Tag line: "The Fastest Marathon that Nobody has Heard About!"
Ratings...
2010 Foot Traffic Marathon ~ July 4 2010
Portland, OD ~ Sauvie IslandYear Running: 8th (corrected from "7th" posted on the race RUNdown)
Registration Fee: $75 ($87 with a shirt) early... late: $90 (no shirt for late reg)
Charity Race? Yes! $25,000 raised for the local fire dept.
Runners: 395 Completed, 189 Females
Available Races: Marathon, Half Marathon, and 5k
Average Finish Time: 4:14:57
Average Finish Time: 4:14:57
BQ %: 21%!!!!
Overall Race Ratings: 3.9/5.0
Average Calculated Rating: 4.0/5.0
~ Overall this is a solid small race. They may need to scale it back a little to get everybody onto the island, but besides that they had decent organization. The strawberry shortcake is worth the trip.
Race Director: Let's play race director...
~ They are already expanding the shuttle service... another suggestion? Pushing the half-marathon back an additional hour. With so many people getting to the island at once it's going to get congested. Also, letting spectators on the buses if there is room? Even if the runners get there via the shuttle, their spectators will be in the line of cars holding up traffic. Also, the heed (or electrolyte drink) needs to be mixed with a little less water, and available at more water stops.
Event Organization: 3.8/5.0 (now broken into 2 parts, see below as well) As far as "event organization" we'll include things like Host hotel, website use, ease of travel to the event and to the actual race, etc.
Distance from Airport to Expo/Race: ~15-20 miles
Rental Car Required: No, but it would be helpful
~ I think the race is starting to outgrow the (seemingly) 1-man race organization. At the expo, they seemed a little flustered. There was plenty of communication leading up to the race and the website has pretty basic info on it. It would have been nice to get a little more info about the area-- since it's a 4th of July event, maybe provided some suggestions on where to go/what to do in the area? Portland is a pretty easy airport to get to and through. Getting to the race seemed a little crazy. Very happy we opted for the shuttle bus option, because there were people getting out of the long line of cars to run 1-2miles to the start. They'll be expanding the shuttle service next year, which will be a big help!
Rental Car Required: No, but it would be helpful
~ I think the race is starting to outgrow the (seemingly) 1-man race organization. At the expo, they seemed a little flustered. There was plenty of communication leading up to the race and the website has pretty basic info on it. It would have been nice to get a little more info about the area-- since it's a 4th of July event, maybe provided some suggestions on where to go/what to do in the area? Portland is a pretty easy airport to get to and through. Getting to the race seemed a little crazy. Very happy we opted for the shuttle bus option, because there were people getting out of the long line of cars to run 1-2miles to the start. They'll be expanding the shuttle service next year, which will be a big help!
Race Organization: 3.5/5.0
Hydration Color/Type: Heed- Yellow.
~ The race organization wasn't bad. They must have improved their water stops from last year because I had no issues with lack of water. I did, however, have issues with lack of electrolytes-- it wasn't at all the tables, and the tables it was at, were very very watered down. More gel stops than normal which is good. The port-a-johns were out on the course, but usually only 1 at a time and you would have to wait in line. I know I held up Maniac Ylonda the "walking diva" when I passed her in the out-and-back and she needed to get in (sorry! I tried to go fast).
~Post Race Food: .Not bad here. They actually had a BBQ for the runners with hot dogs, hamburgers, etc. And of course they had the fresh made strawberry shortcake! OMG so good!!!
Course: 3.7/5.0
Hydration Color/Type: Heed- Yellow.
Gel Type/Flavors/Availability: Hammer Gels - I only saw Raspberry. 3 tables in total had gels
~ The race organization wasn't bad. They must have improved their water stops from last year because I had no issues with lack of water. I did, however, have issues with lack of electrolytes-- it wasn't at all the tables, and the tables it was at, were very very watered down. More gel stops than normal which is good. The port-a-johns were out on the course, but usually only 1 at a time and you would have to wait in line. I know I held up Maniac Ylonda the "walking diva" when I passed her in the out-and-back and she needed to get in (sorry! I tried to go fast).
~Post Race Food: .Not bad here. They actually had a BBQ for the runners with hot dogs, hamburgers, etc. And of course they had the fresh made strawberry shortcake! OMG so good!!!
Course: 3.7/5.0
Garmin Distance: 26.2!!!! *wow*
~ The course itself is flat (as advertised) with a few small graded long hills. The lay-out is a loop with an out and back of 12 miles, starting at mile 4... picture a lollipop if you will. The view is pretty nice. Very very green with lots of animals around... well pretty much ONLY animals around. I saw some horses that were cute! I'm not a fan of flat... but apparently it's a pretty fast course looking at the results! The long out and back gave you a chance to see EVERYbody on the course. More maniac spotting on the west coast!
~ The runners have a hard enough time getting to the race, let along spectators. The only spectators out there were the horses and maybe a few people here and there that were able to get their cars out onto the course. This was kind of nice because we were only given half the road and if there were a ton of people driving the loop it would have been dangerous. The end is a different story-- there were a ton of people at the finish and even after the half was done it seemed like a lot of them stayed around-- perhaps just because they were stuck on the island, but it was still nice.
Pace Group: /5.0
~ NA
~ I'm torn here. Let's start with "Corrals" cause that's easy-- there really weren't any because it's a small race. However, they did ask us to step forward depending on pace time, saying "6 min/mile or faster please step forward." Obviously on the honor system, but I had 0 congestion issues.
Now the runners. The Bad...If you scroll two posts ago to my "post-race thoughts" you'll see a note on the "Miserable Maniac" who shoved me out of the way... why? I'm not too sure. We had the whole half of the road and I wasn't on the inside. He seemed very miserable checking his results after the race, so maybe he was upset he wasn't doing as well as he wanted? The Good... There were a ton of other maniacs out there again (<3 west coast marathons!) and we were all able to cheer on the out-and-back, which was very nice. Also good... they were flipping fast! If you're looking to pace yourself against some solid runners, check this race out!
Now the runners. The Bad...If you scroll two posts ago to my "post-race thoughts" you'll see a note on the "Miserable Maniac" who shoved me out of the way... why? I'm not too sure. We had the whole half of the road and I wasn't on the inside. He seemed very miserable checking his results after the race, so maybe he was upset he wasn't doing as well as he wanted? The Good... There were a ton of other maniacs out there again (<3 west coast marathons!) and we were all able to cheer on the out-and-back, which was very nice. Also good... they were flipping fast! If you're looking to pace yourself against some solid runners, check this race out!
Expo: 3.8/5.0
~ The expo/packet-pickup was held on the 2 Foot Traffic running stores on Friday and Saturday. This is a low key race, so obviously don't expect too much. If you needed last minute equipment/gu/clothing/shoes etc, it was available at the store-- but I found their prices to be pretty high! Even their sale stuff was still up there in price. They had hot dogs on the grill and free beer for the runners on Saturday which was very nice of them. ~T-Shirts: I opted NOT to get the shirt, so I won't rate it.
~Medals: The medals were different. They had a hard cardboard center and a recycled bike chain looped around it. They're big into bikes and recycling out there so I think this was a pretty good representation of the marathon and Portland... even if it will look a little funny on my medal rack. 4.0
~ Goodie Bag: NA
Results: Stephanie
Chip Time: 3:34:43
Place: Overall- 83/395, Gender- 14/189, A/G (25-29)- 4/39
***Please Note: All of my comments are coming to my email but getting deleted from my blog. IDK why and I don't know how to fix it!***
I did the half and also took the shuttle. I was floored at how horrible the traffic was - even with all the warnings I really don't think people really considered just how bad it would really be. Congrats on your finish, I had a PR on this course.
ReplyDeleteNice write-up. There sure were a lot of Maniacs on the course. I wear my Brooks shirt running so I often don't get recognized as a Maniacs, but I always try to say hi on the out-and-backs.
ReplyDeleteThe strawberry shortcake was a nice touch. :)
I ran this too!!
ReplyDeleteLoved it!!