Race for the Roses

My second race of the weekend was the Race for the Roses Half Marathon, a benefit for Albertina Kerr. We'd heard lots of good things about this race and wanted to try it out. (The weekend's first race)

The race started at 7 a.m. Sunday, so we were up long before the sun to prep and head to the Oregon Convention Center in Portland. Ready to go:

We didn't have much time before the race, so I guess I forgot to take any pics. 

The whole pre- and post-celebration was inside the convention center, dry, warmish and lots of room to spread out. Oh, and real bathrooms! The start and finish lines were just outside the big roll-up door. That was a really nice perk to this race, especially if the predicted cold rain had materialized. Thank goodness it didn't!

The course was advertised as "fast and flat", but I don't agree. There was a significant 2.5-mile hill toward the middle and another shorter-but-steeper hill just before the end when we crossed the Steel Bridge. Still, I really enjoyed this course.

Since this was technically a long training run and not a race for me, my goal was to take it easy and not push. That's exactly what I did, and it felt great!

And what feels most amazing is that "not pushing" got me a 9:55 average. That 2:10 is just 4 minutes slower than my PR from February! Awesome :) I'm glad I didn't realize that during my run or I probably would have pushed to beat it!

Brad has been training hard for this one, working toward a 7:45 average.

He nailed it! So proud of you, SweetPea :)

My numbers:

Mile 1: 10:03
Mile 2: 10:02
Mile 3: 10:10 (had to stop and restart for train)
Mile 4: 9:55
Mile 5: 10:30 (up the hill)
Mile 6: 10:13
Mile 7: 10:10
Mile 8: 9:27 (down the hill)
Mile 9: 9:28
Mile 10: 9:40
Mile 11: 9:41
Mile 12: 9:56
Mile 13: 9:55
Mile 13.16: 9:27


My review:

This was a small race with great course support. Plenty of water, well-marked turns and lanes, friendly police. The convention center set up was excellent with yummy food. The cost was reasonable, and all profits go to charity. There weren't many spectators, but that I took the opportunity to take in the scenery and parts of the city I don't often see on foot.

The one down side was the track crossings. Because freight trains are unscheduled (really??), races can't work around them. Brad was stopped three times for many minutes. Yikes. Fortunately, there are supposed to adjust official race times to reflect that. I was stopped once for many minutes.

A train was stopped across the course around mile 3. I think we were all stopped there, so basically the entire race restarted at that point. Incredibly frustrating for those super-fast runners who were in the lead and lost their momentum. People were running around the block to keep from cooling down.

I had a great time and would do this race again!

:)