The forecast was chilly on the morning of the race, and I warmed up in a hard-shell jacket, that I thought I may have to wear during the race. Knowing the sun would soon rise onto the course, I braved the last 15 minutes before the race started and jogged in place to stay warm in my long-sleeve tech shirt, and gave my jacket to Bryce to hold onto until after the race.
The start of the race was at adidas North America headquarters, a nice campus adjacent to the Willamette River that runs through downtown Portland. It was an out and back course, that followed Willamette Blvd. along the river all the way up to Cathedral Park in North Portland, and turned around at about the 8 mile marker. I had never ran Willamette Blvd. prior to the race, but knew that it was a fairly flat course and would not be too challenging.
The first 2 miles were tough to get on pace, since there were a few thousand runners packed onto city streets that had parked cars on both sides, so runners were forced out to the sidewalks or into a middle pack. There was also no pace-per-mile lineup at the start, and so some slower runners may have lined up further ahead than they should have, so on and so forth. That may be the only change I would like to see for this race next year.
Once I got out of the pack after about mile 2, I picked up my pace a bit to around 8:45 per mile to catch up to where I would have been if I was on pace for the first two miles. My body started to warm up and felt good. Runners were encouraged to wear holiday-themed outfits and red and green, and as FULL of holiday spirit that I am, I still managed to wear black. I truly enjoyed seeing everyone else's costumes though, and thought to myself a few times, "How does that person RUN in that?!" LOVED the running tutus, especially.
Along the course there were groups and organizations singing Christmas carols, and although I had my tunes on, I would volume down to hear their carols as I ran by, and would give them a smile. It was cold to run that day, so props to them and the race volunteers who were out STANDING in the cold! I felt great for the next few miles, paced myself between 8:45 and 9:00 per mile.
There was a light fog as we neared the St. John's bridge and the turn at Cathedral Park, and a slight uphill once we made the turn to head back towards the finish. The fog, much like in SF for the Nike Women's Half, felt great. I made sure to grab a cup of water from the volunteers at each aid station, which were well-placed in 2 mile increments.
Shortly after the turn, around mile 9, my left hip flexor that had started to bother me 2 weeks prior to that day had started acting up again, and so every step felt tight. I had to back off my pace a bit to around 9:30. The runners were increasingly more spread out as we neared the finish, and the sun was shining right into our faces, which kept me warm. It was nice to follow the river and see the entire city-scape from the course.
I picked up my pace in the last mile and finished with a downhill sprint to a finish time of 2:05:23, which was my first PR in the half marathon! Just through the finish line, an adorable young child handed me my awesome race medal (below) and I met back up with Bryce. He handed me the Gatorade that I packed and I must have drank half the bottle in one gulp!
We walked up to the post-race festivities, and my body started to cool down quickly, so we got some delicious vegetable chili from one of the tents and washed it down with a Deschutes IPA (had to!)
Overall it was a fun, low-key race and I would love to come back next year.
