way. I'm coming. I'll get there. Jim had come to the finish line to tell them that I was on the way, don't go yet. 

No runner left behind! 

Four friends came out to meet me. My friends V and R, and a couple I don't know. They walked the last quarter mile with me and when I got to the finish line, several people stuck around to welcome me and cheer. 

I finished 1:26+, and if I hadn't sat there yapping with some guy about Guster I probably would have still finished at like 1:10 or so... but. I finished and that's all that counts. 

Right?

If you look at that full squad picture up above, like 10 of those people stuck around to meet me. Linda was there, and the race organizers were there. I could tell they wanted to pack up their shit and go. Linda and Jim made sure they didn't. And I'm thankful for that. 

They went to put my medal on me, but my friend H had to be the one to do it. She took the medal away from the person who was gonna put it on me, she hung it around my neck, and we had big hugs and cheers.

I also think my fitbit needs recalibrated, because it told me I went over 4 miles for the 3.1 mile journey. Hmmmm. So I've been actually shorting myself distance when I think I'm going 5k, I'm actually ... not.