I paced the Portland Marathon this year, and it was my first time on the course! Here are some of my thoughts:

T-shirts/SWAG: The T-shirts are an interesting material. Someone said it feels like wearing a garbage bag because of how much sweat it traps in, and I could definitely see that. It's kind of... silky? I think? Not something to wear when running, but wearing it around the house will be nice. The design was neat and simplistic. The medals are huge, thick, and heavy! Very cool medal to add to the collection. You also get a sapling at the finish, and since I take care of plants as a hobby, this was exciting to me.

Aid stations: Plenty and well-stocked. Lots of Nuun, water, and Clif Shots. The unfortunate part was that the Clif Shots came in huge packets that you had to carry, but I think towards the end they started handing out Gels instead of the shots (which are like gummies).

Course scenery: Pretty good for Portland, I will say! You get some good downtown views in the first 8 miles, the Moda center where the Blazers play, running across a few of the bridges that we are known for, and Reed college. I think where it is usually the toughest (13-20) had the best views and best on-course cheering. The last 3 miles through the industrial part of Portland was a little less appreciated.

Expo: Expo was small, but likely due to the pandemic ending. It's easy to access and was very quick, but I love spending my time at the booths so I would like to see more. I remember when I volunteered at the Expo in 2016 that it was huge! I want to bring that energy back. Post-race venue was lots of fun. Cold towels if you needed them, live music with plenty of chairs, fun structures to take pictures at (like a 26.2 structure), and therapy llamas (for real!). There are also plenty of porta-potties before and after the race. 20 minutes before the race, I was able to find one and only waited for 1 person (essentially no line!)

Elevation difficulty: The website doesn't disclose the elevation and this is one of my key complaints about this course. They only mentioned the elevation from sea level that you will be at (i.e. highest point in the course). They failed to disclose that you will gain 900-1100 feet. This doesn't seem like much over the course of a marathon, but the gradients of the inclines are pretty tough. I was holding 8:13 pace for the whole thing, and there was a hill around 22 or so that knocked that pace down to 9:30!!

Parking/access: I walked from my apartment so hard for me to say! There are many parking structures around the start you can pay to park at, so maybe plan on this if you are driving in. Alternatively, Uber isn't a bad idea and many runners were using this.

Race management: Not bad. Had a good amount of information on the website. I wish they were more open about the elevation profile. The race is under new management so I hope they continue to grow it to be back to where it was in 2016. Kudos on the porta-potty availability!

Overall: Recommend! At least once, come run the Portland Marathon. Earn your little sapling, get that heavy medal, and enjoy running through this wonderful city.

First in-person race back after the pandemic, thought I would write a quick review!

T-shirts/SWAG: T-shirts were okay. They were a cotton blend, so not a tech/dri-fit style. The printing on the shirt feels like it may wear down and flake off after several washes, but that is yet to be determined. My partner was really happy with the design, so it's really subjective. The medals at the finish are identical to the DC Half logo (visible in the photo I attached on the start banner). There are no awards for winning the half or the relay (age group OR overall)--a huge disappointment, especially considering how competitive the half turned out to be. What was the point of dividing our relays by gender at that point? I did enjoy the bibs, and since I collect them, it's a neat one to add.

Aid stations were good, but they were missing a key aid station at the relay hand-off. You finish your 5 mile portion of the relay and you can either walk 1/4 mile to the finish or 1 mile or so to the nearest aid station. I wish they had an aid station there since I had to wait at the relay hand off to run the 3rd leg.

Scenery: Running through the cherry trees was cool! You also hand off right at the MLK Jr. memorial. It might be a little on the plain side if you're from the area, but I enjoyed it as an out-of-state runner.

No expo. Packet pick-up was to be done at Pacers Running 2 days before the race. No day of race packet pick-up (why? This made no sense to me).

Difficulty: Hardly any elevation! Makes it easy for a quick pace, and many runners were using this race as a workout or a tune up for one of the upcoming marathons.

Parking/Access: Parking is awful as you are near the national mall. Recommend using the Metro or an uber service. We were dropped off by a friend which is probably the best way to do it.

Management was ok. I was disappointed in how little information was on the website. I'm the type of runner that wants every little detail and I felt that the website was very minimalist.

Overall, I guess I would recommend this, but it's a close call. I don't want to be too harsh on its inaugural running, so I'm opting to allow for them to grow and change next year. It's a fast course and you'll have good competition if you're running the half. Don't expect to walk away with swag that you will cherish for years or really enjoy after the event.

I received free entry to this run courtesy of Salem Hospital. Thus, I didn't know I was running this race until a week prior!

This was a great race for a great cause! The money was raised for The Center for Hope & Safety which is a group that helps domestic violence survivors. The course was on a closed campus of a local police academy (I believe?) which was really neat. For warm-ups, there is a fun exercise trail that I got to explore before running the course. The course itself has many turns, and is a 5K loop that you run twice if you are a 10K runner. Here (https://www.strava.com/activities/1888145769) is a link to my Strava data from my run just so you can see the amount of turns you run during the course. It seems to be on a closed practice driving course, and so it is mostly flat with only the slightest of inclines. Thus, the course feels rather fast. I did get misguided during my run once due to the volunteers not really know which turn I was supposed to take, but this was not a major issue. Aid stations were well-placed and the volunteers were very helpful in getting water to the runners.

T-shirts/swag: There is only a T-shirt included with your entry fee if you register early enough, but the T-shirt was a nice cotton t-shirt with a fun artistic design. It was so soft it quickly became my lounging around shirt! There is no other swag, unless you place top 3 overall in your gender. Then there were water bottles (blue, red, green respective for their place). There was no mention of finisher medals at all, so I was pleasantly surprised when someone handed me a medal as I crossed the line.

Parking: Really easy and ample parking. Close to the start and it's within the closed campus so you don't have to worry about it. It really couldn't be any better!

Timing: The timing is well-done by a local company that does MANY races of all sorts of competitiveness. Some runners noted that their GPS only clocked 6 miles, but my Garmin Forerunner 230 clocked 6.3 miles. Note that I was turned around and had to run some extra, but I don't believe that was more than 0.1 miles, so I think the course was the appropriate distance.

Overall: The race was great! It's fast if you want it to be, and it's laid back if you're just there to support their excellent cause. I will definitely be returning to support the cause next year.

This was my 1st 50 miler, and I chose a really good race to test the waters of an Ultra!

Finding this park was very easy. Even though I had never been there, I just plugged in the location and followed my GPS. When I got inside the park, a volunteer was waiting for me to direct me to the parking lot. I was one of the later arrivals, (25 minutes before the start) so I got the later arrival parking which was maybe 200 meters from the start. The early arrivals were actually able to park alongside the running course and could keep their vehicles open for access during the race. Next year I'll make sure to be early! The course starts around the parking lot at a pavilion and moves out onto a paved bike trail. There were lots of Frisbee golfers out cheering us on later in the run, but it was dark when we started. Some 50 milers started an hour earlier with the early start option and headlamps were a must for all. Once beyond the frisbee golf part of the park, there is a well-stocked aid station with Gu, bananas, watermelons, sugary drinks, candy, and pastries. The volunteers would even keep your labeled water bottles and fill them up for when you hit the station coming back! There is a narrow 1-lane bridge that requires communicating with any traffic but is not a huge event, and this leads into the rolling hills on the course. Nothing too terrible--I didn't notice the hills on lap 1, but lap 8 they were grueling. The turn-around is at the 5K which is unfortunately at the top of an incline and looks down on you tauntingly. You run the same way back, and once passed the aid station, instead of going back towards the frisbee golf part of the park, there is a trail that is reminiscent of high school cross country for about 1.75 miles. This leads you back to the start where there is another well-stocked aid station for a total of 10km per lap. My GPS read 49.1 at the finish of my 50 miler so it's rather accurate for distance.

Elevation/Aid stations: As mentioned in the previous paragraph, there were some rolling hills but it was nothing significant to report. It's a good flat ultra, and if you're going for a PR it would be flat enough to be considered a PR course. The aid stations are great quality and the volunteers are so helpful and eager to get you towards your goal. Bonus: They had dogs to pet!

Scenery: There's about a mile of bike path at the beginning of the loop that I wasn't too fond of due to it being wide open fields that got warm in the afternoon. Once you get to the park there was a little more to look at and there was decent coverage. Following the bike path the bridge leads to a nice wooded area so covered in trees that when it rained on my last lap I didn’t get wet until I was out of the woods! The trail section of the run is neat too and helps the miles go by quickly.

Swag: Okay, finally to the important part! Top 3 placers in their respective gender category for overall and masters received nice drinking glasses with a screen printing of the race name on it. All entrants received a rather generic looking t-shirt that you can see in the attached photo. 50K finishers received a medal. I don't know if this is standard for this race, or if it was just for this year since this year Autumn Leaves was a designated race for the Road Runners Club of America series. 50 mile finishers received a silver belt buckle also visible in the photo.

I'm always just so impressed by the great community running brings together, and this run was no exception to that. The volunteers were on-top of everything and ran this race without a hiccup that I noticed! Finishing and hearing "it was so much fun watching you run out there" is something I won't forget! I would recommend this for anyone wanting a fast race, a mentally challenging race (8 loops for 50 miles!), or someone who wants to experience the cream of the crop when it comes to camaraderie in the Ultra running community.