The Portland Marathon has been on my race radar for years. Timing never worked out
perfectly though, but I made sure 2012 was the year I crossed Portland off my list. I’ve heard so many wonderful things about this race – well organized, best swag, beautiful city, friendly people – yeah, yeah, I just wanted to visit Portlandia! I absolutely love the show, so of course, it was all the more reason to go and while I’m there, do the marathon. Besides that, I am one of those people who love destination races! I love traveling to a city I haven’t been to before and running a race — it gives me an opportunity to see parts of a city that I probably wouldn’t normally see if I just went on my own. Portland surely didn’t disappoint.
Usually when I travel to a race, I try to go the first day of the expo which is likely 2 days before the race — that way, I can try to stay off my feet the day before as much as possible. In this case, I went to the expo twice. The first day I went to do a majority of the walking — picked up the bib and goodie bag, checked out the exhibitors, and shopped the merchandise. The second day I went to see the speakers talking about the course and coming up with your race plan. I came up with mine.
And then it was time for the Big 3: Bill Rodgers, Amby Burfoot, and Jeff Galloway. All I can say is this: Bill Rodgers was hilarious!! I would’ve sat there for 8 hours just listening to him if I had the chance because he had the best funny running stories. For a minute there, I kept asking myself, is he on the sauce? Naaah. Pretty sure that sense of humor is au naturale. Turns out, Frank Shorter was skipped over in favor of having Bill and I must say, I like Frank Shorter, but I looove Bill Rodgers. Portland definitely gets a gold star for this speaker. 🙂
The morning of the race, the skies were clear and the weather was cold and crisp. Starting off in the 40’s, the rain didn’t show up this year, and I was thanking my lucky stars I didn’t buy a rain jacket — considering it doesn’t rain much in LA. I was feeling a little nervous though. I hadn’t done this in awhile and butterflies were definitely there.
