#73 - Portland Marathon 2009

DATE: October 4, 2009

LOCATION: Portland, Oregon

This was my fourth Portland Marathon, I was happy to do this one again. My friend Jon Dotson was unable to do this marathon in 2008 because of an injury, but this time, he was good to go. At lunchtime we went down to the expo and picked up our packets on Friday.

Come Sunday morning, Jon and his family picked me up. His family dropped us off at the start and we met up after the race. We stopped by our office to use the bathroom and headed to the start. The weather was nice, and of course there were lots of first timers. I knew a gal from my church running her first marathon. I never saw her there, but I spotted her family who cheered me on.

When the race started, Jon wanting to qualify for Boston, was looking at a 3:30 marathon. So I likewise that it would be good to get a 3:30 race in. But when the race started we were well behind the 3:30 pace group. It took us three miles to catch up to the 3:30 group. That took a lot of energy. At this point we ran into our friend, Scott. It was nice to see him.

Coming up to mile 5 or 6, I encountered something that was a bit shocking, a train! That's right, a train was slowly coming up to the street we were running down. He was sounding his horn and slowing approaching. The question we had to answer as runners, was should we make a run for it or should we stop and wait. At this point the 3:30 group was behind us, and I knew we had enough time to run across, but that is not a choice you want to make in a big race like this. We ran across with our hearts pounding a little harder. From what I understand the 3:30 group had to wait. It's a shame the race could not stop the train.

After that we ran through the industrial district in an out-and-back. From there we ran up through northwest Portland to the half marathon point. At the half way point, I was feeling really good, my first half time was 1:39:56. I knew the biggest challenge would be at the St. John's Bridge about mile 16-17. I kept pushing, but knew a slowdown was coming.

I pushed hard over the bridge and down to the 20 mile marker. At this point my average pace had slowed to a 7:45 pace, I knew a 3:30 was very likely. I kept running, and wondered how Jon was doing. He was behind me, but I was well ahead of the 3:30 group. I was hoping Jon was still on pace to qualify for Boston.

I finished strong and crossed the finish line in 3:24:35. I was so happy to have a 3:30 under my belt. It was my fastest marathon in over a year. I waited and Jon crossed the finish line. We weren't sure what his time was, but knew it was close to a 3:30. After meeting up with his family, we found out that he had run it in 3:30:54, which was about 6 seconds under the BQ. Even though it was a little longer than 3:30, it was still a BQ!