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| After race. So cold!!! And looking freaking awesome? ;) |
Overall, I enjoyed it. The route is pretty fun and really challenging. There were two things I disliked about the experience.
One. IT WAS COLD!!! As in, it was raining the whole time and started to snow around mile 6.5-7. Brr! It was so cold that I didn't even take two coats off the whole race. And I totally forgot to get a picture of what was supposed to be my race outfit (because it was covered up the whole time).
Two. It was full of people who don't train for the race. That's totally fine, but they need to start back farther in the pack. We figured we would run around a 9:40 pace, so we lined up behind the 9-10 minute mile pacer. Instead of being in the pack with other similarly paced runners, we passed people. The entire race. Thousands of people. If you look closely at my Nike+ route you can see that I ran back and forth around people the whole time.
It's hard to see, but the line is not straight. It squiggles all over the whole way up the hill (mile 2-6ish). According to my GPS we actually ran 9.48 miles. In 1:31:05 (that's a 9:36 pace and I'm happy with that)!
Here are our splits. Not bad... Not bad at all.
Mile one is fairly flat but you start making your way up the hill not long after that. Then it's pretty much a killer climb until mile 6.5 or so. It's Portland, so you're pretty much guaranteed to be entertained the whole time. There were guys on unicycles racing along with us the first couple of miles. Bagpipers along the course to cheer us on. A guy on a bike riding up the Terwilliger hill shouting race support and holding a huge box or Voodoo Doughnuts. People handing out cookies at mile 8 or so. And some seriously awesome race bling if you did the 15k.
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After the race, you get a free beer (and some lukewarm salmon chowder if you want to wait in line for it). I've never been so cold in my life, so we chugged our beers and headed for the Paddy's tent to get some Irish Coffees and a Bloody Mary. The tent was huge and heated and like heaven.
I think I'll probably do the race again next year. Even though the whole time I was running it I was promising myself I would never do it again! I just need to remember to line myself up closer to the front of the pack and eat some food because that's a lot of early morning alcohol to consume on an empty stomach. Live and learn...
Day: 148
Today's Miles: 9.48
Total Miles: 308.58 (I broke 300 miles!)
Nicely done! I too had to do quite a bit of weaving and passing the entire route. It was a huge pain to try and find any open areas to run. However, I totally love this race and do it every year- crowds or no crowds.
ReplyDeleteThanks Maureen. You, too! It was fun despite the cold and as far as races go, the perks are good and the cost is low. I'm sure I'll do it again.
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