Foot Traffic Flat Half Marathon

Foot Traffic Flat Half Marathon

Today I ran the Foot Traffic Flat Half Marathon on Sauvie Island in Portland, Oregon. This was my first ever race--and getting race experience in prep for the Portland is going to serve me well!

My friend Anastasia came to pick me up at about 5:15am and we drove the 17 miles from my house to  Sauvie Island, where we parked in the Pumpkin Patch. What a terrific and organized race this was! There were volunteers galore who were on hand to give whatever information or help that was needed. And most importantly, there were plenty of Porta-Potties! The lines went pretty quickly for that particular convenience—since this was my first race, I was very nervous and felt like I had to go every 5 minutes.

They had to delay the start of the race due to the number of late runners, so that was sort of a bummer to those of us who showed up on time. However, since there is only one bridge to the island, and one main road, no one who is not a native to the area could have anticipated the sheer amount of traffic and the time it would take to inch forward that last mile or two. Happily, Anastasia was a race veteran and explained these things to me. 

Here is a picture of the single bridge leading to the island:

Once the starter went off, it was slow going due to the thousands of participants. Anastasia and I kept pace with each other for the first mile, going 10:14, until things thinned a bit. I wanted to open up and let go, so with her blessing I took off and started weaving and passing at a comfortable pace. The sun was shining, it was about 60 degrees, and I felt really good. The course was, as advertised, almost completely flat—a glorious wonder to a southwest Portlander to whom hills are a constant companion!

The turnaround was at mile 4 and I had to make a pit stop, but I don’t think it hurt my time too much. I tried to run the race without a bathroom break at all, but I just couldn’t. Oh, well! The great thing about this race was the number of aid stations with water, Gatorade and gummi bears. Mmm—swanky!

My playlist for the run included music from One Eskimo, Damian Marley, Amos Lee, Band of Horses, Lauryn Hill, David Gray, Fatboy Slim, and a huge selection of the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies! The beat really helped keep me on pace. I also had interspersed my triumph song in strategic places. Do you remember this one? “I get KNOCKED DOWN, but I get up again—ya never gonna keep me down! I get KNOCKED DOWN, but I get up again—ya never gonna keep me down!” Yep, that’s my triumph song--Chumbawamba's "Tubthumping"!

There were spectators all along the route and they were uniformly cheerful and upbeat! There was live music at one spot, and at another, a large speaker was set up to belt out rockin’ music! It was awesome, and really gave people an uplift. At mile 8 I felt I had really broken the back of the race and like it was going to be all down-hill from there. Sadly, that feeling faded after mile 10 and I felt that there had never been such a long, drawn-out 3.1 miles in the entire span of the Universe. I was striving and striving with all my might, but seeming to go so slowly. I had to put away those thoughts and go back to my mental tricks—repeating “One, two, one, two” in order to keep on pace, and telling myself how good it felt to be out there and how awesome it was that I could run! It helped get me through.

My finish time was 02:03:59, #695 out of 2,300 half-marathon participants. I maintained a 09:35 pace for most of the race, with surges to 08:13 at miles 2, 5, 10 and finally, at 12.99. Once I saw the finish line I took off like a shot—I was just so motivated to be DONE!! After I got my finisher’s medal,I took a bathroom break, and then headed back onto the course to run and meet Anastasia about a mile down the line. We finished the last mile together, and she was awesome—finishing strong!! Here is a picture of us after the race (the date-stamp is wrong for some reason--this was July 4th, 2010):

There were free dishes of strawberry shortcake made with native berries grown right on the island, and free hotdogs for the finishers. Boy, was I hungry! So that strawberry shortcake tasted like ambrosia straight from heaven, folks. It was a terrific race and I am so happy with my time. Here is a picture of some of the berries: