I ran marathon #12 last weekend. It's funny, it wasn't a big race, so for some reason it doesn't feel as monumental. The last one was in Berlin, so there were some huge differences. Regardless, I still ran 26.2 miles (or 26.45 according to my Garmin), and made it across the finish line to collect my glass medal.
A couple of days before the Newport Marathon my friend Sara and I met at PDX, and drove to the beautiful town of Newport on the Oregon coast. She was a bit jet-lagged since she flew from NYC, and I hadn't been sleeping as much, so we tried to relax, catch up on sleep, eat appropriately, and hydrate before the marathon.
We checked into our hotel, scoped out the beach, and found food. It was an early night. After a full night's sleep, we shook it out on some of the hills of Newport. Hills that I really hoped we weren't going to run on the the following day. I would be looking at the course map a little closer later that day. You can't beat the views though. Our turn-around spot had a great shot of the coastline.
Later that afternoon we headed to the Race Headquarters. Note that I didn't say Expo. Since this was a pretty small race, I wasn't expecting a large space with endless vendors. But I thought it would still be slightly bigger. It took about 5 seconds to pick up our bib numbers, and there were 2 vendors selling race clothes. Since it wasn't crowded, I went ahead and asked the volunteers all my questions instead of waiting to read the race materials. They were all very nice, and patiently answered all of them. I was feeling good about the race and logistics.
That evening we got our spaghetti dinner at the American Legion, where the locals were happy to serve up our carbs. We found that some would be volunteering along the race course the following day. Along with a lot of the local high school sports teams, we would find out later. It was a pefect way to get our pasta dinner. We got our carbs, it was inexpensive, and it didn't take long at all.
Before heading to bed, I took a short walk to the water before calling it a night. I do love sunsets on the water, and can't resist being out in the cold to watch them.
Race day weather was looking promising. Low 50s and overcast. Excellent. As long as the sun didn't come out, we were in the clear. We had a 7am start, so we woke up at 4:50 to start consuming calories. We got into our race clothes, and packed our bags with more food, water, and post-race items. Fortunately there was a shuttle bus that made the rounds to the hotels, and we didn't have to drive. I didn't anticipate any issues getting around the small town, but it was just nice to know we didn't have to deal with parking or drive after running 26.2 miles.
We arrived at the old and possibly haunted Yaquina Bay Lighthouse in plenty of time to use the porta potties and chill out before the race started. The thing I get most anxious about before a marathon is using the porta potties. I don't mind a little bit of a wait for them, but I also don't want to wait forever and miss the start. I'm always balancing the time that I need to be in my corral and ensuring I used the bathroom at the last possible minute. Since this was a small race, there was no reason to be anxious. There were plenty of porta potties for the number of racers. I didn't have to wait in line at all the 2 times I went. Which meant I was all ready and stress-free for the start of the race.
After singing Happy Birthday to a local runner, the gun went off, and we were off.
The first few miles was in the residential beach area called Nye Beach. We explored it the day before, so had an idea of what the terrain was like. There were some little hills, and a few gravelly sections but nothing major. I was just trying to focus on getting into my groove, and ignore the other racers, as many get a little too optimistic at the start. For some reason it's more noticeable in smaller races. Probably because there are fewer people.
We looped back around the lighthouse, (still no ghost sightings), and down towards the harbor. From there we would follow the Yaquina River out several miles, before turning around and coming back. At around mile 4.5, I made the very short climb up the major hill of the race. It really wasn't so bad, and at that point in the race, all was good. I wasn't looking forward to it on my return though.
There were no timing mats in this race. So I have no 5k or half marathon splits. All I have are my Garmin miles splits. When I saw the mile marker of course since I did it manually. Of course, I did miss a couple of them. When I saw a 15-minute mile, I was alarmed at first, but then remembered that it included 2 miles. This usually happens in every marathon. My target was to hit each mile in the 7:27-7:32 range, on the slower end at the beginning of the race. I was doing a relatively good job of being in the range. Although there were a few exceptions (2 slower miles, and 1 faster mile). Up until mile 18 all was good.
I'm not sure at what point I gained company, but there were a few of us that stuck in a pack. For the most part, it was ok. I tend to not really run with anyone since I don't want them to be in my way, or have them influence my running. There were points when I wanted to hit the tangent and was unable to (hence the 26.45 miles). One of my running buddies was female, and the other male. Around mile 11, a spectator yelled at me and my female partner that we were 2nd place females. Well then. I assumed there were more women in front of me, but that wasn't the case. Courtney (whose name I later learned) and I tried to work with each other and aimed to be second and third place. Her parents and brother were out there cheering, and I pretended they were cheering for me also. And at some points they actually were.
Around mile 17.5, I was a little ahead of Courtney, but then another woman passed me. I actually spoke to her at the start of the marathon, and assumed she was having a great day since she was going faster than her goal. From that point on, I tried to maintain my 3rd place position. Even as each mile got a little slower. I knew I wasn't hitting my goal time (I lost sight of the 3:15 pacer miles before), and it looked like a PR also wasn't going to happen. If I could manage to get 3rd place female, that would be something.
I kept ticking of each mile. Finally I got to mile 25, which was a steady incline. I think my training in Upstate New York and in San Francisco helped for sure. I've always been comparatively strong on hills. So it didn't bother me as much. But it was still the end of a marathon, so when I got to head downhill at mile 26, I was thrilled. And all of a sudden, I was done. I collected my medal with a smile on my face and fire in my legs.
I managed to pull in the 3rd place female (out of 209), 54th overall (out of 439), and 1st in my age group. My finish time of 3:20:18 is my 3rd fastest time overall. It wasn't what I hoped for, but there will be other opportunities. Overall I'm pleased with how I did. I gave it all I could through the finish.
The highlight though was my friend Sara. We trained together the last several months, but in different places. I was traveling around, and she was mostly in Brooklyn. We got to do one race/long run together in Prospect Park on a freezing cold March Saturday. We motivated each other through workouts and long runs. I was helping her achieve her goal of qualifying for the Boston Marathon. She was going to have had to take 7 minutes off her PR, but I knew she could do it.
When I saw her after the turn around point (mile 15.5), she looked good and we slapped each other high-five as we passed each other. I was hoping she could maintain and finish strong.
After I finished, I went to shuffle to the baggage area to get my phone with the hope of getting a few photos of Sara finishing. But I was moving too slow and the baggage was too far, so I decided to turn around and head back to the finish line. It's a good thing I did. As I approached it, I saw her coming down the hill. And then I ran for it. Seriously. Somehow I some more in me in order to cheer her on, and see her cross the line at 3:30:31. Not only did she qualify for Boston, but she surpassed last year's cutoff time. She should be in the clear, and will be headed to Boston next April. Go Sara!
I ran into my running buddy and her family, and chatted about our experience. After our race recaps, Sara and I went in search for food and beer. Unfortunately the local brewery didn't have beer at the finish line area. I was a little disappointed. Although their lemonade was quite tasty. Fortunately they honored a free beer at various places in town. We headed back to the hotel, took race photos on the beach, showered, and headed back into town for the awards. I got 1st in my age group (which was a paperweight recycled from last year's medals), and Sara got 3rd. We took our hardware, and headed to Rogue Brewery to finally get our beer. From there, we spent the rest of the day bar hopping to make up for lost calories, via various liquids.
We were definitely moving slow the next morning, but had a delicious breakfast at Pig 'n Pancake on our way out of town, and stopped at Yaquina Head Lighthouse. We had to walk a bit, and go down stairs, but we survived. The coastline was absolutely beautiful. I really wish I had more time to see more of the coast.
We headed back to Portland, with a stop in Tillamook for an ice cream lunch. We didn't have to pay attention to what were eating anymore. It was so good. In Portland, I met up with some family and a friend at a great local brewery. It was a nice way to end the weekend, and I'm already planning on a return to Oregon.
I've had over a week to reflect. I'm pretty pleased with how I did (and when else will I be able to get 3rd place), but I do wonder if there was anything I could have done differently. And honestly, I'm not sure. I did a lot of solo training this cycle, so maybe having a buddy to push me over the last several months could have helped. I really didn't get a lot of sleep leading up to the race, but I'm not sure if that was the main culprit. I probably could have slowed down a bit in the first half. But who knows. It may have still ended similarly. Maybe I need to change up my training regimen a bit. Or maybe not. I guess this is why we keep running marathons. If we get a PR, we set a new goal. If we don't, we want to figure out what went wrong, and do it over.
So what's next. I have a goal to complete the 6 majors, and I only have Tokyo and London left to run. So I will be plotting which one will be next over the coming months, and maybe throw another marathon in for fun. We shall see.
A couple of days before the Newport Marathon my friend Sara and I met at PDX, and drove to the beautiful town of Newport on the Oregon coast. She was a bit jet-lagged since she flew from NYC, and I hadn't been sleeping as much, so we tried to relax, catch up on sleep, eat appropriately, and hydrate before the marathon.
 |
| PDX arrival. |
 |
| Shakeout Run. |
Later that afternoon we headed to the Race Headquarters. Note that I didn't say Expo. Since this was a pretty small race, I wasn't expecting a large space with endless vendors. But I thought it would still be slightly bigger. It took about 5 seconds to pick up our bib numbers, and there were 2 vendors selling race clothes. Since it wasn't crowded, I went ahead and asked the volunteers all my questions instead of waiting to read the race materials. They were all very nice, and patiently answered all of them. I was feeling good about the race and logistics.
That evening we got our spaghetti dinner at the American Legion, where the locals were happy to serve up our carbs. We found that some would be volunteering along the race course the following day. Along with a lot of the local high school sports teams, we would find out later. It was a pefect way to get our pasta dinner. We got our carbs, it was inexpensive, and it didn't take long at all.
Before heading to bed, I took a short walk to the water before calling it a night. I do love sunsets on the water, and can't resist being out in the cold to watch them.
 |
| Marathon Eve. |
Race day weather was looking promising. Low 50s and overcast. Excellent. As long as the sun didn't come out, we were in the clear. We had a 7am start, so we woke up at 4:50 to start consuming calories. We got into our race clothes, and packed our bags with more food, water, and post-race items. Fortunately there was a shuttle bus that made the rounds to the hotels, and we didn't have to drive. I didn't anticipate any issues getting around the small town, but it was just nice to know we didn't have to deal with parking or drive after running 26.2 miles.
 |
| Shuttle to the start. |
 |
| Beach shot before we run a marathon. |
We arrived at the old and possibly haunted Yaquina Bay Lighthouse in plenty of time to use the porta potties and chill out before the race started. The thing I get most anxious about before a marathon is using the porta potties. I don't mind a little bit of a wait for them, but I also don't want to wait forever and miss the start. I'm always balancing the time that I need to be in my corral and ensuring I used the bathroom at the last possible minute. Since this was a small race, there was no reason to be anxious. There were plenty of porta potties for the number of racers. I didn't have to wait in line at all the 2 times I went. Which meant I was all ready and stress-free for the start of the race.
After singing Happy Birthday to a local runner, the gun went off, and we were off.
The first few miles was in the residential beach area called Nye Beach. We explored it the day before, so had an idea of what the terrain was like. There were some little hills, and a few gravelly sections but nothing major. I was just trying to focus on getting into my groove, and ignore the other racers, as many get a little too optimistic at the start. For some reason it's more noticeable in smaller races. Probably because there are fewer people.
We looped back around the lighthouse, (still no ghost sightings), and down towards the harbor. From there we would follow the Yaquina River out several miles, before turning around and coming back. At around mile 4.5, I made the very short climb up the major hill of the race. It really wasn't so bad, and at that point in the race, all was good. I wasn't looking forward to it on my return though.
There were no timing mats in this race. So I have no 5k or half marathon splits. All I have are my Garmin miles splits. When I saw the mile marker of course since I did it manually. Of course, I did miss a couple of them. When I saw a 15-minute mile, I was alarmed at first, but then remembered that it included 2 miles. This usually happens in every marathon. My target was to hit each mile in the 7:27-7:32 range, on the slower end at the beginning of the race. I was doing a relatively good job of being in the range. Although there were a few exceptions (2 slower miles, and 1 faster mile). Up until mile 18 all was good.
I'm not sure at what point I gained company, but there were a few of us that stuck in a pack. For the most part, it was ok. I tend to not really run with anyone since I don't want them to be in my way, or have them influence my running. There were points when I wanted to hit the tangent and was unable to (hence the 26.45 miles). One of my running buddies was female, and the other male. Around mile 11, a spectator yelled at me and my female partner that we were 2nd place females. Well then. I assumed there were more women in front of me, but that wasn't the case. Courtney (whose name I later learned) and I tried to work with each other and aimed to be second and third place. Her parents and brother were out there cheering, and I pretended they were cheering for me also. And at some points they actually were.
Around mile 17.5, I was a little ahead of Courtney, but then another woman passed me. I actually spoke to her at the start of the marathon, and assumed she was having a great day since she was going faster than her goal. From that point on, I tried to maintain my 3rd place position. Even as each mile got a little slower. I knew I wasn't hitting my goal time (I lost sight of the 3:15 pacer miles before), and it looked like a PR also wasn't going to happen. If I could manage to get 3rd place female, that would be something.
I kept ticking of each mile. Finally I got to mile 25, which was a steady incline. I think my training in Upstate New York and in San Francisco helped for sure. I've always been comparatively strong on hills. So it didn't bother me as much. But it was still the end of a marathon, so when I got to head downhill at mile 26, I was thrilled. And all of a sudden, I was done. I collected my medal with a smile on my face and fire in my legs.
I managed to pull in the 3rd place female (out of 209), 54th overall (out of 439), and 1st in my age group. My finish time of 3:20:18 is my 3rd fastest time overall. It wasn't what I hoped for, but there will be other opportunities. Overall I'm pleased with how I did. I gave it all I could through the finish.
The highlight though was my friend Sara. We trained together the last several months, but in different places. I was traveling around, and she was mostly in Brooklyn. We got to do one race/long run together in Prospect Park on a freezing cold March Saturday. We motivated each other through workouts and long runs. I was helping her achieve her goal of qualifying for the Boston Marathon. She was going to have had to take 7 minutes off her PR, but I knew she could do it.
When I saw her after the turn around point (mile 15.5), she looked good and we slapped each other high-five as we passed each other. I was hoping she could maintain and finish strong.
After I finished, I went to shuffle to the baggage area to get my phone with the hope of getting a few photos of Sara finishing. But I was moving too slow and the baggage was too far, so I decided to turn around and head back to the finish line. It's a good thing I did. As I approached it, I saw her coming down the hill. And then I ran for it. Seriously. Somehow I some more in me in order to cheer her on, and see her cross the line at 3:30:31. Not only did she qualify for Boston, but she surpassed last year's cutoff time. She should be in the clear, and will be headed to Boston next April. Go Sara!
 |
| Boston Qualifier. |
 |
| Icing my calves. |
I ran into my running buddy and her family, and chatted about our experience. After our race recaps, Sara and I went in search for food and beer. Unfortunately the local brewery didn't have beer at the finish line area. I was a little disappointed. Although their lemonade was quite tasty. Fortunately they honored a free beer at various places in town. We headed back to the hotel, took race photos on the beach, showered, and headed back into town for the awards. I got 1st in my age group (which was a paperweight recycled from last year's medals), and Sara got 3rd. We took our hardware, and headed to Rogue Brewery to finally get our beer. From there, we spent the rest of the day bar hopping to make up for lost calories, via various liquids.
 |
| Age group winners. |
 |
| Post-race beer. |
We were definitely moving slow the next morning, but had a delicious breakfast at Pig 'n Pancake on our way out of town, and stopped at Yaquina Head Lighthouse. We had to walk a bit, and go down stairs, but we survived. The coastline was absolutely beautiful. I really wish I had more time to see more of the coast.
 |
| To Boston she goes. |
 |
| The Oregon Coast. |
We headed back to Portland, with a stop in Tillamook for an ice cream lunch. We didn't have to pay attention to what were eating anymore. It was so good. In Portland, I met up with some family and a friend at a great local brewery. It was a nice way to end the weekend, and I'm already planning on a return to Oregon.
 |
| Ice cream stop. |
 |
| Drinks with the family in Portland. |
 |
| Catching up with an old London friend. |
I've had over a week to reflect. I'm pretty pleased with how I did (and when else will I be able to get 3rd place), but I do wonder if there was anything I could have done differently. And honestly, I'm not sure. I did a lot of solo training this cycle, so maybe having a buddy to push me over the last several months could have helped. I really didn't get a lot of sleep leading up to the race, but I'm not sure if that was the main culprit. I probably could have slowed down a bit in the first half. But who knows. It may have still ended similarly. Maybe I need to change up my training regimen a bit. Or maybe not. I guess this is why we keep running marathons. If we get a PR, we set a new goal. If we don't, we want to figure out what went wrong, and do it over.
So what's next. I have a goal to complete the 6 majors, and I only have Tokyo and London left to run. So I will be plotting which one will be next over the coming months, and maybe throw another marathon in for fun. We shall see.
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