#95 - Columbia River Power Marathon 2010

DATE: October 23, 2010

LOCATION: Umatilla, Oregon

I had originally planned to the Columbia River Power/Gorge double, but when I found out about the Thanksgiving marathon (Wattle Waddle), I had to drop the Columbia Gorge Marathon in order to make Seattle my 100th. This worked out well, because my sister wanted to do the Run Like Hell Half Marathon in Portland on the 24th. So I ended up running the half with her.

I drove out to Boardman on Friday night, where I slept in my car. I drove 30 minutes the next morning to Umatilla and got ready for the race. It was nice to see other Maniacs at the start, many of them were doing the double.

When the race started I was off and running and feeling pretty good. I was running sub-8 minute miles and feeling like I might have a good day. The course had a huge downhill in the first mile or so, and had a few hills in the first 10 miles. Despite the hills, I was on pace to run a 3:25 (or so) marathon.

At mile 10, we turned on to a dirt trail. I didn't really know what to expect. It turned out the dirt trail was a 10 mile out-and-back, and was a very loose gravel. This caused to me slow down. I ended up pushing through the first half of the out-and-back (about 5 miles) and found the loose gravel and rolling hills a bit challenging. I realized at the turn around that I was in sixth place.

I pushed hard in the next five miles to keep my place at sixth and to keep my times in the low 8 minute range. A woman passed me in the last mile of the dirt trail, so that put me in seventh place.

Once I got off the dirt trail we had a huge climb and the finished on a pretty easy bike path back to the finish. I ended up passing a runner who was ahead of me in the last few miles, putting me back in sixth place. I ended up finishing with a time of 3:36, which was great given the course.

I hung out for a while before heading back to Portland. It was a very nice day and I enjoyed the small marathon. I ended up pacing my sister to a 2:07 PR at the half marathon the next day. It was a very fun weekend.