Darla Fitzpatrick's Staging Area

Several of my friends said this was one of their favorite races so we traveled by car from 3 states away. The weather was awful (nobody’s fault, of course) but the whole thing was just weird. I wondered why my time was so slow at the 5k mark, given that I was a short distance behind the 3:55 pacer at that point. Found out later my wave (C) and all later waves were taken a half mile or so off course near the start. The race organizers tried to claim this didn’t affect anyone trying to qualify for Boston, which is untrue; Wave C included 3:45 – 4:00 pacers which is BQ for several age groups. (Yes, Portland — even people over 45 run marathons!)

My husband entered the half marathon and we both were disappointed at how much of the course was industrial railyard areas. That’s a shame in such a beautiful city. I didn’t get to see the rest of the full marathon course as I had to drop out due to a nagging injury. This was nobody’s fault but my own. I noticed while riding the TriMET north afterward that runners have to run right alongside the train tracks for a long way. How unpleasant.

The finish area is completely sealed off to spectators (very strange). I was ahead of my husband when I dropped, so I followed the half course back downtown to wait for him. But I was unable to get to the finish line to wait for him. We both froze for almost 2 hours — him waiting at the line for me, not knowing I’d dropped, and me waiting 3 blocks away in the horribly crowded “reunion area” for him to finally come through. I was blocked entry to try and reunite with him at the finish. We’ve never been so cold and frustrated in our lives.

Apparently the actual marathon winner and 2nd place guy crossed the line unheralded, as organizers were not set up. At every other race I’ve volunteered at or participated in, a cyclist or course marshall knows where the winner is and radios ahead. And the announcer tells the spectators, who cheer for the winners. Except that Portland has no spectators! Apparently they think there is a huge security risk. Oddly, the start corrals were not secure at all. In fact, they weren’t yet set up when runners started arriving on the TriMET. There appeared to be only 2 arrival times on Sunday that would get you there in time. Organizers should have known this and been set up sooner, but when we arrived, volunteers were just starting to gather for a pre-race meeting and the corrals weren’t ready. For at least the next hour after arriving, we noticed how unsecured the area was; someone could have driven a truck in there, if they’d had their mind set on harming people.

So it’s October in Portland, and people had warned me that we’d freeze at the end. Why are there no drop bags? The start line and finish line are close together — bags wouldn’t even need to be transported anywhere. Instead, organizers spend a lot of money on trinkets that you have to carry around in addition to the medal. Finishers are handed a pendant in a box, a rose and a tree seedling, and even more items, I think. I guess exhausted runners have a lot of extra hands and pocket space to carry these things around-? Wouldn’t it be a good idea to let people leave a bag? With WARM, DRY CLOTHES in it? Even the (unnoticed) winner was quoted as saying he was too cold to hang around until the organizers figured out they gave the first-place prize to the wrong guy.

I do want to say that volunteers were plentiful and amazing. Race planning, though, left a bad taste in my mouth. I’ll bet the marathon winner would agree with me. I won’t be back.