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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 18, 2018)
OCTOBER 18, 2018 // 3 SCRATCHPAD I am a runner about an hour and 10 min- utes — roughly 11 minutes per mile. This unforeseen feat ushered in a year of running regularly — up and down my street, on treadmills at the Astoria Aquatic Center, through forest trails with my partner and her dogs. It’s remarkable — once you see yourself as the sort of person who does something you’ve never done before — how quickly your self-image shifts. You By ERICK BENGEL FOR COAST WEEKEND L ast fall, with well-meaning doubt- ers informing me I’d made a huge, possibly life-threatening mistake by signing up for the Great Columbia Crossing — the 10K race across the Astoria Bridge — the challenge was simply to survive with my knees and dignity intact. Somehow I’d managed to cover the full 6.2 miles in coast INSIDE THIS ISSUE weekend arts & entertainment 2 4 8 THE ARTS Oregon Poet Laureate redefine your limitations. You mentally slot yourself into a new category: “I am a staunch chair-sitter who smokes on lunch breaks and proudly pats my beer gut” becomes “I am a runner of races.” You want to see how far you can go. And so, on Sunday, I found myself once again among the thousands who ran. Few mornings feel more sacred than the predawn hours before a race. Even after a restless night, I rise COAST WEEKEND EDITOR ERICK BENGEL CALENDAR COORDINATOR REBECCA HERREN CONTRIBUTORS DAVID CAMPICHE KATHERINE LACAZE ANDREW TONRY Kim Stafford visits Cannon Beach Library COASTAL LIFE ‘Everything’ on the air KMUN radio show marks 100th episode FEATURE Be An ASOC Angel To advertise in Coast Weekend, call 503-325-3211 or contact your local sales representative. © 2018 COAST WEEKEND New items for publication consideration must be submitted by 10 a.m. Tuesday, one week and two days before publication. Theater company fundraises with show, dinner, auction TO SUBMIT AN ITEM 12 DINING Mouth of the Columbia South Bay’s frybread a rare treat in the region FURTHER ENJOYMENT MUSIC CALENDAR ....................5 CROSSWORD ...............................6 CLOSE TO HOME ........................7 SEE + DO ............................. 10, 11 CW MARKETPLACE.......... 15, 16 Find it all online! CoastWeekend.com features full calendar listings, keyword search and easy sharing on social media. Phone: 503.325.3211 Ext. 217 or 800.781.3211 Fax: 503.325.6573 E-mail: editor@coastweekend.com Address: P.O.Box 210 • 949 Exchange St. Astoria, OR 97103 Coast Weekend is published every Thursday by the EO Media Group, all rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced without consent of the publisher. Coast Weekend appears weekly in The Daily Astorian and the Chinook Observer. COLIN MURPHEY PHOTO Features Editor Erick Bengel, foreground, runs the 2018 Great Columbia Crossing while miracu- lously avoiding a front shot. in a state of fierce focus. The small, preparatory rituals — like eating a breakfast of peanut butter toast with coffee, when all is dark and quiet outside — have a holy aura, full of energy and purpose. Sunday’s race came on a clear day. With stars still piercing the twilight, the sidewalks of Uniontown were overrun with giddy, geared-up runners and walkers. Near Basin Street, we boarded buses that shuttled us across the bridge. We shared the sunrise near the starting line at Dismal Nitch and huddled in groups against the chill wind whip- ping off the river (we short folk using our tall peers as windbreakers). Then the time came to see what the past year’s exertions had born. The countdown began, the horn sounded, and it was just us and the road and the ques- tion of how much we could endure. I was pretty confident I would do better than last year — which isn’t to say that when our bus crossed the river I wasn’t thinking: Hmmm … this bridge is lon- ger than I remember it. And it’s not to say I didn’t start out way too fast and commit additional amateur errors as the race unfolded. But perfection isn’t the point. The point is that, having set myself a once-unthink- able goal — a goal well outside my customary in- terests and abilities — I can get addicted to surprising myself. That 11-plus-minute mile is now an 8.42-minute mile. The real triumph, howev- er, is the small measure of self-reinvention the new stat represents: I am one who tries new things. I am a runner. CW
