Portland Marathon 2010!!!!! 39th annual run. 10-10-10 About 9,000-10,000 participants!!! The greatest turnout so far!
What an awesome date for my first marathon! (as far as a cool date, ha ha) Bib number: 5861; age division: 25-29 yrs.
Being my first marathon, it was definetly very tough! On top of that, the weather didn't cooperate. It poured on us; every inch of clothing was soaked. I ran this race with Nicole, my training buddy and my dad who traveled up from Nor cal.I had a rough start due to the fact of being a little disorganized in the morning, searching for parking and address. I had everything else lined up but when we got there at about 6:00 a.m.-6:15 p.m. traffic was horrible and so hard to get into the parking garage. I had planned to meet Nicole early at 6:15 a.m. but that quickly changed. We were inching our way to the garage. I eventually had to jump out, use the restroom in Subway then scramble to find my corral. I knew that I was in the Green corral-C but being so discombobulated I somehow thought I was in B corral. I was following another girl who was trying to get past the fence into her corral. We didn't study the side streets well enough and had trouble getting to where we needed to be. We were about to jump the fence, about 2 min until start time...Finally they let us in. I accidentally got into B corral (a corral a little too fast for my pace). I got to start on time but realized later that I was in the wrong area. My bad! Honest mistake! The 3 reasons I feel I didn't get the time I had planned was: 1. Poor weather conditions-rain 2. Started out too fast, due to being in wrong corral 3. Pain in my knees caused me to run a slower pace toward the end The course was actually not too bad. It started out going in a loop then we back tracked, doing an out and back route, then a huge circle around Portland and across St. John's bridge. I found Justin (Nicole husband) on mile 6 or so and handed him my cell phone that I was not able to give to him earlier. I was shocked that I saw him on the side lines with that many people there! When I got back onto the course I almost got disqualified due to the fact that I didn't cross the check point with my chip, I ran back a few feet and made sure to cross that. I got side tracked after I gave Justin my cell phone to hold. I had a small pouch I got at the expo that held my cell phone, gu, and shot blocks. I had with me: 2 gus and one packet of shot blocks. I also had 2 tylenols but they got all mushy and a lot got dissolved....not sure if the pouch was waterproof or not? Amazingly, Nicole got glimpse of me behind because she was in the C corral (the one i should have been in), but maybe meant to be so we could see each other for a bit! We talked and ran together for a few minutes but then she took off and I slowed down some. Go Nicole!!! YOU dominate!!! :). The first 9 miles or so I felt great but when I got to mile 10 I started to tire some. Mile 12 was the worse!! I started to get that dreaded pain on the inside of my L knee. I was afraid I was done for and would have to walk the rest of the way. However, the pain went away then later came to my R knee-IT band. Ouch!! I just dealt with the pain. Sometimes it would go away or come back and be on both knees. The dreaded hill up to St. John's bridge was actually not so bad. I think I excelled there even though I don't like up hill-it was a gradual incline. I passed a lot of people there! I felt fine until I got past some of the downhill part where we turned a sharp uneven turn toward residential homes, then I got pain in both knees and was tired. I had to walk some of that area. I just walked about 15 secs and then ran. I didn't want to walk at all but ended up walking a couple of times. I would say mile 12 was tough and then about mile 19-23 was hard! I did get some energy near the end at mile 24-26.2 because I knew I was almost done. The pace setter lizard passed me near the end and it read 4:15 finish. I knew at about mile 20 I wasn't going to get the under 4 hours like I had planned so I would shoot for 4:15. I did follow the pace setter the rest of the mile or so and passed him right at the end. I had a nice sprint for the finish! It felt nice to have a good finish!! The aid stations were good with lots of water that I had each stop. I tried the ultima drink a couple of times but wasn't too fond of it. After I finished I could barely walk. Nick greeted me right after the finish line! We all met up at letter "S." after some snacks and walking around. My dad and my legs felt so sore and achy painful! It was a rough one! We got 2 awesome T shirts, a medal, plant, a rose, and silver sheet warmer thing. I felt so happy and relieved that I was done! I was counting down every mile!!!! What an accomplishment!!
Dad did okay but not his best marathon. His first one in Sacramento was his best. He got a time of 4:00 hrs. The rain was hard on him, he started out too quick, and he does better in warmer climates. Nicole did awesome!! just slightly under 4 hours!!! GO GIRL!! She amazes me!! She did well in her age division and ladies division. I was happy with the organization of the race, crowd support!!, well marked course, aid stations, music, food, 2 very nice T shirts, etc!! Thanks to everyone supporting me! Nick did so great standing in the rain holding our things and taking pictures, family, friends, Nicole my awesome motivator and training buddy. I first and fore most thank God for giving me the privilege to be able to run my first marathon and keeping me healthy for it! I only hope I can recover! ha! I am so sore and the pain is intense when I bend my R knee!
FACTS online (I think it's neat they have these statistics!): Entire field: 4765 people behind me, about 38% finishers ahead of me Ladies field: 1118th place, 3209 behind me, 26% ahead Age division: 238th place, 473 behind me, 33% ahead Of the 7678 people who ran, 56% women, 44% men I was ahead of 46% men start delay: 2 min, 12 secs Over the file 6.2 miles I passed 174 runners, 101 passed me Avg. mile: 9:52 min. Avg. speed: 6.1 mph
TT: 4:18:49 chip time, 4:21:10 gun time, 4:18:56 GPS time According to Garmin GPS:
Avg: 9:47 Max: 4:24 min
Splits: 8:49, 9:26, 9:32, 8:45, 9:05, 9:23, 9:12, 8:55, 9:08, 9:22, 9:35, 9:46, 9:35, 9:51, 9:49, 10:04, 10:35, 10:34, 10:20, 10:25, 10:50, 10:37, 11:18, 10:34, 9:48, 9:23, 8:52 (I am not too happy about my early 20s times but it was my first marathon. I am happy I finished)
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