Race Review: Rock 'n' Roll Portland Half Marathon

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Honestly, I'm not too sure what has taken me so long to sit down and write this review. I had a great time, but I feel like we have been going non stop since I got back last Sunday. More on that later this week (or next at this rate) hopefully.

I was really stoked to be heading to Portland again after last year, as you may have read. Cindy (my mom-in-law) and I headed out bright and early on Saturday morning, with coffee in hand and an iPod armed with 6 hours of music.

Though we waited in line at the border for about 45 minutes (Canadian long weekend), we made pretty good time once we got on the road and found ourselves at the expo around 1:00PM.

The expo was a little quieter this year, but we still had a great time and picked up some awesome merchandise as well as some free shoelaces at the got chocolate milk booth!

My loot! The left is the this year's race shirt and I bought the shirt and visor on the right!

I was stoked to see this beautiful banner of MY city, it only fueled my excitement for Rock 'n' Roll Vancouver in October.

And if you're still on the fence about registering, check out the discounts I have for you on the left sidebar of the blog and head on over to the registration site to use the codes!

After we picked up all the necessities, it was time to leave the expo and head towards the Woodburn outlets and eventually to our pre-race dinner at the Cheesecake Factory (oh gee I'm so predictable lol).
We also squeezed in a quick walk to Voodoo doughnuts and made sure to "rest our legs" on the way back by taking a bike taxi back to the hotel!

Best $10 I've ever spent. Once we got all checked into the hotel, I continued the pre-race traditions and laid out my clothing and race gear and tried to get some sleep.

Apparently I was tired because I fell asleep immediately. It must have been all the driving as that is pretty unlike me especially on the eve of a race.

I like getting everything ready the night before, because it usually makes the morning pretty seamless and uneventful. And since we were a mere 5 minute walk from the start line, everything was so much calmer than BMO was a few weeks prior, phew!

Just like last year, there were SO MANY photographers at this race, I loved it. If you're going to buy the photos, you certainly get your money's worth. I think I got almost 50 photos this time.
Unfortunately this year, it was raining at the start. Though for us, it was nothing out of the ordinary and frankly I'd prefer that over being too hot.

Cindy checked a bag since she was planning to wait for me at the finish (she did the 10k). After which, we headed over to our corrals. She was in corral 5 and I was in corral 12. I think it took about 14 minutes for our corral to get to the front. Again this year, they were very small corrals, maybe 100 people or so. I had planned to meet someone in my corral but it was rather crowded this time.

I was near the front when we got started and I definitely went out too fast again, big surprise.

I'd had no time goals for this race, I knew that it would be unlikely I would beat my time from last year after my foot injury. I had high hopes for a decent race though after I felt so good at BMO 3 weeks ago, but that was about it.

The first part of the race is an out and back by the start/finish line after which, we headed into the city for a short loop and then over the Hawthorne bridge. As we passed under the steel bridge (which we would run back across at the end) I felt a pain in the bottom of my foot, at first I thought it was my injury and then I felt something sharp pierce the bottom of my foot, ouch! I pulled off to the side and look at my shoe and there was a giant screw! I took a moment to yank it out of my shoe and off I went. Thankfully I caught it before I really stepped down hard and it went through my foot. I looked at my shoe later to see if there was a hole but I can't find one in the treads.

This was my favorite photo of the race, after the out and back, and right before we headed around that loop and over the bridge:

I haven't been brave enough to try a jumping photo yet for fear of falling on my face, but the moment arose and I took my chance, so happy it worked out! By the time the bridge came into view, I was starting to feel warmed up and my legs were becoming less stiff, though my foot was a bit achy (thankfully not from the screw though lol).

Last year I remember noticing the carpet on the bridge and laughing about it because it was so weird to run on, but not really uncomfortable, just different. This year I wasn't laughing. The bottom of my foot did NOT like that part of the race. The carpet is there, I believe, for 2 reasons; so you don't slip and because the grates are large so your foot kind of sinks into them.

I felt like I was barely running across that bridge. I was thankful to see the pavement on the other side and aware that the split for the 10k and the half was coming up. I knew that after that, I had one major obstacle to overcome before I would be headed towards the steel bridge and over to the finish line, THE hill.

I don't so much mind that there's a hill, because it's practically the only one in the race, but it's long, like 2 miles long. I knew early on that I'd be walking most of it and that would greatly effect my time. I haven't been doing hill training hardly at all, because I've just been more focused on finishing my regular runs with my unpredictable foot. Thankfully I had the knowledge of last year and I knew it was coming. There was an audible sigh of horror when we turned the corner and everyone saw the hill and then at the very top, you could hear everyone sigh with relief, so that was funny. I always take solace in the fact that when you reach something like that during a race as opposed to a training run, you're not alone. All you have to do is look around you and know that you're all headed in the same direction.

Next up, is what I refer to as the residential portion of the race where we ran through lots of cute little neighborhoods where all the locals had come out to cheer, some of whom were still in their pajamas on their decks or in their driveways. I was anxiously awaiting every walk break at this point and checking my watch far too often. My foot just wasn't cooperating and my iPod was clearly on the fritz, it kept telling me it had low battery (even though I charged it the night before) and I couldn't turn the volume up above a whisper so eventually I just took my headphones out and listened to the spectators and other racers around me.

This sign brought a smile to my face.

The LA marathon took 4 of my toenails and a piece of my spirit. This race gave me some of that spirit back but unfortunately did nothing for my toenails...

It was at this point, I started to wonder where the hell that other bridge was. I got stopped for traffic a couple time too. This happened last year as well. Portland is a small city and they can only close so many roads at a time. The volunteers and traffic controllers were very friendly about the whole thing, and each time I wasn't stopped any longer than a minute. One of the police officers was even joking around with us and ran through the intersection with the crowd.

Finally we came down a hill and the bridge came into view. I love the steel bridge. It's what I think of when I think of Portland with the giant pulleys on top and the trolley car tracks. As I was running across there was a trolley coming across so I missed that photo op. But thankfully there were more photographers on the other side!

This next section felt longer than last year, but I was probably because I was a lot slower this time around.

I wish I had stopped to take a photo as we passed by the famous Portland Oregon Old town sign, but I didn't. I was thinking about crossing that finish line and what I could do for an interesting picture, since I was pretty positive I was going to get the photos. I thought since it was my 25th half marathon I could indicate 25 with my fingers, what a great idea, right? Wrong. I'm an idiot apparently because I totally forgot that it would show up backwards in the picture, half marathon #52... I think not. So yea, that explains these.

 We will just pretend I'm waving and giving the peace sign at the same time, okay?

I edited this one because I like it and I can pretend I'm not an idiot.

So all in all, not a bad race with a final time of 2:29:42. I admit that I expected a little better time with how well my foot behaved at BMO but oh well, I'm still pleased with #25!

Cindy, however, rocked the 10k and came 1st in her age group, WOW, way to go Cindy! It was the inaugural year for the 10k here and I hear everything went really well.

Race Review Summary 

Package Pickup/Expo:
The pickup went very smoothly as always. I loved the race shirt this year, though it is a shorter cut like most of the Rock 'n' Roll shirts, so I would recommend going up a size if you have a larger chest or a longer torso like me. We enjoyed the expo, but I have to say I really am looking forward to seeing the Brooks "Run Happy Island" in Seattle. We had lots of fun with all those activities last year at the "Cavalcade of Curiosities". Also, I always love the Rock 'n' Roll and Brooks merchandise, it never disappoints. I would have bought more than a shirt and a visor if I thought my budget could handle it!

Price/Value: $80-110 (depending on when you register)
This is the same price essentially across the board for most of the Rock 'n' Roll races and I think it is fair considering the size and the experience.
 
Aid Stations: 
Rock 'n' Roll always provides plenty of aid stations and course support. This is easily a race you could run without carrying your own water.

Course Difficulty: 
Moderate. The majority of the course is relatively flat, but if you're looking for a PR, you definitely want to make hill training apart of your program.

Medals:
Love the medals!!! Happy to have my 1st of 7 towards the Cascadia medal!

Running for Doughnuts in Portland!

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Once again it is the Friday before race day and against my better judgement, I find myself running around like mad trying to get everything done so I can be on the road early tomorrow AM... but that doesn't change the fact that I AM SO EXCITED we are headed to Portland this weekend to run the Rock 'n' Roll Portland Half Marathon!

I loved this race last year, in fact it was my most favorite of all 16 half marathons in 2013!

The weather was perfect and the course was so neat! With 2 really cool bridges, exciting live music, and an gorgeous scenic route, you just can't beat this race! And with that, I'm going to share some of my favorite photos from last year because coincidentally I also think these are some of my best race photos. I've never gotten so many photos in a race, I wonder if it was the colorful outfit?

Checking out the view at the start line pre-race.

One of my favorite parts about this race is that the corrals were really small (about 100 people) and I stood at the front of mine so when we got to start I was at the front of the pack for a while and got a few really neat solo pictures. 

You also can't beat 2 really neat bridge crossings! The first bridge is normally only for vehicles so the ground is actually a metal surface and they had to put carpet down so people wouldn't slip. It was kind of a funny surface to run on, but wow I never thought I liked running on bridges (because there's usually an incline) until I came to Portland!

The finish line is right after you come off the second bridge (2nd picture) back into the downtown core and you get a birds-eye view of the crowd and everything before you run the final stretch. Once you see the Geico banners, you are pretty much finished!

This was nearly a PR for me in 2013 and though I'm not trying to beat any time goals this year, I just can't wait to do this race again! I hope Sunday is as much fun as last year!

If all else fails, there's always doughnuts right?!

Yep, that's right I'm going to stand in that line again, why? For these.

Enough said. See you soon Oregon.

Race Review: BMO Vancouver Half Marathon

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Wow, where has the time gone, already a week into May! This year was my 2nd year taking part in the BMO Vancouver Half Marathon (Race Review from last year). Early on, I had hoped I would be doing the marathon distance, but after everything that's happened since LA, it wasn't feasible so I dropped down to the half distance about a month ago.

A friend of mine, Brandi, and I were chatting on the trails a few weeks ago about the race and she mentioned maybe signing up and attempting to challenge her PR which was around 2:27... So I offered to pace her (as long as my foot held up) to a PR if she were to sign up and she did!

You can read about Brandi's running journey here.

The expo for this race is always fun, though very busy, be prepared to stand in line. I went on Friday and visited with one of my fellow RnRVAN ambassadors Tina! We had a great time visiting with other runners and checking out the Rock 'n' Roll Vancouver booth!

We even managed to get out for a shakeout run on my favorite part of the seawall in False Creek!

It was a gorgeously warm spring Vancouver day but I had heard that rain was headed in for the rest of the weekend.

When I woke up to pick up my fellow runners whom I was carpooling with on Sunday, the rain was coming down in sheets. I wasn't very pleased, since the Surrey Marathon, my tolerance for rainy races has diminished considerably. Obviously, we live in Vancouver and we know it rains, but it's still not something you hope for on race day, especially in Spring. I grabbed all my gear and headed out the door. I knew our timeline had to be spot on if we were going to make it in time to check our bags.

I picked up Lisa on time but somehow got a little turned around heading to Stephanie's house and that definitely set us back a few minutes. When we got downtown (intending to park near the finish line and take transit to the start line), the parking lot where I was hoping to park had now turned into a construction site... Thankfully, we found something nearby and very quickly made our way to the sky train with the mass of other runners. When we got off the sky train at King Edward, I remembered how far it was to the actual start line and so we began our walking. I admittedly panicked when we arrived and I couldn't see the UPS trucks with the bag check. We started running all over the place, only to realize we had walked right past them on the way in... way to go Krista.

We checked our bags with literally seconds to spare. Did I also mention that somewhere in the chaos on the way to the start line, I misplaced my bag check tag, thankfully the UPS volunteer had a piece of paper to write my bib # down and replace it.

We hardly had any time to stand around, never mind look for anyone else, before they were singing the national anthem and calling everyone into their corrals. Thankfully Brandi found me, and Stephanie jumped in at the last minute and off we went. At least, as Lisa put it, there was no time to stand around and get soaked in the rain.

Though, it also meant no time for pre-race photos so this blurry selfie is all you get!

As we got going, I felt really good, but I could tell Brandi wasn't feeling quite right and was worried about how fast we were going coming down the hill. The first 4 kilometers of this race are quite literally all downhill. I had hoped we could pick it up just a little bit here to gain a bit of a buffer with our time. As we crossed the Cambie St. bridge and saw some, how shall I say this, "exhibitionists" (ie. naked people) modeling in their apartment window, Brandi asked if we could pull back a bit.

I didn't want to kill her energy right off the bat, so we eased up and took our first walk break. After which it was time for the little out & back portion of the race by Science World that I really dislike. Today though, I was feeling good. I was surprised with all the foot issues I've had lately, how good I actually felt. We moved along up the first hill through Chinatown, then Yaletown, and around onto Pacific. I've always felt this race to be a great mix of some of the best Vancouver race's out there including First Half, Lululemon, & the Scotiabank Half, and because of this, it sort of feels like a run down memory lane. I kept talking to Brandi trying to distract her and keep her moving, she had mentioned that her stomach was feeling off and I didn't want her focusing on that.

I knew once we got to the park, the last half of the race, that would be the hardest part to maintain our pace for her to PR. Up until we reached the park in fact, we were on pace for a sub 2:22 and Brandi was doing great! Stanley Park and the seawall are beautiful on a sunny day, but on this day, it was pouring and the wind was ridiculous. My hands were frozen and I was sure wishing I had grabbed the rest of my gear (arm warmers, gloves, handana) before throwing it to the gear check dude in that mad rush.

I had definitely forgotten about all the little rolling hills when you cross through the center of the park, but I for one was pleased we weren't on the outside of the seawall anymore getting tossed around by the wind and rain, I don't think Brandi felt the same way though... I'll let her tell her story on her blog about how she was feeling but I am really proud of her for pushing through a tough race. Did I mention she has run 3 half marathons in the past few weeks?!? We all have bad days and she still made it to the finish line within mere minutes of her PR and I do believe if she had been feeling better and more rested, she would have gone sub 2:22, perhaps even sub 2:20.

I enjoyed pacing someone during a race even though we didn't succeed this time. It was fun to not be worrying about my own PR goals for once and focus on someone else and follow their race journey.

Our final time was 2:29:24.

Race Review Summary 

Package Pickup/Expo:
Okay. Though it is one of the bigger expos in Vancouver, I'm betting Rock 'n' Roll Vancouver will top it for sure.

Price/Value: $119
It was cheaper the earlier you registered, and I of course downgraded, so even though I paid way more for the full marathon, I had to pay an administration fee to switch. It is a nice race, there's no doubting that, but that is crazy expensive.

Aid Stations: 
Plenty of them and they were all fully stocked this year.

Course Difficulty: 
It's moderate. Not totally flat, but relatively so. The downhill at the beginning is a great time to pick up some speed.

Medals:
They are nice and a good size as well.

My foot is feeling pretty good right now and I'm starting to formulate some goals for my 25th half marathon, Rock 'n' Roll Portland, in a couple of weeks. My lovely readers are eligible to receive a registration discount of $10 with the code 'KRISTARUNSPDX' now until May 11th!

How to tackle a Rock 'n' Roll Race Weekend

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As we approach the Oasis Rock 'n' Roll Vancouver Half Marathon and 44th Annual Cunningham Seawall 10k in October, I, along with my fellow Rock 'n' Blog bloggers will be sharing some tips and information to help you have the best experience possible. Since I've traveled to 2 Rock 'n' Roll races in the past (Rock 'n' Roll Seattle & Rock 'n' Roll Portland), and I'm headed to 2 more this Spring, I've decided to share some tips on managing/planning your weekend here in Vancouver, but in general, these tips would apply to any Rock 'n' Roll race weekend.

If you are traveling, make sure you pack all of the appropriate gear for the race as well as the days leading up to/after the race. There's nothing worse than wearing improper footwear leading up to race and having blisters before you even reach the start line! A raincoat, your preferred method of hydration, and compression wear are also things you may want to consider having readily available. I'm sure you've heard this before, but don't plan to try anything new on race weekend, wear comfortable previously broken-in shoes!

Bring your camera!
A race weekend like this is sure to have some amazing photo ops, so be ready, you won't be disappointed!

A photo op with my bib at the Portland Rock 'n' Roll Expo

Nikki took this of me during Rock 'n' Roll Seattle!

Plan out your eats!
It's a great idea to do some research beforehand and have what you need all ready to go by the time the weekend rolls around. If you are attending a race in your own city like I will be, you might want to consider planning your meals the week prior and being sure to have all your grocery shopping and meal preparation done in advance of the weekend. This includes preparing healthy snacks so it won't be tempting to make bad choices. Power cookies (click for recipe) are my favorite, but there are lots of ready-made options out there! I will also be looking at restaurants closer to and hopefully making some reservations because even though I live here, it's always fun to meet up beforehand with your fellow racers for a carb-loading dinner! With Gastown so close to the expo, there are tons of great pre-race options! Also, consider what you might want after the race? It's always great to have something in mind for a little extra motivation to get to the finish line. I myself, will likely be headed to Cartem's Donuterie post-race... yum!

Budget accordingly.
With great restaurants, an amazing expo, and the opportunity to buy some stellar race photos, it is important to know how much you want to spend in advance. I don't always purchase my photos, but for a Rock 'n' Roll race, I always have. They're just too good not to. Marathonfoto will be in charge of race photography at Rock 'n' Roll Vancouver, just like their other races.

Research and leave lots of time to visit the EXPO!
When I first started running, I'll admit I didn't understand what an expo was and why it was so exciting... but now, I've come to look forward to it, especially for a Rock 'n' Roll race, they truly never disappoint. With over 60 exhibitors and the brooks official merchandise store, there will be lots to look at and some great souvenirs for purchase. There's usually a chance to preview the race medal as well as all of the other Rock 'n' Roll medals. I would set aside at least a few hours for the expo so you get to see everything. Hopefully, you'll have a bit more time to see some speakers/entertainment etc. and maybe even visit the waterfront area in Vancouver! Having said that, Rock 'n' Roll is always very organized about Package Pickup so if you need to be in and out, that shouldn't be a problem.

A free photo op from Brooks!

A look at the Seattle Rock 'n' Roll Marathon expo from above!

We will have more details to come for the expo, but for now I can tell you it will be taking place at Canada Place on:
Friday, October 24, 12pm – 6pm & Saturday, October 25, 9am – 5pm
 
Don't overdo it.
Vancouver has so many amazing sights to see and things to do, but I wouldn't overdo it the day before the race with too much walking. Typically, I plan to walk the expo and then do something relaxing for the rest of the day, if possible. Why not come to Vancouver for a whole week so that you'll have lots of opportunities to see our beautiful city without compromising your race legs!

Making time to put my feet up in some Pro Compression socks and Barefooters!

Be prepared. 
Organize all of your race things the night before just to be sure you're not missing out on anything crucial like your bib, timing tag, watch, or ipod.

Plan to get to sleep early.
It's so easy the night before a big race to let the excitement get to you and before you know it, it is way later than you intended to stay awake. Make sure you are home/back to your hotel early enough and try to do the same you would do any other night to get ready for bed. And in case you're staying with friends in a hotel the night before... It's okay to have a little bit of Rock 'n' Roll fun, but just don't go too crazy!

Pajama party anyone?

Enjoy it! 

You trained for it, enjoy everything the race has to offer and have a great time! Don't forget to celebrate your new bling and take in some of the post-race entertainment and perhaps even a treat or 2!