Race Review: Portland Rock n' Roll Half Marathon (Part 2)

Tweet

Part 1
Everything in downtown Portland is pretty much in walking distance so I didn't have to get up insanely early. Race start time was at 8:00am so I decided to set my alarm for 5:45am and try to get up and eat something. I rolled out of bed sometime around 6:15am and attempted to eat a CLIF bar but as usual I wasn't incredibly hungry. I busied myself with getting dressed and taping my knees with KT Tape. I gave Cody a hug and told him that I'd see him at the finish line and headed out of our hotel room around 7:15am. It took me less than 10 minutes to walk the 8 blocks to the start line surrounded by tons of other runners headed in the same direction of course.
Once I arrived I made sure to get some photos:

As you can see it was looking a little cloudy out but certainly not raining, I didn't really even need the throw-away sweatshirt as it was pretty warm out. As I was walking along looking for my corral I saw this:

There were so many restrooms and NO lines! The whole pre-race setup was very well organized. There were copious amounts fruit, water, and bagels available for all the runners. I grabbed a water and headed over to corral 14 (assigned by est finish time 2:15).

For a really big race, it was great to see so many corrals, I think there were 23 total. I chatted with the people beside me for a few minutes but I really didn't have to wait that long before we ready to get going. Someone sang the national anthem and we heard the first corral get released. They started each corral only a couple minutes apart since they were small. I was standing at the very front of corral 14 and as we started walking closer to the start line I realized I was going to start right on the mat. I've never been able do that before, it was really cool. I think this photo is from the start because I decided at the last minute to try to catch up with the corral in front of us as they had the 2:15 pace bunnies and I wanted to stay in front of them so I was going pretty fast and there was no one near me till I caught up with corral 13.

The first 4 kilometers were a very flat out and back passed the start line. Somewhere around kilometer 2 we passed the first band and I nearly had to stop because I was laughing so hard that they were playing "Great Balls of Fire" by Jerry Lee Lewis and it always makes me think of "Top Gun" which is my husbands favorite movie (we even named our dog Maverick). Anyways, off I went back towards the start line, it was a great atmosphere because on the way out we got to see a lot of the faster runners on the way back all the walkers were starting. I knew that this was probably going to be the only flat stretch throughout the race so I focused on trying to enjoy it and maybe picking up my speed just a little bit accounting for losing speed in the hills later on. There was some short little ups and downs through 4 blocks of downtown then we headed over the Hawthorne bridge to a more industrial part of Portland. The bridge was definitely different to run on as it was a steel grated bridge but they put carpet down so it was a little more of a stable surface for your feet.

It felt nice running DOWN off the bridge, I should have enjoyed that more... After that there was lots and lots of hills. I sort of shut everything out and just tried to get through it. The hills between mile 6 and 8 were the worst, there was one EXTRA long one.
 

At this point we were now in a completely residential area, which was nice but it certainly wasn't as cool as running through the city and over the bridge, I was still ahead of the pace bunnies so I knew I was doing okay. I had forgotten to text Cody like I said I would at half way so somewhere around the 14k mark I stopped for water and sent him a quick text. I felt alright when we passed the 15km mark (still a little wiped from that giant hill) and then we came to the point in the race that I had read about where we had to stop to let traffic through. I'll admit that it was weird to be doing that in such a big race but Portland is small and I understand they can't shut down everything, the volunteers were all helpful at getting people through as quickly as possible. I don't think it slowed me down more than 45 seconds. 

It wasn't until around 18km that the pace bunnies finally caught up with me, I kept them in my sights though and knew that because I started after them I could still make it in around 2:14. Time passed easier during this race, I generally struggle with the last 5km but the weather was good and I think I was with the right "group" of runners. Sometimes I find it hard to run in a race if you are constantly passing people or they are constantly passing you.  I like to find a group of people running a similar pace. Anyways we were headed back to a more populated city-type area so I knew we'd be getting close to crossing another bridge and then the finish line would be right there!

There was an incline leading up to the bridge and that definitely hurt, I'm not going to lie I had to stop once to walk for about 30 seconds. Finally the bridge:

I really tried to sprint this last kilometer because I was pretty sure I was close to my PR...

Cody watched me finish but I didn't see him, I was pretty tired.

There was a ton of food, gatorade, and chocolate milk to refuel on, I only wish they gave us a bag to carry it all. Cody was waiting for me as I exited the finish chute, I wasn't too sure of my time so of course that's the first thing I asked him and he said it was 2:15 something but my chip was broken. I got kind of upset, "my chip is WHAT?!?". He said that when he was live searching me after the 10km split it said that my chip was not working. I got pretty freaked out but I wanted to get back to the hotel and have a shower so I gingerly started walking. I kept babbling about how 2:15 didn't make sense because those pace bunnies who started before me finished around the same time I did so I should be under 2:15, I'm sure I was aggravating Cody at this point... The second we got back to the hotel room I searched my name again:

I was so glad that at least my finish time was working! The time is exactly 16 seconds slower than my current PR (Sunshine Coast April Fool's Run) but I'm still very happy with it for a hilly course! They must have fixed their 10M split mat because I have all my splits now:
5k: 30:04
10k: 1:01:46
10m: 1:42:36

I regretfully didn't stay and listen to the headliner concert but I'm sure it was fun, I didn't really recognize any of the bands and for most of the run I had my headphones in so I can't speak to the quality of music but it definitely added to the race atmosphere!
All in all I would totally recommend this race and any Rock n' Roll event for that matter, very well organized and tons of fun. I'm pretty excited about the Seattle Rock n' Roll Half in June!