Columbia Gorge Marathon

This race has been on my bucket list for a while, since I've been wanting to come to this area of the country and explore, and I had seen reviews about how beautiful this course is. I'm glad I did the race, but it doesn't rank among my favorites, probably because of the long stretches of up/down hill and the really congested last few miles, where I had to dodge half marathoners, dogs, and cars. The course is very beautiful, with most of the scenic sections in the first few and last few miles. The middle miles are run past a lot of grassy fields and are a bit less scenic. The first 4-5 miles are on paved trail, then you merge onto a state route and have to run on the side of the road (often a bit off camber, which makes the hips hurts after a while), with cars occasionally driving by. The drivers are aware there is a race, and most of the cars that did pass were friends/family cheering us on as they drove past to the next spectator point, so it didn't feel particularly dangerous, but it wasn't particularly pleasant to have cars driving past, either. It's an out and back course, with a turnaround around mile 11 instead of at the halfway point. (That's because you run past the marathon start around mile 24 and run the last 2 miles back to Hood River.) What makes the course challenging is the long sections of hills at around 5% grade - not steep enough to justify walking, but steep enough to make things unpleasant. And the hills aren't rolling, either; you run uphill for several miles, then downhill for several miles, then uphill several miles, then downhill several miles, etc. Basically, either your lungs or your quads will be begging you for relief the whole time. The seemingly never-ending hill around miles 19-21 is much more heartbreaking than Heartbreak Hill in Boston. The last 4 miles or so are downhill, blessedly, but very congested with half marathoners. It was nice to see all the dogs having a blast during the dog half marathon :) Water stations are plentiful but erratically placed, so I carried my own water and fuel and was fine. Virtually no spectator support other than a few spots on the course. This year's race had perfect weather: sunny and in the 50s and 60s. Really beautiful fall foliage. The start area needed about double the amount of porta potties, as each shuttle bus arriving meant long lines of well-hydrated runners needing to use the bathroom. The race website recommended taking early shuttle buses, but there really wasn't a need to get there early, other than to try to get in line for the bathroom. Finish line area had free beer, woohoo!, and a taco buffet. I usually don't have much appetite after a race so I didn't care much for the tacos, but the cold IPA hit the spot. I liked this race, but I found most of the miles on the state route kind of boring and a bit of a grind, either continuously running uphill or downhill, no rolling hills. All the other runners I talked to there were very friendly and the whole race had positive vibes to it. It can be a bit lonely after the first few miles when the marathoners have spread out, so bring a friend with you to this one.

INTRODUCTION: I am a racewalker with a median marathon completion time of 5:26:31. The Columbia Gorge Marathon was my seventy-first 26.2-miler accomplished. COURSE: It was a glorious day for a marathon: 50 degrees, 100 percent relative humidity, overcast, and southerly wind with speed of 6 mph. Our marathon began at the Mark O. Hatfield West Trailhead of the Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail, heading east. The wide, paved trail comprised of pine and maple trees, with leaves already changed to yellow, offering us shade from which we benefited from, especially in the later stages of the race. We were given occasional views of the Columbia River. The short-length Mosier Tunnels were also at this stage of the course. Our route, comprised of rolling hills, changed to a steep descent beginning at mile 3.0, dropping 410 feet in elevation for the next 2.5 miles. We departed from the Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail at the Mark O. Hatfield East Trailhead at mile 4.6. We first traveled on Rock Creek Road for 0.6 miles, entering Mosier, population 433. We turned eastbound onto US-30 at mile 5.2, entering our lowest point on the race course at Mosier Creek at mile 5.5. We had our longest ascent, 663 feet elevation gain over five miles, with a slight reprieve for 0.7 miles beginning at mile 9.1, where it was flat. Vegetation was less present, with the forest being substituted by grassland and buttes. In their final race instructions, and at the beginning of the race, management informed us that we would not be given protection from the highway traffic. That said, we were grateful for the consideration of the people driving on US-30. Most drivers slowed down and gave us a wide berth, some even offering a thumbs-up as we labored on. We turned around at the Rowena Crest Viewpoint at mile 11.8 and retraced our steps to the Mark O. Hatfield West Trailhead, including our challenging 410-foot elevation gain over 2.5 miles beginning at mile 18, moving onto the steep downhill (257-foot elevation loss), switch-backed Columbia River Drive taking us into Hood River. Entering city center, we headed northbound to the Hood River Event Site finish line. As the race website informed us, this was a very hilly course, with a cumulative elevation increase of 1878 feet and a cumulative elevation decrease of 2149 feet. Weather at the finish was 63 degrees, 63 percent relative humidity, partly cloudy, and west-northwest with wind speed of 5 mph. The placement of mile marker 12 before the Rowena Crest Viewpoint was inconsistent with the course maps downloaded from the website. If the course maps were to be believed, the marker was place about a quarter-mile ahead of where it should have been. Mile markers 13-24 were also placed accordingly, with mile marker 25 finally breaking the trend. This inconsistency ought to have been reconciled. ORGANIZATION: Promising at first, with the detailed final instructions available to the runners before the race. Unfortunately, execution did not quite match what was laid out in the guide. We were encouraged to arrive at 6:30 a.m. to take the 6:45 a.m. bus departure from Hood River Event Site to the marathon start, but the race day bib pickup was at 7:00 a.m. Unique to marathons, race merchandise was not available at the bib pickup the day before the race but only on race day, which was sold beginning at 7:00 a.m. By the time the later marathoners completed the race, some of the items were sold out. Aid station support ranged from excellent to nonexistent, as demonstrated by the so-called volunteer who preferred to listen to Led Zeppelin in his automobile rather than provide support to the marathon runners. SPECTATORS: Sparse. CONCLUSION: The organizers boldly claim that this is the most scenic marathon in the country. As with many things in life, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Granted, with vistas of the Columbia River gorge and witnessing the deciduous tree leaves changing color, the Columbia Gorge Marathon is a beautiful race not to be missed provided one makes allowances for some organizational defects.