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."