Well, I made it...

I ran the Portland Marathon today and it was quite the experience. I went in just wanting to finish it, and I certainly accomplished that, but my time was quite a bit slower than I thought it might be. From the outset, the whole race experience just seemed a bit "snakebit": the belt that I was planning on wearing to carry water, gatorade, and energy gel somehow stretched out so it was bouncing around like crazy against my back, whereas it should have been really tight against my back (it ended up actually falling off me and I had to stop, retrace my steps, and pick it up and try to put it back on). I ended up giving the belt to Missi around Mile 13 because it was bugging me so much. My trusty Nike sunglasses kept fogging up, almost from the very first mile, and I could never really get them de-fogged despite everything I tried. I think this was primarily because it was raining and my face and hair was soaked. And finally, I inexplicably went through 2 iPod shuffles! After my iPod died somewhere around Mile 14, I switched to MIssi's iPod but it ended up dying around Mile 19 or so. I still haven't figured out what caused the iPods to stop working considering I charged mine up just yesterday. I'm wondering if all the moisture from the rain caused me it to stop. So it was a bit discouraging, to say the least, that my "equipment" didn't work very well for me.

I had come up with a rough race plan that had me basically running 8:00 miles for the first 5 miles, 8:15 miles for the next 5 miles, and 8:30 for the next 7 or 8. I met my first "pacer" - my buddy PQ - at mile 13.5, and I was only one minute off my target pace at that time, so I was feeling alright about my time, but I could feel my legs starting to get a bit tired. When PQ tried to push me a bit during the 2 or 3 miles we ran together, I had to tell him that I just didn't have any "push" in my legs. From about Mile 18 to the finish, my pace slowed waaay down and it was all I could do to just keep running (not to mention the cramps that set in around Mile 23 and continued all the way to the end). I met my dad at Mile 18 and ran with him to Mile 21, where I met Missi, the kids, my mom, and grandpa. It was great that I met Missi at Mile 21 and she was able to run all the way in to the finish line with me. I ended up finishing somewhere around 4:15 or 4:20 (I'm not sure of the exact time because the results website is currently down), which was slower than I would've liked but it feels great just to have accomplished a goal I've had for a long time.

Pics to follow...