After several weeks delay I have finally got around to writing a recap of The Boring Marathon in Boring, Oregon that was on September 18th. First thing here is the race bibs and finisher medal.
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| The medal can also be used as a belt buckle (some 100 mile racers might have an issue with that) |
I signed up for this race for several reasons: 1. I saw the name and thought I have to run that and 2. I thought it was enough time after my Ironman triathlon that I would be recovered to run a decent race.
This is the race website: http://www.boringmarathon.com/index.html If you take a look at it and read some of the areas you can tell they do not take themselves too seriously such as this:
"Water and food - In general, we recommend consuming water and food daily as a matter of basic survival. As for the races, there will be plenty of refreshments at the start and finish and along each race route."
It is a smaller race and it is only the 3rd year they have held it so there were a few hundred people between the full and half marathon. This race is not a Boston Qualifier and and I still haven't found any online results (then again I haven't really looked very hard as I didn't run very fast).
We stayed in Portland while we were there for the race and drove the 30 minutes or so to Boring for packet pick up and the race. The packet pickup was in front of The Boring Brewery (yes I got a t-shirt and tried a few), included in the the race swag was a pint glass and coupon from the brewery. Saturday it was raining pretty hard at times but it was supposed to let up before the race and luckily it did.
Sunday morning the marathon started at 6:30 while that 1/2 started 30 minutes later. It was just starting to get light, the skies were overcast and it was cool so perfect running conditions. The course is an out and back on a trail through woods and neighborhoods with a few side roads through neighborhoods in order to get to 26.2 miles. The course is not difficult although there were a few hills thrown in here and there.
I started out fine at a good pace and ran my usual first half under 2 hours but the second half was a bit of a struggle. I could tell my quads hips were still tired and I had no kick in them. I ended up finishing in around 4:15 which is not anywhere near what I would expect with such nice conditions. It really didn't bother me that I was slow because it was a nice race and I can cross Oregon off the list of places I have run a marathon.
A few race notes:
- If you have been to Oregon you might have seen these:
- This was a really well run smaller race but if you want spectators cheering for you then this is not the race as there were large stretches where you don't even see anyone
- This is nice time of year to visit Portland because the city is not too crowded.
- Always bring a rain coat to Portland (Note: I have been to Portland numerous times and everyone expects it will rain it is just matter of how much and how hard).
- This is not an expensive race to run and you can run a fast race but you can't qualify for Boston at it yet.
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| My brother Paul (state #38, marathon #83), his co-worker Mike (took 3rd in his age group, state #36, marathon #57) and myself (this was #33). |
Part of the fun of visiting any city is being a tourist. I have been to Portland many times for work but didn't have time to go and see things. We took a historical walking tour of Portland that was very eye opening. Portland and Oregon has a very interesting (and racist!) history. I won't expand on it but you can look it up if you want.
There are a lot of homeless people in downtown Portland so you will run across them most places you go. Portland is very progressive so they have more programs to take care of them homeless (that is what we were told during our walking trip). The homeless we have in Denver are much more aggressive trying to pan handle when you are downtown, we were never approached by them the whole time we were there.
On Monday after the race we had a late flight out so we drove up to Mount St. Helens and it was incredible!
We stopped along the way at the visitor center and sat through the movie that showed all the events that happened and in what order. It was fascinating if you like nature and gives you a background on what you see as you are driving up to the observatory which faces the mountain itself.
Along the way we stopped at a few tourist spots to buy some stickers, look at things and get pictures taken with a Bigfoot statue (there are lots of bigfoot souvenirs you can pick up alonjg the way!.
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| This statue is made with ash from the eruption mixed in with concrete. |
The farthest you can go is Johnston Observatory (named after a man named Johnston who was there when the mountain erupted, his ) : http://www.fs.fed.us/visit/destination/johnston-ridge-observatory
Pictures alone don't do the landscape justice because it is like the surface of the moon in places with plants starting to grow in places. There were clouds covering the top of the mountain but this is looking directly at it. All of those valleys and fissures were caused by the mud flows after the eruption.
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| The clouds were covering the top but you can see that everything is still recovering 36 years after the eruption |
This is facing left of the mountain, that lake in the distance was filled with trees due to the force of the avalanche, eruption and mud flows. There are no trees at this altitude as they were all ripped off and you see huge stumps everywhere.
This is facing right of the mountain, it is not really visible but there is another lake out there that was formed after the eruption. The movement of of all the ground and subsequent flooding caused a new lake to form.
That is the race and trip recap. Honestly I think the most memorable thing about this trip was Mount St. Helens, it gives you a whole new appreciation for the power of nature.
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