Eugene Marathon (Race Recap)

Sunday, April 28
Eugene, OR
Marathon #21
State #21
Weather - Perfect. Overcast, cool. A bit humid.

Rumor has it that there is MAGIC in Eugene. Last year, there were a TON of bloggers I follow that had amazing races in Eugene and set PR's left and right. Needless to say, I wanted BADLY to run the Eugene Marathon. I booked airfare (again, CRAZY cheap - round trip into Portland for $106!) in December. I waited a bit to register after having months of slow and painful running. Kim assured me that if I at all was considering the full that I should just register for it and the drop down to the 1/2 was simple if I had to do it.

I convinced my BFF Heather to join me in a "redemption" marathon, as L has decided no more marathons, the end. We managed to settle on a matchy matchy outfit, and off to Oregon we went...

Saturday

Our flight out of Denver was just after 8:00, so we had to leave by about 6. Not to much earlier than I would get up for work, so that was nice. Spent the 2 1/2 hour flight to Portland watching a marathon of Teen Mom 2. (I know, I know). Arrived in Oregon around 9:45, and only ended up having to wait about a half hour for Heather to arrive. Picked up our rental car, and then we started our weekend. First two goals were to hit up Voodoo Doughnuts and Lululemon. (Did you know that Oregon has no sales tax???) We got a bit turned around trying to find the glorious donuts, but when we DID find them, they were GLORIOUS.

I shared the voodoo guy (raspberry filled) with L and also had a maple bacon bar. Man. Those things are good. Genius. We walked through a pretty sketchy part of town to Lululemon where L was overjoyed to find the Pinkalicious pace setter in her tall size. Then we decided that we had been screwing around long enough and decided to start the drive to Eugene so we didn't miss the expo.

Shortly after leaving the city, L spotted a sign advertising a place called "Pizza Schmizza" - aka, LUNCH.

L drove, thankfully, and it was the prettiest drive EVER. Oregon is so green and lush compared to brown, dead Colorado.

We got to the expo with about 1.5 hours to spare. Of course, my line for bib pick-up was the longest. It was crowded and chaotic. We took this fun shot though:

Um yeah. I seem to have lost all ability to make a normal face for a picture. With no plans other than 6:00 dinner near the hotel, we decided to hit up Voodoo in Eugene. You know, for some pre-race fuel.

You can TOTALLY get married at Voodoo! Starting at only $200??? My possible future spouse will be so thrilled to know that I absolutely WOULD get married at Voodoo.

I'm saying "RAAAAAAAWR"

I sure love me some donuts

We checked in to our hotel and managed to walk right past Kim's room. We chatted for a few minutes and then we settled into our room until it was time to go to dinner. We ate at Amici's at the other Holiday Inn across the lot. There were a lot of complaints about service and food. I was thrilled with the no sales tax and my sausage and pepper Panini and fries were pretty tasty. We went to the bar/tap house near our hotel. Service was bad, but my vanilla porter was so good I had a second one.

Lights out early, around 10.

Sunday

Up around 5:30, with plans of leaving between 5:45 and 6:00 to drive over to the start. I thought that was a bit too late and I was really worried about parking, especially since we didn't know the area and there was no parking at the start.

Luckily, Kim coached us pretty well, and without even meaning to, we managed to all park in the same lot, only a few blocks from the start.

The start was a giant cluster of chaos. We only cycled through the bathroom line once and then took a pre-race picture:

Not my favorite - I look super chunky (Left to right - Heather, L, Alma, Kim, Sally, Me, Jess)

And then it was time to line up. The picture I took at the start is for reals the only picture I took of the entire course.

I had put my ID and credit card in the same pocket with my phone, and it seemed like too much of an ordeal to pull it out. Heather took BILLIONS of pictures (as she should have, it was the most beautiful course EVER. I will "borrow" one or two from her blog here:

Thank you, Heather, for taking the time to capture the beautiful-ness of Eugene.

Going into the race, we really wanted to not die and finish within the time limit, which was 7 hours. L gave us a time limit of 6:40 so that we would have time to shower (thanks to the SUPER awesome check out time we were given of 2:30!!)

A quieter goal was to get Heather a PR (sub 5:10 and a super loftybutmaybepossible goal of sub 5 was discussed. I did not want to wear a watch, so Heather was in charge of monitoring pace.

We started in the back of Corral C and honestly, the first few miles went by pretty quick. The course never seemed to crowded to me, and there were a lot of spectators. Sadly, the race honestly started going to shit for me around mile 3. It felt like a gradual uphill. I had no idea what pace we were running, but it SEEMED HARD. I already felt like I had to use the bathroom, which is no bueno this early in the race. I was trying to let Heather take charge of the pace and do my best to keep up with her, as long as I wasn't physically hurting.

At the turnaround, it finally felt downhill and I felt a LOT better. The next few miles went well, except for the aid station at mile 6 running out of cups. Not water or Gatorade, just cups. Volunteers were suggesting I cup my hands for a drink. Um. No thanks. I used a port-o-potty an hour ago. Bleh.

The hill at mile 8 seemed pretty small from the base. We ran up the first half... then walked the rest. Nice downhill at the backside and then we ran by the start/finish area. There were already speedy half marathoners finishing. Jealous.

We hoped to see someone we knew heading in, but we didn't. We ran by our car just before mile 10 and since there wasn't a wait, used the bathrooms. I felt better for a bit. I think our pace slowed a little, but I felt decent through the halfway point, which is about where the 5 hour pace group caught us.

I knew that Heather wanted to stay in front of them. I wanted to as well. The pacer had the loudest and most high pitched voice ever. I really wanted to outrun them. My ankle started to ache (I promise this is not made up) and somewhere around 14-15 miles in is when I gave the race away. I tried to get Heather to go on without me. I felt like a total jerk for screwing up ANOTHER RACE.

But... she didn't, and we had a great time. The weather stayed on our side, and the sun came out only briefly for a few miles. The aid stations were spaced pretty well apart and again, THE COURSE IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL EVER.

At mile 23.69 there were guys handing out beer on the course. I may have told one of them that he was my favorite person on the planet. And I meant it. Beer during a race is The Best. We walked quite a bit the last 10k. Heather was saying that her right leg was hurting pretty bad, so I didn't feel AS bad about taking so many breaks.

We came around the corner and recognized the lot where we had parked and realized we were close! We were discussing a walk break when we saw Alma and Kim!! I think I'm screaming - HIIIIIIIII!

And clearly we were getting pretty darn excited for the upcoming finish. WAHOOO, look how smiley we are:

I really wanted to sprint into Hayward. I really did. My stupid crappy dumb legs were done. It was all I could do to NOT walk across the finish line.

Bib #4207
Official Time - 5:17:31
Overall Place - 2369/2561
Gender Place - 1109/1222
Division Place - 209/223
5K - 34:58 (11:16 pace)
10K - 1:10:21 (11:20 pace)
Half - 2:32:41 (11:40 pace)
20 Mile - 3:54:39 (11:44 pace)

We took a quick finisher pic and grabbed some water and then met L right outside the gates and walked to the car. We hurried to the hotel and took quick showers so that we would have time to get LUNCH AND BEER.

We went to Roadhouse and had a delicious burger and fries and I had a GIANT BEER.

It seemed silly to only go to two of the three Voodoo Doughnuts, so obviously, our only other plan was to go to the third location when we got back to Portland. I apparently fell asleep in the car, and we stopped long enough to go to another Lululemon (in hopes of L getting Aquamarine in tall, which they did not have) and some froyo from Yogurtland. Quick-ish stop at the last Voodoo:

Then we headed to Kim's house, where her and S were graciously going to host AND entertain us. We ordered some food:

And then we watched Pitch Perfect. If you haven' t seen it yet, you should. It is HILARIOUS. Early to bed again. Our flight left early Monday morning, so quick donuts for breakfast with some coffee and some chatting with Kim and then we had to be on our way.

Thoughts:

• Running a marathon is hard. And I don't think I want to do it anymore. I have said this before, but if I'm left with that feeling even AFTER being on the prettiest course ever, I think it's time the marathon and I break up for a bit.
• We got TONS of comments on our outfits. (Sorry, L, it appears Heather and I are twins!)
• The course is great great great. I can see why people come here to BQ. A year or two ago, this race would have gone much differently.
• Plenty of aid stations. I didn't wear a fuel belt and I was fine. 2 Clif gel stations and there were 2 stations with bananas (there should have been 3, but I think one ran out before we got there).
• Did I mention this course is beautiful?
• I really like Oregon. I might have to come back sometime.
• Annoyed I didn't take any pictures myself. I should have.
• I got the worst chafing EVER on my inner right thigh - serves me right for not body gliding. Two days later it STILL hurts.

First Sunday in October

Yes, I know that the first Sunday of the month has passed. You know what was happening on the first Sunday in October? ALL OF THE AWESOME MARATHONS. You know what I did on Sunday? Some lazy yoga and eating ALL THE THINGS.

With that said.

I want to run all THREE of those races... But which one should I do first??? I'll list them out, and I would love some input from people that have run them!

1. PORTLAND

This one always comes up as a popular race. My older sister, the Ironman, ran this as her first marathon. And as far as I know, the ONLY marathon she has ran, outside of the Ironman she did in 2010.

2. TWIN CITIES

I was NOT crazy about the half marathon that I ran in Minnesota. I was stupid enough to run it in August and it was humid and hot and miserable. This course looks pretty and the weather looks a lot better.

3. CHICAGO

I also wasn't that crazy about the half that I ran in Chicago. Mainly because REALLY big cities STRESS me out. But... it looks so flat. And fast. And it is one of the "majors" - so do I want to get in on the action?

Anyway.... any input on these races would be greatly appreciated. Registration is already open for PDX and I know that Chicago sells out FAST. Don't know that much about Twin Cities. I'll likely end up doing all of them over my lifetime, but need to pick one to do FIRST.

Maybe even tell me about St. George...

Also... just a few days left to enter my virtual race - you can do so HERE.

Half Marathon #3 - Foot Traffic Flat - Sauvie Island, OR (Sunday, July 4, 2010)

Heading to Portland for half marathon #3 - the Foot Traffic Flat Half Marathon was the first 24 hour turnaround race we had planned. Headed to the airport late Saturday morning. Parked, took the shuttle and got there with plenty of time (with seemingly a lot of stuff for just one day).

After a ridiculously disorganized boarding process, we managed to leave relatively on time. I was mildly panicky on the flight - first, there was a TON of turbulence (especially at take off) and second, I sure didn't book this with a lot of leeway to get to things on time. We watched a movie on the plane (which makes time fly by) and shortly before landing I see this:

Get to the rental car counter - and yay, no lines - we had almost 90 minutes to get into Portland to pick up our bib/race packets. Luckily I had pre-mapped all the places we needed to go and got there in plenty of time. What a disaster it was! I mean, picking up the packet itself was decently organized, but... I'm used to an actual EXPO. This was a teeny tiny store that was trying to house hundreds of people. I had originally planned on trying to get some new shoes but the sheer number of people made that impossible. The free beer was nowhere to be seen (sniff, sniff) and the race shirt was "unimpressive"

We headed into Vancouver to see if we could check in early to our hotel. They let us check in, and we headed to Fred Meyer to pick up some stuff for breakfast (including "make your own peanut butter" - which was a smashing success). We were absolutely starving by 4:30ish, so we mapped the closest Olive Garden. We ordered the stuffed lasagna (and it was fabulous):

Stopped at Target to kill some time on the way back and then settled in to drink some beer and watch tv:

Tried to get to bed around 9:00 as we had a super early start. Could NOT sleep. I've been getting over a cold and every time I laid flat I felt really congested and had a tough time breathing. It was hot and stuffy, so I turned on the AC. Then of course, we somehow (again?!) ended up sharing a single (this time a QUEEN) so it was not the best night. Tossed and turned and woke up for good just before the alarm went off at 3:57 am. We were supposed to get to the host hotel to catch the shuttle at 5:00, and according to the mapquest, it was only a 17 minute drive. We assumed we had plenty of time... but then we got lost. Somehow missed the final exit and ended up driving around for an additional 15-20 minutes. Luckily there were two sets of shuttles and we got on a bus around 5:20 for the one scheduled to leave at 5:45 am. We had noticed the night before that the shuttle was supposed to drop us right at the start line (and being on the later bus we'd get left at 6:25 - 20 minutes before gun time). Here we are getting ready to get on the bridge to Sauvie Island:

They are NOT joking at all when they say "there is a lot of traffic" and "carpooling is recommended." Had we not been on the bus there is NO WAY we would have made it to the start line on time. The traffic jam getting on the island was literally MILES long. As it was, we were dropped late - at 6:41, not really leaving enough time to do anything, but using the port-o-potty is a #1 priority and I'm not fast enough to *really* care about gun time. Luckily, due to the sheer number of folks stuck in the traffic jam, they started the race 15 minutes late, which worked out nice. L and me with 10 minutes until (late) start:

Except... the beginning of the course is where all the people stuck in traffic were stopped. So hundreds of people are trying to run around stopped cars on one lane of traffic and in the grass on the side of the road. Not ideal. But, I did get to see "Team Edward" early on (happy to report I was faster than them and never saw them again, lol):

The course is advertised as "flat and fast" - so I was disappointed when I hit the Garmin at the first mile and saw my split as 10:20... which is NOT fast. Luckily, after the first 1.5 miles, the course FINALLY opened up and I was able to get into a better (and MUCH faster) groove. The course was... sorta blah, but some parts were really pretty - this was about 3 miles in:

The course was certainly flat (as they said) and the aid stations were every few miles, and had a lot of volunteers working. I was disappointed that they only had water at them (no gatorade?!) and luckily I found Hammer gel at the 4 mile station (which I saved for the halfway point).

It seemed like ideal weather conditions with temps in the mid to upper 50s. Noticed that it looked like it was going to be a REALLY sunny day. The course was not very shaded and I certainly started to get tired towards the end. But I also set some records! I finished the first 10K in under an hour (which I have never done) - I was going pretty fast (and was hoping I wouldn't bonk) - with splits around 9:30 (which is a TON faster than I normally do). Then the "real" problems started. First off, I have the Garmin Forerunner (405) that I absolutely adore. When it works right. About halfway in, I have trouble getting the Bezel (and also the lap button) to work. I *know* I am slowing down but I am obsessed with getting my mile splits in and for about 3 miles, I cannot for the life of me get the watch to work. Luckily around mile 9, it decides it wants to work again... which let me into the second problem.

Apple makes CRAP iPods. I know, I know. I've said it over and over, and yet I keep buying/using their stuff. Pretty things and clever advertising gets me EVERY.SINGLE.TIME. So at about 9.3 miles in, the left headphone starts cutting out. I'm thinking - "Wow. That's annoying, at least I can hear out of the right" - and less than 5 minutes later that one goes out as well. I carry my phone on me (yes, an iPhone) and luckily the headphones work and I'm not totally left without music, although I did hear some repeats as a result. If you aren't keeping track, this is the FOURTH problem I've had with my shuffle (and the connecting piece you have to have just to operate it) since early February. Ridiculous. Clearly the product is NOT meant to be used if you actually move around. Anyway.

I knew pretty early on that was long as I could just keep going, I was going to hit a personal record (again) - and I did!! Apparently this is 5 seconds off from gun time though, I was a bit slower - but this is almost 7.5 minutes faster than the my previous best!!

Crossed the mat (there were three of them, so not sure which one was actually for the half, which might account for the 5 second difference) and got my awesome finisher's medal:

Found L pretty quick, tried the famous strawberry shortcake (and it was every bit as delicious as advertised). We got our picture taken while waiting for the shuttle bus to fill so we could leave:

L and I both hit PR's (if she had a watch I'm sure she could have gone under 2 hours):

A few things of note. I need to allow more time in between packet pick up and getting to a shuttle (or start line). I do not like feeling stressed and panicky!! Everything worked out THIS time, but I just need to double (or triple) how long I think things might actually take. Oh. And I'm getting pretty good at this whole "running thing" - ha :)

The sticker I've had for months finally went on Bee Rad: