A Spectator's View: The Eugene Marathon

The start was an early 7 am er so this chica had to be outta bed by 6am, car loaded and oats prepared by 6:20. I scooted out the door, made it to a parking lot near the start line and met my cheering buddies K & D for some bike fun.

K was borrowing my oooold mountain bike. It took a little getting used to.

It was a beautiful day for a race.

Because a ton of our running groupies were running the 1/2 or full, we saw at least 10 friends go past us at the 8 mile marker. It also made it tough to decide when to abandon ship and head to the next spectating location because everyone is at various paces.

In this photo, we know all three in red. Check out those lightning pants!

There was even a flapjack/banana station around mile 9. The bananas were consumed by many. The pancakes...not so much.


Can you imagine trying to scarf down a pancake during a marathon? I'm guessing it's a correlation with Krusteaz since they are a major race sponsor. I do love me some Krusteaz (honey wheat flavor)!

We ended up seeing the start, the 8 mile corner, some of the 1/2 marathoners finish and then walked backward on the marathon course to spectate from mile 25. It's tough work spectating a marathon...our voices were getting horse near the end.

For the final 200m, the racers enter historic Hayward Field to sprint to the finish. Pretty cool way to end your marathon, I'd say!

Overall, I'd say the race course seemed fun, fairly flat and a little scenic taking runners to a few different parts of town. The weather was perfect, maybe just a tad warm for some.

I got home around 11am and decided to take the pup for a short 2.5 mile run before putting the bike gear back on. It was just too sunny to sit at home. I headed out towards and easy flat route w/ minor rollers and scenic views. 30 miles later, I was starving and done.

Comments

siri said…
Looks like fun. Have I mentioned how I've signed up for The Twin Cities Marathon in October? Have I also mentioned how yesterday was my first fun in over a year? I'll be coming to you for inspiration and motivation over the months to come. Sprinting into Hayward after 26.2 would be pretty great.
Anonymous said…
Scenic and flat - that should be the description of all marathon courses! ;) You had a busy day, miss Spectator-turned-biker!
Ah, that's awesome, Siri! I hadn't heard that. I just looked up the course...looks awesome as it goes along all the lakes. I'm very excited for you! I'd love to do this marathon. Someday when I'm not running Portland the following weekend.
You should definitely do the Twin Cities marathon some day. It's a great course. :) I may be a bit biased since it's the only marathon I've ran so far, though.

I think it is so fun to watch marathons. I have only watched the Twin Cities one, and have never known anyone else that has ran it. I am trying out a running club - maybe I will make some local running friend! I am going to guess there is a good chance that some of them will be doing TC so if so I will have to go cheer them on.

I love how I am tentatively planning to cheer on friends I haven't made yet. ;) I am so nervous about trying out this running club so I am trying to be positive and am telling myself I will make friends....
It's okay, Lisa. You will make those Twin Cities marathon running friends. And just know that it will take a little while before people start recognizing and letting you into the circle.

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