Salem, Oregon's
Running & Walking Club Site
Home of
Willamette Valley Road Runners (WVRR)
www.WVRoadrunners.org.

 

      by Burke Schmidt

 

October 26^th was the day of the 23^rd running of the Tri-Cities Marathon. Running a Northwest Marathon that late in the year is a special treat as you can train in pleasant weather and avoid all of the cold rainy training days in preparation for late November and December Marathons. It also allows you to do your longer training runs in the relative cool of the fall.

Tri Cities, Richland, Pasco and Kennewick, Washington are located on the Columbia River. You get to run in all three cities. The country around theTri Cities is high desert, and near Boardman. Most of the income of the area is and was from ranching and the nearby nuclear installation. The river is beautiful and rife with wildlife. The drive from Oregon is along the Columbia River, and there are a number places to stop and sightsee, especially Bonneville Dam and Multnomah Falls.

The majority of the marathon follows the river on trails and through various parks. A few sections are along streets and with traffic, but the bulk of the run is quiet and quite scenic. The course starts on the South side of the Columbia River at the Shilo Inn in Richland. You run along various streets to a large bridge (Highways 12 and 82) over the Columbia. Once you’ve crossed this bridge, you find yourself on the North side of the Columbia and in the outskirts of Pasco. You now are running along some streets and soon are directed onto a long asphalt bicycle path, which passes in front of beautiful homes along the river. You travel along this bike trail for several miles until you come to a bicycle trail ‘intersection’ and are guided to the access for the ‘Blue Bridge" (Highway 395) and you cross back to the South side of the Columbia and into Kennewick. From the base of the bridge you enter Columbia Park, run the length of the park and eventually discover that you are passing the site where the famous unlimited hydroplane boats are raced. These are large racing boats, which are capable of speeds exceeding 200 miles per hour when going straight. One of these boats is mounted high on a pedestal near one of the entrances to the park.

After passing through the park, you find yourself on roads, which go through Kenewick and eventually past Welch’s, the grape juice company and principal sponsor of the marathon. Having passed this location, you then begin to wind your way back toward the river and Gum Street in order to cross the "Cable Bridge," a large, beautiful, suspension bridge. We’d seen this bridge from the distance periodically and were excited to see it up close. As you approach the bridge you are directed onto the walkway and immediately note that the supporting cables are wrapped in white material and have lights that shine along the length of each cable. When the bridge is lighted at night it is quite spectacular. That bridge was both the visual and elevational high point of the marathon and mile 16 is at the midpoint of the bridge.

Once across the "Cable Bridge" you are in back on the North side and in Pasco, where you begin to turn back toward the asphalt bicycle trail, and back toward the start. You rejoin the bike path near the "Blue Bridge" which sort of marks the beginning of last few mile of the marathon even though mile 20 is still ahead a ways. You pass miles 18 to 23 on this path at which point you return to your first bridge, cross it, and retrace your steps back to the start in Richland.

A couple of novel things occurred during this marathon. First, they had a relay, so many of the runners who were flying by you during the late miles, were relay runners, and fresh. However, more unique was the rollerblade portion of the marathon. These people started after us, and by the time they caught up, they were flying. The winner completed the marathon distance in around an hour fifteen minutes. Doug Marshall ran this marathon, his second for the weekend. Pati Swearinger got second in her age group and Burke Schmidt got third in his.

This Tri Cities Marathon is great. It is held during a perfect time of year. You will find manageable travel distances, abundant and reasonable accommodation, and even an ice cream store with homemade ice cream. Next year’s marathon will be on Halloween. You have almost a year to prepare your costume.