Emily Alder's Staging Area

I loved this race experience! Everything felt very organized. Water & aid stations were plentiful. Volunteers were amazing. The views were mind-blowing! Some things to know: they bus you up the mountain & you run down, and the last bus leaves at 5:15 for a 7am race. No matter what, you spend quite a bit of time standing around before the race begins and you are up a mountain so it is about 20 degrees colder than where you started. They tried to mitigate this with fire pits, but the best strategy (that most people used) was to bring clothes to drop in the van before the race or on the course. I felt they warned people well, but it’s still worth being said that you will spend over an hour standing around before the race begins. This is also not a race with much spectator support. You run mostly on the highway. It is mostly downhill but there were a few uphills with many people (including me) walking. It’s hard to say if this is a course for a first-time marathoner– probably? But most runners appeared pretty fit and/or in their 20s (maybe not true every time but something I paid attention to as a slower, middle-aged lady). I also didn’t see a single pacer, though I know they were there– they either weren’t carrying tall signs or they were just pacing to 4:30/5h. Everyone gets the same medal, but with a different ribbon to differentiate between the races. The race shirts were long-sleeved. I didn’t go to the after-party at the park but it looked like a fun event for kids. The expo was in a new location maybe specifically for the 25yr anniversary, but it was too cramped to spend time looking at vendors. However, I cannot overstate how much I loved this race!

This is truly a small town race, which will not bother you if you are unfamiliar with bigger, better-produced races. Beforehand they had a great series of live (Fb & IG) Q&As, including presentations from a nutritionist. Their social media presence & general dissemination of info was stellar. However, they were pretty evasive about the hill profile (def hillier than advertised). There is also a pretty hard stop at 6hrs (many volunteers were packed up closer to 4h30min), after which you lost support (this course would be impossible to run without police stopping traffic). They dont sweep runners but I wouldnt run this if you expected to run past 6hrs. I heard from my spouse who ran the half that the blugold mile & crowd support was great, but as a slower runner this was not my experience. The kids’ obstacle course was super fun (with great medals) but organization was not the best. There was also a portion of the course that was out & back for about 2.5 miles on gravel right before the biggest hill (very tiring). Overall, this would be a great race for a faster beginner. The scenery was excellent. The medals were part of a bridge series, which was underwhelming as a run-cationer (it did not seem they get many of those), but I had a good time & I do recommend this race.

This was my first marathon and I got to run it in my home town (which I know makes me biased). The first half is mostly on city roads, then the latter half is along the riverfront. I did the majority of my training on parts of this course and never got bored– the scenery is beautiful. Packet pickup was easy. My kids ran the Duck Dash the day before and were thrilled to get little rubber ducky medals. The support for the race was stellar (water stations were helmed by local run clubs and volunteers). Although the weather was in the 80s the day before, this is Oregon so it cooled down to a perfect 50 degrees and misty on race day. My only note is that the pacers for the back-of-the-pack runners were WAY off (the 5:30 pacers ran at a 5hr pace or faster for at least the first half when I was tailing them). There is some elitism and snobbery in general from the organizers (it would be nice to have any sort of body diversity represented in their promotional materials, though there have been efforts to address racial inequity), though I want to point out that the volunteers along the course were EXCELLENT in their cheering and support, even though they had been out there for awhile before I showed up. I would absolutely recommend this race for a first-time marathoner, though be prepared to run alone if you’re a back-of-the-packer like me– there were not many of us in this race.