Once we arrived at the Adidas campus (on a giant yellow school bus that shuttled us to the start line from the parking lot), we checked our bag and promptly froze our asses off waiting for the race to begin. When it finally did, it was crowded and COLD. After about mile 3 the crowd thinned out.
The course was nice and flat. It took us along the river, way up on the bluff, and afforded us a lovely view of the Swan Island industrial area. Huge ships lined the banks of the Willamette river. Not long after the beginning of the race we heard a series of booms and saw thick, black smoke billowing up from the far bank and across the river towards us. Unbeknownst to us, a semi-truck had collided with a train carrying something flammable and had ignited. Flames shot into the air. Parts of the race were actually canceled because of this, although we didn't know it at the time.
Around mile 4 my stomach started rebelling. I'll spare you the details but let's just say: thank goodness for strategically placed port-a-potties!
There's a lot of emotions and thoughts that go through your mind during 13 miles. The first being "Damn... 13 miles is FAR!"
Olympic runner Galen Rupp ran in this half marathon. He won it of course. He was on his way back (at like mile 9) when the main body of runners was at mile 4! He looked focused.
I ended up finishing 654th out of 2,071. Not too bad! I finished in 2:00:08. Would have been faster had it not been for my unplanned bathroom break!
We celebrated with coffee and breakfast. It was fun! Looking forward to my next half in March :)
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