Yesterday I walked in the Greater Portland Half Marathon in Forest Grove, Oregon. The scenery was beautiful but the walk was far from nice. I have never had a complaint about the route but this one scared me. We were taken along a highway and then through two-lane country roads. It wasn’t much different from other walks, however, with this one, they did NOT have the roads blocked off in any way to protect us from the vehicles zooming by – and there were MANY - sometimes so close you had to quickly jump off the roadway. The roads were hilly so we moved to the opposite side (to go with the flow of traffic) when we couldn’t see over the top so a car wouldn’t come smashing into us. On the downhill side, we had to move back to facing traffic for the same reason. There were a couple of uphill curves where you couldn’t choose either side of the road as a safe side. There weren’t many markers nor volunteers (but the ones they had were wonderful) to keep you on the correct route. At one point a young lady was running towards us and was crying because she was lost and was only doing the 5k run, not the half marathon, which she obviously found herself running. She was exhausted and had no water. The usual police escorts would have helped out on the route but they only had one to get in and out of the parking lot! What the heck?! With all that said, I had a good walk! I felt strong and was able to keep a good pace. I walked with a friend, Sue, and she had some interesting stories to tell so my mind wasn’t really on the miles passing by under my feet. We finished 13.1 miles in 3 hours and 9 minutes, averaging 14:25 minute miles. I finished five minutes later than my fasted half but in that half, we jogged about a third of it and in this one we didn’t jog at all except to get in front of a walker on the busy roadway. It was a good day and I’m happy to have another half marathon notch on my belt. :)
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