Nathanial Garrod's Staging Area

An out and back with some car interactions at busy intersections. The trail that it’s on is mostly along the waterfront, which is fine, but there was another race/walk happening on a further out segment of the course that held up some of the faster runners.

New course and I was dreading it. On one hand, going mostly downhill significantly decreased my race time, so that was great. But races in Portland keep getting more and more boring. This race is sponsored by Adidas, so that saves some of the quality in other areas. 15k was mostly the same course as the half marathon, which got confusing with the mileage signs. Beer after is always great. This year they got covers, in case of torrential rain that’s happened in past years.

Maybe I’m a bit jaded because I didn’t really train for this race at all.
I ended up walking most of the back half, and I didn’t expect the gravel to be as long of a stretch as it actually was. The hills roll pretty intensely in the first half, and while there’s fewer in the back half of the course, they are a bit more intense.

This feels like the roughest half I’ve ever run, but that could be due to lack of training. Still, with no training and walking the back half of the course, I finished in just over 2 hours, so I’m stoked about that.

The wine at this event is set up so poorly compared to the Napa to Sonoma half Destination Races does. In Sonoma they have 40 to 50 wineries and they all give healthy pours and they’re scattered at cocktail tables around a park with ample shade and water. At the end of this race, it’s a row of wineries lined up under tents in a parking lot, with almost no seating available.
The swag was a shirt, the runner bag at the end of the race was a bunch of hippie snacks (dried peas, lime chips, Alaska Airlines in-flight snack).
I would run this race again, but only because it’s local and I have friends that want to do it.
The relay option seemed dope and really well set up.

This locally-organized race is great for families, and it is very evident that it is a family putting it together. The course is pretty cool – they don’t close the roads, but they are on roads that are pretty empty at that day/time. I ran with some friends who don’t run much and we had a lot of fun, though we didn’t make an amazing time.

I live and regularly run in Portland, and there are lots of really great places to run in town. This race showcases a few of them, very briefly, mixed in with lots of warehouse district and long, empty stretches. If you enjoy doing an out and back (almost twice!) of warehouse neighborhoods, this is the race for you!

I love running west on the Broadway bridge, and I enjoy running over the St. John’s bridge. A few cool parts of downtown are featured.

The race is very well produced, and the swag is awesome!

It was pouring rain in 2015 for the first half of the race
And this was a wonderful thing. This was a great race to start the season off, and the beginning of me being pretty serious about running. I learned a lot about my style, running gear I did and did not need, and made a PR.