Race Recap and Review: Minneapolis Marathon, June 2, 2013, Marathon State #3 - Minnesota

I ran the Minneapolis Marathon on June 2, 2013.  My family and I were in downtown Minneapolis on this weekend for my brother-in-law's wedding.  As a happy coincidence, the Minneapolis Marathon was being run the same weekend, with shuttle buses to the start leaving mere blocks from my hotel and with the finishing line being about a mile from our hotel.

My goal on this one was simple: There was a strict 6 hour gun time cut-off and I needed to beat it to check Minnesota off of my list.  I did with about 5 minutes to spare, finishing in about 5:50 chip time.

Packet pick-up/Expo: Grade B. If you are a fan of going to the expo for exhibitors, you'll probably find this a little on the small side.  However, packet pickup was quick and painless, and if I remember correctly, they handed you the shirt and the packet at the same time.

Shirt/Swag: Grade: B. The shirt was on the nice side.  My one complaint is that it said "Finisher" on the back, despite the fact that I hadn't finished anything when they handed it to me.

Starting line: Grade: C. The starting line was in a park a distance from downtown Minneapolis. There was a last minute change in the starting line. It previously was supposed to start and finish in downtown Minneapolis.  The park was nice enough, my criticisms are that:

1. They made you pay $5 (or so) for the shuttle bus to the start.  It seems that should be included in the price of the registration.  It was an unanticipated expense for them, but since they made such a big change in the course after registration opened, I think they should have ate the expense. 



View of downtown from the starting area.




2. The portable toilets were located a good quarter mile down hill from the start line.  They were outside the boundaries of the park in the parking lot of an office building, suggesting some kind of snafu with the permitting.

Support:  Grade B+. I do remember being quite thirsty at times, but I was running a marathon in the Midwest in June.  There were enough aid stations. The course was well marked. Even when I was running alone, I didn't have a hard time following it.

The pacer I followed for about half the race.

There were plenty of pace teams. I fell in behind the 5:15 pacer, since that was about my PR pace, but I lost him at about the halfway mark.  Incidentally, it was his first marathon. I checked his time and he was dead on at 5:15.

Course: Grade: B+.  The course showed off Minneapolis's best feature: The Mississippi River. From the start the course makes its way to the river, follows it, eventually hairpins and returns you to the finish. (The finish incidentally was directly across the river from the park that I would finish the Great River Ragnar in a few months later.)

I don't care for the markings on that bridge.

My biggest gripe was that the half marathon course diverged from the marathon course about 0.1 miles before it ended. For me watching half marathoners finish as I started digging in for the second half of the marathon was a little demoralizing. 

Since it is an along the river course, it was pretty flat. There were a few Midwesterners calling it hilly, especially near the start, but for me it seemed quite flat. (Ah, I remember the days when I thought we had big hills in Wisconsin.) 

Medal: Grade B-. I will grant that by not living in the area, I am missing out on one of the "features" of the medal. If you do the other races put on by Team Ortho, the medals from this race and all of the races fit together and create some kind of super medal.
However, as it stands for me, the medal is just OK. The metal that the medal is made from feels kind of cheapish compared to some others I have, and I feel like the plastic in the medal detracts from it. I like the Minneapolis skyline, but they could have done it differently.
It is kind of pointy, though, and could probably be used as a weapon in a pinch.

Finish Area: Grade: B. Like I mentioned above, I came in right before the cutoff, so they were packing it up when I got there. However, they had a medal for me. They had bottles of water, fruit, and power bars out as well.  Even though I was a late finisher, they gave me the support they promised.
It looked like they were having fun there when the half marathoners (and first marathoners) were finishing, but it was kind of blah, when I got there.


Miscellaneous observations: 

• For a marathon named after a major city, it was on the small side. Only about 750 marathoners, and 2500 half marathoners.  I gather that the Twin Cities Marathon in the fall is the main event around there.  Come to think of it I'm kind of surprised that the Rock 'n' Roll series hasn't tried to make an incursion into the area.
• I highly recommend

  

  At first glance I thought it said "Mills Runs Park" which   would have been appropriate.

  the bike cab back to downtown hotels from the finish line. I did not feel like walking the mile and a half back, and was thankful when I came across one of them.

Overall Grade:B.  A fine enough marathon, but nothing spectacular.  It certainly got the job done for me, though, as I didn't have to go out of my way or spend one extra dollar (besides the entry fee) to run it.  From what I hear, if you are going to travel to run one marathon in Minnesota, you might want to opt for the Twin Cities Marathon, or, if you are looking for a PR, Grandmas Marathon in Duluth. But if you are in town anyway, this one will get the job done.

Race Recap and Review: Portland Marathon, October 6, 2013, Marathon State #4 - Oregon

I ran the Portland Marathon on October 6, 2013.  Originally this was going to be the Super Bowl of my race season. (That would make the Poulsbo Half Marathon the next week the Pro Bowl?) Then I signed up for the Marine Corps Marathon on October 27, and had to figure out the best way to prepare for both.
Complicating matters, I was put out of commission by walking pneumonia for a good chunk of the first part of September.

My goals going into the race were to finish, and not be diverted to the alternate course. Both goals were accomplished.

Packet pick-up/Expo: Grade: B. My main complaint about the packet pickup/expo is that it is another big city marathon that holds their expo in a parking-challenged environment. However, as I would find out a couple weeks later at the MCM, the fact that it took longer to find a place to park than it did to pick up my packet isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Despite having over 15,000 runners, it was a smooth process picking up the bib, chip, and race shirt. My main complaint, as always, is the two-stop system to get the bib and then the shirt, especially here since the two-floor expo made it a bit of a maze. (It didn't help that I had a two-year-old chomping at the bit to get lost in the merchandise.)


Shirt/Swag: Grade: A.  In this case it is shirts. They give you a race shirt at the expo and a long-sleeve finisher's shirt after finishing.  Both shirts were Boston Marathon blue and yellow this year and matched the medal nicely.

My finisher's seedling.

Additionally, finishing swag included a pin which is a copy of the medal, a finisher's coin, and - the weirdest piece of swag I've ever received - a cedar tree seeding.

Traditional pre-race selfie.

Starting line: Grade: B+. I took the Portland light rail to the starting line from my hotel near the airport. That was super-convenient. Portland uses mandatory corrals, which worked out well for getting us slow runners in Corral F across the line in a reasonable amount of time after the gun.

The portable toilets were in the corral areas, and there were just a few less in my corral than I would have liked to have seen.  Once you were in a corral you weren't allowed to leave for nebulous "security reasons" so runners couldn't go find another corral with shorter lines.

A dragon was amongst the on-course entertainment.

Support: Grade: A. There was a lot of both planned and organic community support on the course. There was some kind of music every mile or so including rock bands, bag pipers, marching bands, Hawaiian bands, DJs, pirates and belly dancers. It really put the Seattle Rock 'n' Roll Marathon entertainment to shame.

VASELINE!

There were plenty of water stations, aid stations, and gummi bear and pretzel stations. Also - Vaseline! Someone finally figured out that runners might need Vaseline en route. I stopped at about mile 16 to reinforce my Body Glide with Vaseline and saved my man-nipples a lot of bleeding.

The Portlanders came out in force, as well. They were very enthusiastic and one of them handed me a beer at mile 23. Beer at mile 23 was surprisingly good.

First string quintet I've ever seen on a course.

Course: Grade: A-. The course is essentially a big loop around the Willamette River both starting and finishing in downtown Portland with a few hairpins thrown in for good measure.  It runs through downtown, an industrial area, parks, and residential areas. It gives you a good feel for Portland, especially when you run - twice - through a homeless encampment underneath an overpass.

Thought about stopping at about Mile 16.

For a Pacific Northwest course it is pretty flat. The only real hill comes on the climb up to the St. Johns Bridge.  As part of the Portland Marathon's aggressive anti-bandit efforts they have security at the entrance to the bridge and no one may pass without a bib.

You shall not pass! (Without a bib.)

There is a cutoff shortly past mile 21. Anyone not at the cutoff 6.5 hours after the gun is diverted to an alternative course. There is an 8-hour course time-limit, so it is really only the very tail end that need to worry about that diversion.

St. Johns Bridge. Mt. St. Helens on the left.

All in all it is a pretty course with views of the river, Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens, and some of the more unique areas of one of America's more unique cities.

Marathon Finisher's Medal

Medal: Grade:A+.  Quite simply, the Portland medal is the nicest finisher's medal I have earned to date. While I wasn't a huge fan of the iron cross design initially, once I had the mint struck medal in my hand and saw the care that went into the design and production, it won me over.

Finish Area: Grade:A. Plenty of water, fruit, drinks, and other support.  I had an medical aid worker  check to make sure I felt OK as soon as I crossed the line, and then had my pick of food as I picked up my swag.  It was a bit of a walk to the family reunification area, but I they probably needed the space during the time when the bulk of the racers were finishing.

Miscellaneous observations: I love personalized bibs. Having people yell "Go Bull Moose!" was fun.

As seen in the video below taken at about mile 26, the Portland Marathon did have some bandit problems:

Overall Grade: A. Runner's World consistently names the Portland Marathon the best marathon in the Northwest for a reason. It is also nice to run a marathon in a biggish city where it seems like the average citizens are happy that we are there (despite the crazy lady on the light rail yelling at us to not come back when we all got off near the start.)
As I put it in a tweet shortly after the marathon: "For a city full of addicts, hippies, and weirdos, Portland puts on a hell of a marathon. Or maybe that's why they do."

Race Recap and Review: Marine Corps Marathon October 27, 2013 - Marathon State #5 - Virginia

I decided in July to do the Marine Corps Marathon on October 27, despite being signed up for the Portland Marathon on October 6.  I was taking advantage of being invited by the Spina Bifida Association to run the Marine Corps Marathon as a fund raiser. (If anyone is interested in donating, you can still do so here, I am still a little short of my goal. And of course thank you to those that already sponsored me.

I essentially used the Portland Marathon as the 20 mile run in the training sequence for the MCM and the Poulsbo Half Marathon as the 12 mile run.  By the time I got to the start line of the MCM I had done three half marathons and another marathon within the last month. That's a lot for me. Add in 5 more half marathons, two Ragnars, and the MPLS Marathon since March, running fatigue was starting to set in.

All that said, I was very excited to do the MCM. First of all, I love Marines. Second, the course looked awesome. I'm not a fan of Washington, DC as a city, but I do love the monuments and memorials of the National Mall and beyond, including the Iwo Jima memorial where the race ends. And after a short scare about the government shut down resulting in a cancellation of the race, I took off on a Friday night red eye to BWI.

Packet pick-up/Expo: Grade: D-.  After attempting to check in to my hotel early, I decided to have some brunch and then head down to pick up my packet before returning to my hotel for a nap. When  I got to the DC Armory, it quickly became apparent there would be no nap.  There was a wait of almost two hours to get into the tent just to pick up the bib/chip and patch.  Then we would have to cross the street and wait almost another hour to get into the armory for gear bag and shirt.

That might look like a crowd milling around, but that is the line

For some reason non-runners weren't allowed in the bib pick-up tent and checking e-cards at the door slowed everything down. Then, once in the tent, there were Marines manning about 20 or so stations handing out the bibs and patches.  Problem was that only about half of the stations had someone at them at any one time. A solution immediately became obvious: Open the sides of the tents, and let people line up in the line up in 20 lines, show the Marines handing out the bibs the e-card (like you had to anyway).  You know, like they do at every other marathon.

I don't know what can be done about the line to get into the armory other than get rid of the bag check (which was ineffective as always) and the metal detector. I've never been through those at any other marathon expo.  I assume security was beefed up after Boston, but the huge snaking line would be a great spot for a terrorist to drop a bomb and take out a bunch of runners and a few Marines, probably actually better than a bomb in the expo.

I was told that a power outage caused longer lines on Saturday, but I heard similar stories about Friday. Also, the power could have been taken out of the equation if handled properly.

Otherwise the expo was pretty much the usual for a marathon this size. I got my shirt, bought a couple of MCM shirts for the kids and a couple shoelace charms for my wife. (Need presents when you return home, after all.)

Shirt: Grade: A. The MCM has a tradition of a mock turtle neck for their shirt.  This year they took the mock to a technical fabric. For me, if the race actually issues a shirt that fits it is a success. They had a size that fit me and it was otherwise a nice shirt. It features the Marine Corp logo embroidered on the neck,  the MCM logo on the front chest, and a flag design with the slogan "The People's Marathon" on the back. All around a swell shirt.

Traditional Pre-Race Selfie

Starting line: Grade: B+.  The main thing I look for in a starting area is plenty of portable toilets. Not a problem here. The Pentagon parking lot was full of them.  The starting area was a bit of a walk from the nearest Metro station, how most runners appeared to arrive, but in theory that shouldn't be a problem for people about to run a marathon.

Skydivers deploying huge flags.

I got there about an hour early, went through my routine, checked my gear with one of about 40 UPS trucks, and made my way to the area to await the gun - actually in this case the howitzer. Rather than mandatory corrals, they rely on runners to self-assign themselves to areas based on starting time.  I always have mixed feelings about corrals, but I think at a race this big they would have been useful. Getting off the starting line is important for slower runners because of the bridge cutoff, and I feel like corrals might have made the race start smoother. My chip time shows it took me about 25 minutes to get to the start line, I think about 5-7 minutes could be shaved off of that. But that is a minor complaint.

The view for me about 20 minutes after the howitzer.

Even Santa made it out!

Before the gun skydivers jumped and deployed some of the biggest American Flags I have ever seen. I never did see the howitzer that started the race, but I certainly heard it, even way back where I was.

Support: Grade: A+. There is no better support than the United States Marine Corps, no matter what you are talking about. The course was teeming with Marines. They were manning the water stations, the mile markers, the food stations, the first aid stations, were lined up on the last hill to get you to move your butt up it, and handing out the medals at the end with a salute.  I noticed a lot of second lieutenants and PFCs out on the course, so I'm not sure how "voluntary" it was, but even if they were ordered out there, you would never know it. (I did see at least one lieutenant colonel and a couple of gunnys.) They were all enthusiastic and most looked like they were having a good time themselves.
There was also a decent amount of civilian spectator support, especially in the National Mall area.  Wear Blue Run to Remember also had a touching display and flag line along the mall.

Course: Grade: A-.  While this course certainly doesn't have the natural beauty of some courses I have run, it probably has the best sampling of man made beauty. If features two views of the Iwo Jima Memorial, views of many of the memorials on the National Mall, the Capital Building, and the Pentagon.

As mentioned above, there is a course cutoff at mile 20 when a bridge closes 5 hours after the gun.  "Beating the Bridge" becomes its own challenge for 6 hour runners since they will likely have about 4.5 hours to get there.

I did!

The course is flat, at least by my standards. The only real hill is the one at the end that runs up to the finish at the Iwo Jima Memorial, and there are Marines forcing you on at that point.

The Run Blue flag line.

There are plenty of water, food, and toilet stops on the course.  There are even some flush toilets on the National Mall.  The only knock I have against the course, and it is minor, is that miles 24-26 (or so) are on a highway and so are not conducive to support at a time when you might really need support. However, I doubt there is much than can be done about that, it is just a problem of geography.


Medal: Grade: Incomplete [UPDATE 11-20-13: Grade C. Medal itself: A, Knocked to C for lateness. See pics at the end of the post.]They ran out of medals. They ran out of freaking medals.  How do they run out of medals? The ones I saw looked really nice, but I don't have one. Yet. I am supposed to be getting one in the mail.  I'll update the grade when I do get it.
UPDATE 11-20-13:  I received the medal in the mail with a letter of apology from the MCM. That was nice. However, the way some others are being treated is off-putting. For instance, my friend Deidra, who is a former Marine and a former Army helicopter pilot who served three combined tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and who ran the race 22 weeks pregnant while carrying a flag was told she would not get a medal because she did not beat the gauntlet. But she was not diverted at the gauntlet made the bridge, and finished. When I went to look at her results they were gone. Apparently the MCM took her results down and apparently through them down the memory hole. The MCM Facebook page and Twitter are full of similar stories.

Finish Area: Grade: B+. Nothing special, but it did the job. Bananas, water, and boxed carbs were offered. It was a bit of a walk to the UPS gear check, even if you were heading in that direction for the metro anyway.  They were out of beer by the time I got to the beer tent, but since it was Michelob Ultra I wasn't too broken up by that.
PRO-TIP: Check the metro elevators for a line. There might not be one. (There wasn't when I got there.)

Miscellaneous observations:

• I have never run a portion of race more than about 10 miles east of the Mississippi, so maybe this is an east coast thing, but I have never seen so many runners veer off course to take a pee along the course - in the park, along the mall, even at the start line.  And many weren't even modest about it.

• The MCM had Gatorade at the aid stations.  I like when the top shelf sports drinks sponsor a marathon.  I've had enough course HEED and other assorted crap that I would never drink on my own to last me a lifetime.

Overall Grade: B+.   It is too bad that the packet pickup and lack of medal took what could have easily been the best marathon experience that I ever would anticipate having and dropped it to just a B+ experience. I certainly wasn't expecting the kind of issues I encountered in the 38th year of a legendary marathon.  However, I would still highly recommend this marathon to anyone, especially since I anticipate the current race staff will correct the issues encountered this year.











UPDATE 11-20-13: Added pics.