2019 Portland Marathon – A Race Reborn, A Race Revisited

Posted kevinshanna

A few years back I ran the Portland Marathon instead of going to my high school reunion. For a variety of reasons, I do not regret that decision one bit. Then I got to hang out with Eric and Mary Layton, LA transplants to the Pacific Northwest.

I got to hang out with them again this year:

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In 2018, the 47-year run came to an end for the Portland Marathon race. Their race director was implicated in financial shenanigans to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars gone missing from the non-profit organization; as part of the settlement of the matter, the race was cancelled and the organization dissolved. For the record, to the best of my knowledge, that race director did NOT have a familial connection to the Trump Foundation… but I digress.

In 2019, the Portland Marathon was reborn with a new course, a new race director, and a new attitude. I overheard some fellow runners at the start line say the folks who took over as race organizers were experienced runners and all-around-good people looking to redeem the race in the eyes of the city and the running community in general.

They redid the route to take it away from the industrial wasteland of the highways that defined my 2015 experience. Now, we were running through parts of the trendy tourist hotspots… and while there were still a few hills, most of them were on iconic bridges, and the majority of the route was flat and fast… as evidenced by my first BQ in well over a year.

I didn’t take a lot of photos — whether that was out of struggling to press on to keep up with a pace group chasing my Boston unicorn or because I just am a bit burned out in shutterbugging I cannot say.  The ones I did snap came out surprisingly blurry… and I think that had more to do with the sweat and spilled while slurping water cups at aid stations and less to do with me being “speedy.:

Nonetheless, a few shots from the day (and in a few days I’ll post a few of the FREE race day photos from the course that the Portland Marathon is sending out … free is always a nice gesture considering the rising costs of race entry fees).