The Grand Floral Walk

I actually meant to write about this a long time ago. I walked in it last year, and the one for this year is Saturday, so yeah, I’m due.

It almost belongs on the travel blog, because it is kind of a story about participating in a local attraction, and I do intend to revive the travel blog soon. For right now, I’ll just tell you how it went down.

If you are not familiar with it, the Grand Floral Walk occurs right before the Grand Floral Parade. Regence sponsors it, so Regence employees can walk for free, though it is also a fundraiser for the Dougy Center, so a lot of the people who register still pay the money for a donation, otherwise you feel like you are a bad person.
They also set it up so that you could sign up with individual teams with Regence. The overall theme was Portland’s Sister Cities, and each team represented a different one. I signed up early, before I knew about the teams, so I was not affiliated with any of them. I ended up being okay with that for a couple of reasons, all of which have to do with my extreme lameness, but my signing up early was because that was during the same time period when I was signing up for the Shamrock Stride and the Fanconi Anemia Walk—I could do stuff! (Even if it was moderately athletic.)

The stated purpose of the walk is to promote health. It’s a four mile walk, but you can also duck out at the two mile point. I suspect that there is an unstated purpose of killing some boredom for the people who are waiting for the real parade to start.

I admit to having some concerns about the distance. I had done the 5K, but this was longer, and sometimes I feel like I am really a wuss. There was the 2 mile possibility, though, and also. It wasn’t that much longer. Actually, it is longer than 4 miles, because the check in area is on one side of the river, in Oldtown, and then you walk to the starting point, in the Rose Quarter, and then you walk four miles after that. Oh well.

I got to the starting area and checked in, and found some coworkers. I also made one foolish mistake, in that people were giving out these tote bags with swag in them, and I thought the pin might be in there, which I did want, but I did not want a whole bag full of junk, so I asked if I could just get the pin. You get that at the finish line. I think she thought I was trying to cheat. Nope, just a little dim.

We started walking over to the starting point. The literature said that there would be water available at the start and the finish. There was expensive bottled water for sale at the start, is what I saw there. (At the finish they did hand us a free water bottle and a granola bar, so it was half true.) Lisa S bought me a water because she is kind and generous, and although the day was overcast, it was a bit too humid to be cool. That was helpful.

My biggest concern about the distance was not so much that I would not be able to complete it, but that I would not be able to complete it before the parade got there, which would be kind of humiliating. I was not the last person to finish the Shamrock Stride, but I had been right near the front and a lot of people passed me. I made sure to get near the front again.

These are the reasons why I was glad not to be on a team. One was that then you would feel like you need to stick with them, and they would see me falling further and further back, and whether they would let me fall behind or try and slow down for me, no, I don’t want that. Also, one thing that was going on at the registration area was that the team captains were handing out things that related to the theme, like maracas or graduation caps (sister city Bologna is the site of the oldest university in the world), and I don’t want any extra things on me. I get hot and sweaty enough just wearing clothes; I do not need any cheap synthetic materials in the mix. (It amazes me that there are people who run in elaborate costumes.)

So we started out walking through the Colisseum. Our grand marshal was Subway’s Jared, but I did not see him, and my understanding was that he did not even walk it, but he was driven or something. That seems wrong somehow. I haven’t seen anything about a grand marshal for this year.

Starting at the front worked well, as I did end up seeing pretty much everyone as they passed me. Most people were walking in family units. Lisa H passed me with her husband, daughter, sister, niece, and brother in law. Jamie passed me with her daughter and her friend (which was good, because the daughter was really trying to get out of it, early Saturday morning feeling different than it sounds once you get there). Mary passed me with sisters and children.

My sisters considered it, but the crowd aspects were not appealing, and Mom was in between knee surgeries. Near the start I did hear one woman saying “Careful Mom! Don’t forget about your knees!” It kind of struck a chord, and yet I also could not imagine needing to remind my mother to remember her knees.

Eventually I was passed by all seven sister cities. Sometimes I was in the middle of a throng, sometimes we were pretty spaced out. The most memorable was that there was a group of Hare Krishna (Chant and be happy) walking and chanting. When they were alongside me one of them grabbed my hand. I was fine with this, though I did not chant along. By pure coincidence, and old friend was watching with his family, and this is when I passed him.

“Are you having a good time?”
“Not as good as they are.”

Actually, I recognized quite a few of the spectators and support staff, though possibly one less than I thought. I thought I got one enthusiastic “Hi”, and she looked familiar, so I said, “Hey! How’s it going?” and then was ignored. I’m not sure if it was someone else talking to someone else (thought there were not a lot of other people around), or if it was whom I thought, and that this demonstrates why we have never gotten closer.

Obviously, I went past the 2 mile mark, and did not really entertain the thought of stopping there that much. What was killer, though, was that in the last leg you keep winding back and forth, so for half of it you keep facing the train tracks, and watching trains go by that you could hop on so easily, but no, you’re not done yet.

I finished, got my water, granola bar, and pin, and part of the literature is that you can watch the parade from the finish. I don’t know why I thought that meant there would be bleachers, instead of a parking lot in full sunlight—but hey, only walkers and support staff are allowed on that patch of asphalt. There’s some prestige there! I left before the parade got there, but on the plus side I was not overtaken by the parade, and trampled by a marching band, so I guess it’s a win.

I have not attempted to join a team for this year. This year it is music, and the teams represent different decades, so with luck we will be seeing legwarmers, ducktails, and who knows what. I will be wearing a shirt and pants. There is one variation I am considering.

One thing the literature told us was to not hand out candy or things to the spectators. A lot of people violated this rule, and I wasn’t really tempted to do that, but there were a lot of dogs around, both with spectators and with walkers (also not supposed to happen), and I started thinking, what if I carried dog biscuits. And then I started thinking, well what if I had dog ears and a tail, which is crazy because those would get really annoying not very far into the walk. However, I might still feed the dogs.