October 7th~
Somehow, a few weeks after running Grandma's Marathon, my running group talked me into signing up for the Portland Marathon. Considering how horrible Grandma's turned out, I was not excited about the prospect of jumping right back into training for another 26.2. However, a weekend away with the Sloths sounded like fun, so I figured why not? Jill and I decided it was much more fun to complain about running another marathon so soon (she ran Ogden) and we just wanted to have a good time in Portland.
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| Our plane to Portland..I figured it had to be a good sign |
We flew to Portland the day before the race, went to the expo, headed out for a good pre-race dinner, and then called it an early night. Normally I do not sleep well the day before a race at all, however this time I slept great. I really think a lot of it had to do with the fact I knew I did not have Molly to worry about. Even though she sleeps through the night, I am still always in tune to her stirring or chatting on the baby monitor throughout the night. Another great thing about Portland, was the time change being in our favor and the fact that we could walk to the start of the race from our hotel. That kept us from having to wake up at 4 in the morning to take a bus to the start!
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| Kez and Jill getting ready |
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| Me, Kez, Jill |
The weather also could not have been more perfect. Rain is always a concern in Portland, but it was a cool morning with a light breeze. The sun beat down on us during a few parts of the course, but I had my visor on so that did not even bother me too much.
Jill, Abbey, and I talked before the race about making sure no one felt like they had to keep up with anyone. We would start together, but from there we would run our own race. At mile 3 we were still all together and passed the 4:10 pacer. This had me extremely nervous. I was still only hoping to finish under 4:30 and finish feeling strong. I knew 4:10 was faster than I hoped to go, but figured since I always died at the end of the marathon, maybe I should keep going as fast as I could for as long as it felt comfortable. I did my best not to think about where the pacer was and psyche myself out. By mile 13 we still did not see the pacer, and I finally allowed myself to look at my watch to see how fast we were going. 2:01:24. I could not believe it but was still feeling great so I kept going. Mile 17 brought a decent hill leading up to St. John's Bridge. We decided to save our energy and walk part of the hill.
Abbey was looking strong and after the hill started to pull ahead of Jill and I. I knew I really could not keep up with her pace and easily let her go. Then after the next water station, I separated from Jill. Mile 22 brought a decrease in elevation for the next 2 1/2 miles. It was so nice not to hit the wall at mile 18 or even 20, and having the downhill at 22 could not have been more perfect. I started to cruise on the downhill again. The 4:10 pacer still had yet to pass me, but other than that, I had still refused to look at my watch. At mile 24 I finally looked at my watch just to see if by some miracle I needed to pick up my pace to break the 4 hour barrier. I cannot remember my time now, but a sub 4 was impossible, so I kept with my comfortable pace until the finish.
I crossed the finish line feeling strong in 4 hours 7 minutes and 30 seconds!
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The Sloth Girls: Abbey, Keziah, Me, Jill
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My stats were:
| Runner Details | Race Results |
| Bib: | 6941 |
| Name: | Alyssa Sullivan |
| Gender: | F |
| Age: | 30 |
| Hometown: | Meridian, ID |
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| Overall: | 2103 out of 6695 |
| Women: | 739 out of 3481 |
| F 30-34: | 168 out of 650 |
| Age/Grade: | 54.74% Place: 2221 |
| Finish: | 4:07:30 Pace: 9:27 |
| Tag Time: | 4:07:30 |
| Gun Time: | 4:20:38 |
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| Split Times |
| 5 Km: | 28:38 Pace: 9:13 |
| 10 Km: | 58:24 Pace: 9:24 |
| 8.9 Mi: | 1:22:51 Pace: 9:19 |
| Half: | 2:01:24 Pace: 9:16 |
| 17.5 Mi: | 2:46:13 Pace: 9:30 |
| 21.1 Mi: |
3:19:13 Pace: 9:27 |
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After the race, we all went back to our hotel to take a warm shower and rest before we headed out for a fantastic dinner at Jake's Famous Crawfish. We all over ate, but still headed back out a few hours later to find dessert! Then, with extremely full bellies, we called it another early night.
Early on, we decided we wanted to fly to Portland...the main reason being, none of us wanted to drive the 8 hours back after finishing a marathon. As it turned out, the entire Alaska Airline system shut down and all their planes where grounded nationwide. After waiting almost 2 hours, our flight was cancelled. With the system being down, they could not even pull up upcoming flights to see how full they were or when we would be able to fly out. We all worked the next day, and once we ran into family friends of Jill's who where renting a car to drive home, we decided to join them. So instead of a quick flight home and getting in at 1pm we got home at 9pm...not the best end to the weekend, but a good story!
