Obviously, I wrote this in 1993. Obviously, I was paid to do so. Anything to promote running. – JDW
Those of you wearing black plastic stopwatches on your wrist may want to clock yourself. See how long it takes to read these 750 words.
The rest of you can just take your sweet time.
Get set. Go!
Here’s the Top 10 reasons you should not miss the 1993 Portland Marathon.
10. The prestige. Plain and simple.
“Perhaps more than any other running event in the country, this race keeps evolving, keeps getting better,” offered Runner’s World. “Among the marathons that celebrate everyone who goes the distance, there is none better than this Northwest classic.”
It’s true. In a world of shrinking participation, constricted budgets and a failure to communicate, The Portland Marathon, now in its 22nd year, continues to grow, to improve. The sixth biggest marathon in the U.S.A.
9. The marathon is a good place to meet women. Men, too. It’s not sexism, it’s a fact. The Portland Marathon has the largest percentage of female participants in the world.
Race director Les Smith met his wife and assistant race director, the lovely and talented Nadine Wooley, 200 yards after the start of the Los Angeles Marathon.
“Among 10,000 runners, this person yelled at me ‘Hey, you! Hey, you!.’ (Nadine couldn’t remember what’shisname, but she never forgets the face.) I had a unique singlet which said Portland Marathon on the back. She runs up to me and says, ‘I know you.’ I was dumfounded. Turns out I’d met this lady at a party years ago. We started running together; I thought I’d lose her at an aid station, or something would happen. We ran the whole way together.”
8. Rub shoulders with the greats. After running the first 18 miles of last year’s Portland Marathon, 85-year-old legend Mavis Lindgren tripped and fell to the ground, breaking her arm. “No big deal,” she told medical personnel. “Just patch me up, and let me keep going.”
Fred Lebow, running Hall of Famer, will be here. Master of the New York City Marathon, the man who put road racing on TV, Lebow will serve as the Marathon’s Honorary Race Director. Look for him at the start: Fred will be the guy waving his arms like a maniac in a bicycle cap.
7. The Volunteers. Top to bottom, too often overlooked “greats” themselves.
Helping to put on a great race is as much fun as competing maybe. 3500 people can’t be wrong.
Names like Ken Weidkamp, Dennis Bromka, Bob Williams, Fran Marrs Woolsey, Steve Gould, Patti & Warren Finke, Clive Davies and His Honor Bud Clark come to mind.
The volunteers at the Portland Marathon are part of the action in a real, big way. Volunteering is its own endurance test with its own very real rewards. Like a T-shirt you have to earn, the stories you have to tell after the race, the camaraderie, the memories, the lessons learned, the friends made. Such rewards – they don’t show up on the stat sheet or the betting line – are rarely mentioned in the sports pages these days.
6. Nobody cares how you choose to play.
In addition to the Marathon, and the Marathon Walk, there’s the largest Summer Biathlon in the country. The Nuprin Five-Mile. The Marafun Kids Run. Hospital Bed Race. The Mayor’s 5.5 Mile Walk. Wheelchair Marathon. Race Directors’ Conference. Olympic Style Race Walking. Megan’s Run, 24-Hour Track Ultra-Marathon. Festival Feed. Post-race party. Massage. Clinics.
Of course, some 70,000 Portlanders will simply grab a spot on the curb – near some cafe okay perhaps – and cheer. Cheer all day.
5. You will not lose your amateur standing.
The Portland Marathon, which pays zero prize money. makes dollars and sense. If you think of the entrants – nearly 70% are from out of town – as delegates, then this race is the THIRD LARGEST CONVENTION IN THE STATE year after year. These folks each bring one or two friends and they stay in the Rose City for two or three nights. They shop. They eat. An estimated $1.5 million is left behind when they all limp home.
4. Stop traffic yourself; won’t that be fun? No dogs. No log trucks. Plenty of police protection. A new race route for 1993 will make a fast course even faster.
3. You don’t have to run. The 26.2 mile Marathon Walk is a great idea with big rewards.
“Our entry fee is one of the great bargains in sports,” says Smith. “For example, the Marathon Walkers will receive a long-sleeve 100% NIKE shirt, they’ll receive I think the best medal that’s given out at any marathon in the United States, they will receive a souvenir pin, they will receive Going The Distance, a hardcover coffee table book about the Portland Marathon. They will also receive a walking stick, which is really a helluva nice stick. It’s about a 75$ package retail.” And all the water you can guzzle.
2. You’re never doing very much at that time of day on a Sunday, anyway. Can you believe a 7 A.M. start? Me neither.
Something is going on all weekend. The Portland Marathon is justifiably known – WORLDWIDE – as a “A Family Festival.”
1. Your involvement will personally make Les Smith – a very good man – happy, while supporting a worthy cause. This is his 12th year as the unpaid race director. A full-time labor relations attorney during the day, Les wants the Portland Marathon to get bigger and better. For example, the Portland Marathon is looking for a few good charities to help. There are tens of thousands of dollars to raise.
You see, Les Smith is a leader of men with a dream. No, he’s more than that, Les Smith is a leader of Oregonians with a great vision. And, dangling participle and all, you know what that can mean.
Call the Marathon Hotline 503-226-1111. [A quarter century later, the number still good. – ed. note] Find out how you can win this year’s Portland Marathon. Feel the ribbon on your neck, the heft of your medal dangling against your tired breast.
Off the record: Les Smith has 600 hundred black plastic watches to give away.
April 2018. Got a call a few days ago from an old friend. Did I hear about Les Smith, he asked me. Sad news.
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2018/04/longtime_portland_marathon_rac.html