Portland Marathon - RunMarathon

Crowd was too thick to reach my pace group at the start so I had to run extra hard the first 2 miles to catch them. Stuck with the 3:40 pace group the whole race - easy the first half - tough the last half. Was tempted to run ahead of my group early on but resisted; good thing because I would have got left behind at the end. I gained on people on the hills - both up and down. Took water at every aid station, regular gu around mile 1 and :30 later, and Roctane gu about every :30-45 after that. 2 Endurolytes about every :30 between gels. Battled side aches throughout, but not severe ones - probably due to the quick start. Last 10k was a mental battle to keep the pace. With 1.5 mi to go I had a strong kick - passed probably 75 runners & sprinted the home stretch.

Get to the starting line sooner. Had to wait in line forEVER to pee one last time. By the time I got to the start area, there were too many people to even get into the chute. A decent warm up may have helped too.

Drank lots of water, OJ, chocolate milk, ate orange, banana. Kept walking while I waited for others to finish. My legs hurt really bad. Finally felt a bit better after ~ 30 min.


Training time. Only had 2 months to train & previous longest run of my life was 13.1 miles.


This was my first marathon and it was a great experience. I'm really glad I chose Portland - they know what they're doing! Great atmosphere. They had bands and spectators and even cheerleaders along the whole route. The pace teams were awesome! If I ever do another marathon, it will be this one or one like it.