Races: Portland’s Race for the Roses sees good conditions, great spirit

PORTLAND, ORE — Portland’s Race for the Roses saw excellent running conditions this morning, with temperatures in the mid-40s, some light showers and winds. But the rain drops didn’t dampen the spirits of the 3,000 who came to run and walk the half-marathon and 5K event.

I spent the day on the course at Portland’s Race for the Roses with the group of 40 runners that I had trained for the event. All of them seemed to have a great time this year. In fact, I felt that the spirit of the race was improved from last year — both that of the the racers and the spectators.

Last night, I posted an a mock-article about the race that I delivered in the form of a speech. If you read the speech, you’ll find that it pretty accurately articulates the way the race unfolded. (Click here to read the article.)

Once again, the start was a bit chaotic, with many, many runners still streaming out of the Convention Center toward the start area after the race had already started — and this was even with the race starting five minutes late. Yet, once on the course, the traffic sorted itself out early and the race unfolded smoothly.

In racing action, Alejandro Dominguez-Morales literally ran away with the race. He finished in 1:13:38 with second-place Alan Rozendaal coming in behind him about a minute later in 1:14:35.

On the women’s side, the magin of victory was even bigger with Wendy Terris blowing the field out of the water with her 1:21:19 and the next woman finisher finishing four minutes and thirty seconds later in 1:25:49.

I have posted a photo gallery of a few of the photos that I shot at the race. To get to the photo gallery, click here.

Results for the Top-5 men and women are below.

Overall Men
1. Alejandro Dominguez-Morales 1:13:38
2. Alan Rozendaal 1:14:35
3. Mark Davies 1:15:51
4. Lawrence Merrifield 1:16:10
5. Billy Borkus 1:16:41

Overall Women
1. Wendy Terris 1:21:19
2. Jessica Tranchina 1:25:49
3. Shannon Edwards 1:27:33
4. Shana Shosky 1:28:34
5. Maren Elliott 1:28:46

Complete results available at: www.racecenter.com

Coach Joe English, Portland Oregon, USA
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