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@RetiredfromSoccer
Seattle, WA Raving since 2023 Active 9 months, 3 weeks agoAbout Me
My Races
Organize, track & review your races and personal bests here.
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(Marathon or Ultra) + Half
Marathon + Ultra
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Future Races
Personal Bests (1)
| Race | Distance | Location | Date | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UW Medicine Seattle Marathon & Half Marathon | Marathon | Seattle, WA | Nov 26, 2023 | 3:08:00 |
Future Races (0)
| Race | Distance | Location | Date | Paid |
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Past Races (2)
| Race | Distance | Location | Date | Result | My Raves | My Performance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UW Medicine Seattle Marathon & Half Marathon | Marathon | Seattle, WA | Nov 26, 2023 | 3:08:00 |
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| Portland Marathon | Marathon | Portland, OR | Oct 1, 2023 |
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UW Medicine Seattle Marathon & Half Marathon
Well run marathon on a tough course
UW Medicine Seattle Marathon & Half Marathon
First time I've run the local marathon. I tacked it on to the end of my fall season after finally breaking 3hrs in October. The organization was good. Easy packet … MORE
First time I’ve run the local marathon. I tacked it on to the end of my fall season after finally breaking 3hrs in October.
The organization was good. Easy packet pickup at the Westin. There was a pre-staging area in the Expo center that was heated and had real bathrooms before the start of the race. Plenty of aid stations on course.
The course for this marathon has been changing every year. They are trying to take some of the elevation out of it while still hitting a lot of the city highlights and keeping the impact on the holiday weekend traffic to a minimum.
This year the weather was good but cold. The start was around freezing, which lead to slick pavement in a couple of spots on the course. The first 5 miles loop through downtown and the express lanes of the freeway. It isn’t the most scenic part of the route but seems to be staple every time they try a new one. You hit the UW campus and Arboretum but stick to the roads, not the most beautiful or scenic parts.
After the Arboretum you hit one of the 4-5 big climbs but Interlaken Ave. This and one too-sharp descent were really my only complaints about the race. There are 4-5 big climbs and they are all pretty late in the race. You need to really save your legs for the back half of the marathon if you have any hope of maintaining pace. At the top of Interlaken, rather than close a main road for the runners, they shunted them to a side street that was too steep to run down. People just put on the breaks and slowly shuffled down the street. It sucked because you didn’t get any of the time lost on the climb back on the decent.
The course headed through the Burke Gillemen trail, where there was a lot of friction as the faster marathoners tried to pass the slower half-marathoners on a ~8-10′ wide path. You briefly duck into Gasworks park where the biggest crowd of the race cheered you on. Gasworks marked the end of the first half, after whichs there was a 2nd tough climb up to Highway 99 and then the longest climb of race from up Highway 99 to the top of Phinney Ridge. The half-marathoners turned and headed back down while the marathoners did two loops of Green Lake. They didn’t close Green Lake to the general public so you had walkers and regular runners on the path but I didn’t find it to be difficult to navigate. After Green Lake you climb Highway 99, descend to the bridge and do your last climb up the bridge. A couple of miles of gentle decent to the finish.
Seattle is hilly so you aren’t going to be able to get a flat marathon but it would be nice if the hills weren’t so backloaded.
Portland Marathon
Great race in a great city
Portland Marathon
I've run this marathon 3 times. It is always well organized and so far I've been blessed with very good weather. The course is not one to set records on. … MORE
I’ve run this marathon 3 times. It is always well organized and so far I’ve been blessed with very good weather.
The course is not one to set records on. There are a lot of turns running through the city, especially at the beginning for the marathoners. Running over the bridges is beautiful but comes with significant elevation gain. I appreciate that the middle part of the marathon course, especially as you cross the bridge to head toward Reed, is well-shaded by trees. If you are running a faster marathon, by the time the sun is really up and starting to heat up the course you are shaded until you hit ~mile 20.
The organization is very good. Packet pickup is at the expo center, which is a fair distance from the start so it isn’t possible to stay within easy walking distance of both. It is pretty easy to use mass transit to get to the expo center from the start so you don’t need to have a car.
The only organizational/course challenge was along MacAdams. It is roughly miles 7-12 for the marathon and maybe 2-6 for the half marathon. It is 3-4 lane road but they only block 1 lane on the right. There isn’t much traffic but you can’t really stray out of your lane. The problem is that the faster marathoners immediately hit the back of the pack half marathoners. I was with the 3hr pace group and it was tough sledding. There were bunches of half-marathon walkers on the right and we were trying to squeeze through on the left. Aid stations along this portion of the course were more difficult with the half-marathoners stopped to get their water and fast marathoners darting in and out to try to get a cup.
Once you get to the Sellwood bridge the course widens out and you can easily make your way through the half marathoners. Not long after the marathon course veers away to go through Reed.
The post-race area was well stocked with recovery snacks and drinks. The metal was nice. I skipped the long line for the beer garden but lots of people were enjoying the nice weather.