Rock 'n' Roll Portland Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

I was hoping to get a solid PR today, somewhere in the 1:51:xx range. I looked at the course elevation map briefly and didn't think it looked too bad. Right around mile 3.5, I realized I was wrong. There was quite a bit of climbing in there and it went that way until about mile 7. According to my Garmin there was about 455 feet of climbing. It doesn't sound like that much but having not done much lately, it took its toll on me. Kara Goucher, the women's race winner had this to say about the course:
“I might have to rib (course designer) Alan Culpepper the next time I see him. Portland is a hilly town, so I didn’t expect the course to be pancake flat, but I didn’t expect it to be quite so hilly,” added Goucher. “Sometimes it’s about effort and it was a good hard effort and sometimes the clock doesn’t really matter. It’s just about getting out there and challenging yourself and today was certainly a challenge.”

Reading that made me feel a bit better about my assessment of the course. When we left the house in the morning a few drops of rain fell on the windshield. I was afraid we were going to get hammered. The rain held off for the start of the race. By mile 7 or so, I started to realize that I probably wasn't sweating as much as my shirt indicated. The roads were completely wet and the rain slowly picked up in volume for the rest of the race. It was never stong rain by Portland standards, but we ran in rain, dammit! The hills killed my pace a bit here and there, but I remained pretty strong and consistant the whole race.
1007 out of 3284 (men)

Not much on this one. I didn't go crazy on the gel out on the course and I felt good.

Loaded up on post race fluids...chocolate milk, water, beer. The rain was a bit of a damper on the festivities, so we just got our gear and got back on the train. Hit the hot tub when we got back to the house and took a short nap.


Speed training and I guess I can still stand to lose a few pounds.


Several people reported that they were stopped by the police to allow traffic to pass. At one point I thought that was going to happen to me, but I luckily got by without any delays. This was the first year for this race in Oregon and I had a great time. Hopefully, I'll get to do it again. In the end, I PR'd but only by 23 seconds. But based on the hilly course, I consider that a victory.

1 8:11
2 8:16
3 8:28
4 8:35
5 9:07
6 8:44
7 9:05
8 8:25
9 8:45
10 8:41
11 8:52
12 8:17
13 8:22
14 8:22