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Apr 28, 2024

Portland Marathon Runner Comments

Back to Portland Marathon Information & Reviews

Course 3.5

Organization 4.2

Spectators 4.3

Number of comments: 295 [displaying comments 21 to 31]

More Comments: [ < 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 .. 30 > ]

D. B. from Oregon (10/7/2015) "Good race except for train stoppages" (about: 2015) 4-5 previous marathons \| 1 Portland Marathon COURSE: 2 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 4 Pros: 1. Nice organization at the start, corral system worked very well. 2. Aid stations and port-a-potties were plentiful. 3. Plenty of supportive spectators, although as others have commented the first half is mostly through a not-at-all scenic industrial area with little to no spectators. Worth it to get to the St. Johns bridge I guess, as someone else commented. Cons: 1. TRAINS TRAINS TRAINS! They down play the trains on their publicity, but they seem to affect much more runners than the organizers let on. I was stopped twice, once by an Amtrak and once by the light rail train. You can take their advice and view being stopped by trains as part of the charm of running in Portland. But do not run this race to get a PR and adjust your expectations to being more likely to be stopped than they say. 2. Previously mentioned industrial area. 3. Racing split app they advertised (RaceIT) did not work for anyone in any way. If you're going to go all in on promoting a product make sure it works first. Results on their website were quickly posted, though.
Terry Hill from Oakland, CA (11/2/2014) "Good marathon, great town" (about: 2014) 6-10 previous marathons \| 1 Portland Marathon COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 4 I flew in for a 4-day weekend of visiting friends, hiking in the Gorge (wonderful Eagle Creek Trail to Punchbowl Falls), revisiting Reed, running the marathon, etc, and had a great time. Splurged on a downtown hotel. Appreciated the comment below (5/1/14) that one can get by without a rental car in Portland. Corrals worked fine for me. Didnt mind the industrial out-and-back. The bands & etc werent as plentiful as in my home marathon (Oakland), but in the first half that doesnt matter so much to me. The 150-foot rise to St. Johns bridge doesnt sound impressive, but its steep enough and far enough in to be non-trivial. If ones primary goal were to PR, there are flatter and faster courses. Great volunteers everywhere, ample aid stations, supportive crowds calling my name (from the bib). I carried my own GU. Never got slowed by cars or trains (train would be horrible, even if not going for PR). There were ample pacers sharing duties in my pace group (3:40), which I appreciated. The weather was unusually warm (70-ish toward the end), so I suffered in the sun after mile 21 and walked up the little rise to the Broadway Bridge. Other than that, the last 5 miles are kind (gentle downhill or flat), so I was able to finish only a minute behind my group. Nice finishers shirt. While not a destination marathon like Boston, this marathon is very well organized and not overly challenging, so the combination of a good marathon and a great town is very attractive. Im likely to return.
S. W. from Riverside, CA (10/22/2014) "Good but not great." (about: 2014) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 Portland Marathon COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 4 Overall a good experience, but I found many of the mile markers were off or hard to see through the first 10 miles. My splits were all over the place based on the mile markers so I merged into the 3:10 pace group four miles in (I was shooting for 3:08 to 3:10). I have run multiple marathons and never had so many mile markers be so far off. 6:30 one mile, 7:30 another mile while running downhill. Even the pacers commented the mile markers were off. I fell a bit back from the 3:10 group just before halfway but still came through the half at 1:33. They were way too fast for folks trying to break 3:10. I expected they would be 1:34 at the fastest. I held on until the last 5 miles where the early pace caught up. I didn't use a GPS watch because they be a bit off, especially with downtown start. I always have pace myself off my watch and what I assume are accurate mile markers. Decent course, but not terribly scenic from miles 5-12. I am more concerned with fast times than scenery so that was okay. I will go back and next time ignore the pace group. Plenty of aid stations but having them mostly on one side of the road made it difficult to get water the first half when the half and marathoners ran together. Give out the shoe bag at the end. They give out too much stuff to carry and I had to wrap it all in my finisher shirt to carry it.
C. N. from North Carolina (10/16/2014) "Great spectators, flat course, little shade" (about: 2014) 1 previous marathon \| 1 Portland Marathon COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 5 Beautiful city, but I grew up there. Too bad the course doesn't take complete advantage of that. Many great restaurants downtown. Expo seemed a bit cramped in the basement of the Hilton, but not awful. But agree with the comment about no expo bag to drop your gear into. Eventually, there is a kiosk for a bag, but it should be provided with the bib. Spectators were great. Lots of them, cheering folks on. In some neighborhoods, sprinklers and hoses were out to cool us down. (For those of us in Corral H at the end of the race, it was unusually warm.) Other spectators left oranges for runners. Never ate the Gummi Bears provided and agree with a comment below that no one would train that way. But was pleased by the number of aid stations. They never ran out of liquids, and lots of portapotties. (I've been on some courses where there's just one potty at each aid station. Portland's planning on this front was much better.) The volunteers were always spirited, even 6 hours after the race started. In fact, the volunteers were great. Course is slightly hilly at miles 3-4, then flat till about mile 11 in part through downtown and then later through an industrial area with no shade. Then a slow, gradual incline as you head toward the St. John's bridge at mile 15.5. The half-mile ramp up to the bridge is steep. And then the course is relatively flat till about mile 22 when it goes downhill toward the Broadway Bridge headed into downtown. Not much shade after the St. John's bridge and the finish line. Lots of bands and performers on the entire route, even through the industrial area. Finishers shirt is great. Was hoping the finish line would have had something more substantive to eat other than bananas and a donut hole.
J. G. from New Orleans, Louisiana (10/15/2014) "Great City, Shoddy Logistics" (about: 2014) 4-5 previous marathons \| 1 Portland Marathon COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 4 Pros: 1. I really like the city of Portland. 2. All of the volunteers were helpful and friendly. 3. Really cool medal :) Cons: 1. No baggage check. I would have really loved to get a clean shirt or some fresh socks or shoes after the race, but that option was not available. They said only 18% of runners used it. Perhaps those were the out of town runners where it wasn't a nice to have but a necessity. 2. No GU or commercial fuel on the course. Sure gummy bears and pretzels are nice, but no one trains with those. So I got to change the shorts I planned to wear for a new pair with pockets, so I could load my pockets with GU. 3. The expo didn't give you a bag until the end. How does that make sense? They give you bib, pins, etc with no where to put it? I ended up losing the wristbands from the pace group. I am glad I didn't drop anything else while walking through the expo. 4. Beer garden was embarrassing. It was just a parking lot in the sun with a few trucks selling $5 beers. How about you get some sponsors and then give the runners a few beers? Maybe help people celebrate their accomplishment, instead of making them want to leave as soon as possible. 5. Get a more accurate course elevation profile. I picked Portland, because I was trying to PR and overall it looked flat. Turns out mile 16-21 are all uphill and not just a small uphill. Thanks for the bonk!!! 6. EFFING TRAINS!!! Not only did I have to stop for 1 train, but I got caught by a second train at mile 24. I wonder if they know how demoralizing it is to be crushing your goal time and you get to stop to watch a freight train go by. At least stop your city's light rail!
S. O. from Portland. OR (10/8/2014) "Disappointing Finish" (about: 2014) 11-50 previous marathons COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 2 What if they held a marathon in a major city and did not allow anyone to watch the finish? Yes, that was the Portland Marathon. No spectators were allowed within 200 meters of the Finish Line. No family, no friends, no supporters, no marathon fans. There was an announcer announcing to no one. Instead of cheering crowds at the Finish Line there was a man on the course at mile 26 with a megaphone yelling at the runners to 'run faster!' What if they had a marathon in a major city and the winners of the marathon and other fast marathoners had to weave in an out of really slow half marathoners to get to the Finish Line? Yes, again Portland. No separate Finish Line for the Marathon runners. The Portland Marathon is likely not a bad marathon but the finish was disappointing and anticlimactic making the entire marathon seem disappointing.
S. L. from California (10/7/2014) "Great crowd support" (about: 2014) 4-5 previous marathons \| 1 Portland Marathon COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 5 I may be biased because I PR'ed this course and finally broke 4 hours. The course may not be the most beautiful, but I tend to be one of those runners that zone out no matter where I am. In terms of the topography, it was flat with some rolling hills; the last 8 miles have a lot of gentle downhill stretches. (I tend to do better if there are hills thrown in). What I remember are all the musical acts, cheerleaders, and spectators. During that boring industrial stretch there are people dressed as pirates there for your entertainment. I regret not taking pictures of the Shriners with their calliope. And there were so many random people in the crowd calling out my name and cheering me on; I feel it really boosted me at the end. The weather was perfect. I took no part of the pretzels or gummi bears (strangest course food ever). There is a lot of swag, almost too much. But overall, I had a lot of fun running this marathon and would consider doing it again.
Ron Steinhilber from El Mirage, AZ (10/7/2014) "Well organized, course needs improvement" (about: 2014) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 Portland Marathon COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 3 This was my 23rd marathon, part of my quest to become a 50 stater. There were some good things and some things that need improvement. First, the expo was well organized, had a lot of venders, and wasn't too overcrowded. We went on Friday afternoon, so that may have made a difference. Picking up the number was easy, although having to go to another area to get pins and a bag could be inconvenient for those in a hurry. I had no issues on race day. We arrived at around 5:45, found parking along Clay St. about a 1/2 mile from the start and walked over to my corral. The corrals are a great idea. From my perspective, they worked great. As many others have said, the course was just not that special. Too much industrial, kind of boring at times. It seemed as though the goal was to get the runners to the St. John's Bridge, which was the highlight of the course. I will compliment the race directors on making the back half of the course better than the 1st half, usually it is the opposite, as many races cater to the half marathoners. There were plenty of water stops, although I don't think the Ultima drink was very good. Thanks to all the volunteers who helped out. As far as spectators, there are large sections of the course where there are none, so if you need that kind of support, don't expect that. However, those that were able to get around were great. A special thanks to whomever Gary Gnu is for making the entertaining signs on the back half of the course. All in all, Portland was not a bad experience, I would just have hoped that such a popular (and expensive) race would have been a little better.
C. D. from Denver, Colorado (10/6/2014) "Lousy course in beautiful city" (about: 2014) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 Portland Marathon COURSE: 2 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 4 For such a great town, I was very disappointed with the route. The first few miles were great, but the rest of the race is along the river in largely industrial parts of Portland. From about Mile 14 to 17 you run along a major highway breathing truck exhaust while climbing uphill. The rest of the race was fine great crowds, nice people, and a decent, if uninspired expo. But the course leaves something to be desired. I have run 19 marathons and this was by far my least favorite.
S. P. from Texas (10/6/2014) "Largely iindustrial course - not walker friendly" (about: 2014) 3 previous marathons \| 1 Portland Marathon COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 3 After having run New York, London, and Chicago, I walked Portland (b/c of hip issues). I was shocked at the poor organization, lack of meager food (they ran out of pretzels at all but the last stop), change of course during the race for the walkers (putting us on sidewalks which beat up our legs), ran out of finishers jackets at end, etc., etc.... I willl definitely not return & look forward to Honolulu and possibly L.A....

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