My Profile

@marathonrunner1974

CANADA Raving since 2023 Boston Marathon finisher, Marathon Maniacs Active 1 year, 4 months ago

About Me

  • Running club(s):

    Ceevacs

  • Rave race:

    Chicago marathon

  • Race that's calling my name:

    Vancouver Marathon

  • I run because:

    I run because I’m 49 years old and I can still run fast. I love racing.

My Races

Organize, track & review your races and personal bests here.

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Half Marathon

Marathon

Ultramarathon

(Marathon or Ultra) + Half

Marathon + Ultra

Other

Future Races

Personal Bests (1)

Race Distance Location Date Result
Marathon Portland, OR Oct 1, 2023 3:29:59

Future Races (0)

Race Distance Location Date Paid

Past Races (1)

Race Distance Location Date Result My Raves My Performance
Marathon Portland, OR Oct 1, 2023 3:29:59

My Raves

This was my 31st marathon. I set a new PR and won my age group, because I have a coach, not because this is a fast course. You will read … MORE

This was my 31st marathon. I set a new PR and won my age group, because I have a coach, not because this is a fast course. You will read why.

I had trained for Twin Cities (which IS a fast course) but when I saw their forecast I switched to Portland. Excellent race website except for the course profile which looks more like the monitor they hook you up to at a hospital. Except worse. When I read other reviews where all of the runners complained about the hills in 2022, I assumed it was because it was a hot day. The website says it’s a fast course, right? How bad could it be?

The expo wasn’t big but it’s not a big race (compared to the majors). They had two speakers at the expo: a doctor to talk about runners health, and a coach to talk about the course. Both were excellent. The coach did not mince words about the amount of climbing, and number of turns, on the course. He also explained the train boxes perfectly. But I knew I had trained for a PR and was very nervous about the hills.

Race day had textbook PERFECT race weather. Sunny and cool. My hotel was a 4 minute walk to the start line which was great because the lines for the portapotties were epic. The start area seemed a bit chaotic because there were so many runners crammed under the bridge. But the start chute itself was really easy to self-seed.

Once we were done the first 10k, I already knew this was going to be the most difficult marathon course I had run. There was no settling into my pace, because there were so many turns, and I am really careful about running the tangents. The hills were constant. And so, so many train tracks. A runner could not lose focus for a moment.

In the second half I will say that the area around Reed College felt like it had more downhill than I was expecting. I actually dared speed up and get in front of the 3:30 pace group. That’s because I thought we had already done the Mile 22 hill. I was OH SO WRONG. That hill took it out of me and made the remainder of the race, which had several smaller hills, very difficult. The only truly flat part of the race was running down to the finish.

I did give the course 5 stars however because we ran through so many COOL neighbourhoods where the local community members clearly took pride in representing their area and supporting the runners. Downtown was cool because it’s downtown. The bridges were beautiful. Reed College was a stunning area to run through. It’s a GREAT course. It’s just not a fast course. (Why does their website say that!?) I’ve done New York, Boston and San Fransisco, and Portland is harder than any of those BY A LOT.

Huge shout-out to the race organizers for how they handled the logistics of those train boxes. That alone deserves huge recognition. The aid stations were very easy to navigate even though I was in a large pace group. The volunteers were incredible.

I think this would be an amazing race to do for fun with friends, not caring about your result.

I used to read horror stories about the Portland marathon and they have obviously made a huge 180 since those days. This is a great event to showcase a fantastic American city.

DIFFICULTY
5
PRODUCTION
5
SCENERY
5
SWAG
4

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