Portland Marathon - RunMarathon

My hope was to run with the 5-hour pace group until 20 miles, then if I felt good to pick it up a bit for the last six. In reality, I ran with the group until about mile 18. I worked hard to keep up going up the hill to the bridge and then across the bridge and down on the other side, but was working too hard and had to walk on the next uphill. I kept them in sight for the next few miles - sometimes getting closer, sometimes getting farther away, but ended up just doing my own thing for the last few miles to finish at 5:02. That was the short version.

Now for the looooong version: I ran pretty easily for the first few miles but it felt a little harder in a few points than I thought it should at that point. Of course it also felt easier than I thought it should in other areas so I guess it balances out. My HR stayed nice and low through the first part of the race. I had agonized over not having a 'cute' shirt for this run, but never found just the right one and ended up wearing one of my most comfortable shirts from another local run. The sleeves push up and pull down easily and I had them pushed up and was sweating by mile 4. Sometime in here I noticed a headache that stayed with me most of the day - that was something I could have missed. During Mile 5 it started to rain and never really let up all day. Sleeves came back down. Remember the panic searching for my sunglasses before I left? Good thing I brought them - they stayed on my hat all day but at least I was ready if the sun were to come out! It never did. It got cold and I got soaked, but there was really nothing else I would have been any more comfortable in. Also, between miles 5 and 6, my brother and training partner and best friend's knee started to hurt and he had to walk. I felt horrible running on while he was walking, but it was probably the thing to do. Sorry, bro. I felt bummed about this and worried about it and him the rest of the day. I figured he'd be ok, but knew it was a huge disappointment since he had worked really hard on both fixing the problem and on getting ready for this run. I thought he had it taken care of, his knee hadn't bothered him for a while and has never been this bad. It just kind of came out of the blue way too early in this run.

I remember reading somewhere that if you're hurting by 10 miles you're in trouble...my legs were starting to feel the run by 10 miles which was a little surprising and disappointing, but they held up pretty good. I think the same quote said you probably should be hurting a bit by 20 miles - I was, but still wasn't feeling too bad. My feet hurt more than anything at this point, and any downhill was really hard on my toes. In all the bruhaha (what a fun word) of Saturday I had forgotten to trim my toenails.

I drank InfinIT for the first couple of hours with water, but had a shot of caffeinated gel at some point to try to combat the headache. After that I drank mostly gel with water. I didn't take in as many calories as planned, but my stomach was fine and I didn't really run out of energy so I guess it worked. I was glad to have enough with me. I carried my Amphipod belt with three bottles and a pocket for my phone and other little things. It felt like a lot of stuff as I was standing at the start with people carrying nothing, but worked well for me and I did see people carrying even more than me out on the course. Once we started I didn't think about it any more, just was glad to have my stuff.

After 21 miles I was in uncharted territory - I had never run that far, even in last year's run. Last year I was walking by the halfway point with an upset stomach and doing the run/walk thing the rest of the way 'cause I was tired. I started picking the next person I would pass - granted, they were mostly walkers, but at that point I'd take what I could get. The last six miles or so were a gallery of stretching. There were people off to the side all over stretching out different parts of themselves. I never felt the need to stop and stretch during the run - thank you, legs! I felt like I was running easier than a lot of the people I passed during these miles.

At about mile 24, I heard someone behind me saying, :"Is that Colleen? Hi Colleen" I didn't think much about it as I had my name on my bib, but it turned out to be a buddy from Spokane who I didn't even know was going to be there. We ran the last couple of miles together. I was really glad to see her out there! I'm afraid I wasn't very good company - didn't have much brainpower to hold up a conversation at that point. Right around here was where I started to feel really fatigued - the last couple of miles were just one foot in front of the other and waiting to get to the end.

Finally the end! Jayne and I finished together which was a nice way to finish for me. Overall I am thrilled with my race. 5 hours was my best-case real world estimate. I would have liked to speed up a bit at the end, but gave it all I had.

Wear a different bra or a second bra...I was so tired of bouncing around by the end of the run! (Was this something that should be in a "women's only" forum? Sorry guys!) Never had trouble before, but after 5 hours everything just wanted to be still.

And the usual, drop 20 or so pounds - I would feel a lot better if I wasn't lugging this around.

Change the weather so it didn't rain on me all day!

Other than that, nothing. The race site measures 4 splits - all four of mine were 11:32/mile which meant that I kept a pretty even pace over 26 miles. Mentally I worked harder in some areas (uphills) than I expected, but was able to keep going. Except for that one hill and the aid stations I ran the whole race. I'm very happy with my race.

Got my medal, blanket, pin, and a bottle of chocolate milk which I couldn't drink for awhile. Wandered over to get my shirt and started to feel pretty dizzy and short of breath. I was choked up from the emotion of the finish which brought on an asthma issue which made it worse. Had to first find the med tent then sit there awhile while it got itself back under control. I couldn't really talk when I went in The med-tent people were great! I felt bad taking up a bed but wanted to be close in case I actually did pass out...thought it was going to happen for a while.

Once I felt better I walked on down the finish area and sat down, got up and got my picture taken, sat down, stuck my feet in an ice bath for awhile, got some more to eat, sat down, changed my shirt to my race shirt since I was soaked and cold, sat down again, and finally worked my way back to the finish to watch for my brother.

I'm so glad I got to watch the finish for awhile - what an inspirational thing to see! When racinmason got there, he could hardly walk and was blue. I have never seen anyone so cold. I caught him at the line, gave him a big hug, got our picture taken together and walked with him right to medical. I sat in the tent while they piled blankets on him and worked on his leg. I am so proud of him for finishing, and especially finishing with that kind of pain. He's a lot tougher than me. I'm also really glad he's my training buddy, I wouldn't be where I am today without him.

When I finally realized the time, I called the airline to see if we could delay our flights. We decided to try for the original flight so I went to get our dry clothes, get Mason's shirt, catch the train and get our bags so we could meet at the airport. The officials let me through the barricades which shortened my trip. I was nervous about our flight, so I ran (RAN!) three blocks down to get redirected 3 blocks back up to get the dry clothes, then back down 4 more blocks to catch the train in my space blanket (what a stud! and I felt surprisingly ok running at that point!) and barely caught one of the trains because of it. If I hadn't caught that one, and if my brother hadn't caught the next one (thanks to the officials who also let him through the barricades!), and if the hotel (remember the shout out?) hadn't met me at the station WITH our bags and taken me to the airport, and if the agent hadn't checked us in together, and if the plane hadn't been 5 minutes late we wouldn't have been home until 10pm and possibly even until the next day. We walked up to the gate as the last few people were boarding. We were SO lucky that it all worked out. I was really icky on the plane because I hadn't had a chance to change out of my run gear and felt bad for the people around me, but at least we got home!!


Weight? I am very happy with my run, I don't think I could have done any better today. The only thing that could have made it better would be if my brother had a better race.


I think they did a great job at this race. I don't have any other marathons to compare it to, but it was really well supported during the run. There are a lot of people out there, both participating and cheering. Plenty of volunteers and plenty of drink stations. The roads are mostly closed to traffic, and there is a well marked lane for runners on the few that aren't. They also allow mp3 players at this run. The finish line was more fun with a 5-hour finish than a 6 hour finish - there was more stuff, there were more people, and they hadn't run out of chocolate milk. The only disappointment was that the later finishers weren't supported as well at the finish line.