Last weekend I ran the Portland Marathon, my first marathon.
Waiting for the race to begin
I went with wave E which was a middle-of-the-pack group (not the fastest people but not walkers either)
Several hours later...crossing the finish line!
Pnina and I after the race
Was it tough?
Yeah, it was tough. I hear that Portland’s marathon is popular because it’s actually one of the easier ones. People go there to record a fast time in order to then qualify for other races (e.g. Boston). But for me it was plenty.
Still, I have to admit that the marathon itself was almost easier than some of my practice runs, for a number of reasons:
- There were aid stations every 2 miles, so I didn’t have to carry much water with me (unlike my practice runs where I carried 22 ounces on a belt)
- There was lots of live music, especially near the beginning and the end. I carried 2 MP3 players plus my iPhone, to be extra sure that I’d have enough battery life to last the race, but I only ended up listening one episode of This American Life (which, sadly, is enough to drain my poor old Nano).
- There were about 7400 marathon runners, plus plenty of others doing the half marathon or cheering on the sideline. The energy from all these people was contagious.
- I kept finding little challenges to make me run faster, e.g. “if I just speed up for a bit I can get past this clump of people” or “there’s the next pace setter, I can catch up to her!”
I had a rough time at mile 17 where we climbed a tall bridge. Then I had a really hard time around mile 20 when my right foot cramped up; I had to pause a few times to stretch it and luckily the cramp went away. The last few miles were also difficult; I very little left in the tank.
So how did I do?
I ran the race in 4 hours 2 minutes and 28 seconds, which makes for an average of 9:15 per mile. I’m pretty stoked. My main goal was to finish. My bigger goal was to do 10 minutes per mile (4 hours 20 minutes). My stretch goal was to get under 4 hours.
The race had a website where Pnina and my parents could track my progress. It’s probably a standard thing for marathons these days, but I still thought it was awesome. You can see pretty clearly how my right-foot cramp slowed me down:
Quotables
One of the best t-shirts I saw on the race:
- If you see me collapsed, pause my Garmin
Also, some of the people cheering from the sideline held up some amusing signs such as:
- That looks hard (followed by…) That’s what she said
- Run Bitches!
- Run fast, I just farted
- Bloody Marys for Bloody Nipples
- You’re all Kenyans
- (held up by a 4-year old girl) Momma is a comet
- Go, complete stranger, go!
Speaking of strangers…we all had bibs that had our names written in large font. Some of the folks cheering on the sideline picked out random people to cheer for. It was pretty confusing the first time I heard “Go Shahaf!” It was even more confusing in another case where (coincidentally) I actually knew the person 
Would I do it again?
No. I’m effin excited that I did it but I’m also pretty glad that it’s done. Training for the marathon (using Hal Higdon’s program) consumed so much time; for a while it seemed like there was little in my life besides work, running, and sleep. I’m looking forward to having my life back.
Shout out to Justin
I’d like to thank my friend Justin for helping me train until a stress fracture forced him to bail. Justin: sorry for making you finish that 16-mile run, I didn’t know you were injured! 
