Sunday, October 10, 2010

Portland Marathon

Distances: marathon, half-marathon
I did the marathon in 2010. The course was fairly flat with the exception the climb onto the bridge around mi 18. After the climb, I was looking forward to a downhill to get off the bridge on the other side, but there really wasn't one. The number of fans cheering at the start at 6 AM was impressive. There were also drummers playing near the start and I found it really hard to stay slow and on pace when I heard them. They don't provide water in the starting area, so I'd recommend bringing your own in a disposable bottle. I was kind of surprised they gave us a participant shirt and medal, as well as a finisher's shirt and medal. I wouldn't mind just finishers shirts/medals. (What am I supposed to do with a participant medal?) It was well organized with one glaring exception- the drop bag pick up. I waited nearly an hour in the rain to get my warm clothes. At the start there were several trucks for drop bags, but it seemed like everyone dumped their bag in the 1st one- making finding any specific bag nearly impossible. Unless they do a better job of controlling who drops off their bag where, choose the truck for the back-of-the-pack folks. If you want to do the half-marathon, it fills quickly, so register early.

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