Like in a fairytale where the knight accomplishes the impossible task to come home to find his truelove waiting, Michael Cady struggled with cramps on the St Johns Bridge, but entered the last couple of blocks before the 2006 Portland Marathon finish line dressed in a suit and looking for his sweetheart. Just yards from the finish line he spotted her in the crowd. There, separated only by a snow fence, he dropped to one knee and proposed to his girlfriend, Kate Fellows Russell, and the crowd loved it.

That’s just one example of the way people have taken the Portland Marathon to their hearts, making it their own and transforming the event from a test of endurance into a very special memory. Finishing a marathon is an individual accomplishment, but it can be shared with others as well. It can become the perfect way to raise awareness of issues or causes, getting a message out to the thousands of spectators lining the 26-mile course on race day. It can also be something very personal, as it was for Holly Doulgerakis.

Doulgerakis, who lives in Utah, came to the marathon with her aunt, Kathy Bradley-Martin; Holly planned on completing the race while pushing her aunt in a wheelchair. Her trainer for the last eight months, Phillip Allred, said that although Doulgerakis is serious about her marathon quest, she is also doing it for a much more important reason.

“Kathy has ALS [amyotrophic lateral sclerosis], and we’re going to run the race to create awareness of ALS," said Allred, who accompanied the pair on inline skates. "Her aunt lives in Eugene, so Holly’s been going to the clinic up here with the ALS chapter of Washington and Oregon, and they’ve been helping us out. We’re trying to create awareness for them."

But the story doesn’t end there. “The incredible story behind the marathon and her racing with her aunt is Holly’s husband was killed three years ago in an accident, and she is focusing on something positive for someone,” said Carol Bradley. “This has helped her focus for many, many months, focusing on her aunt and her ALS. She wanted to do something to bond with her aunt.”

As most runners and walkers know, the marathon is a challenging event that takes months of training and preparation to complete. Some people use it like Doulgerakis to focus. Others use it to turn their lives around, getting in shape and living a healthy life style. But to athletes like Bob Dolphin, the marathon has become a routine part of life. “I’ve run 392 marathons, including 21 Portland Marathons and 44 ultramarathons,” said Seattle’s Dolphin. “I’ve been doing this for 25 years, since 1981. I was 51 when I did my first marathon, and I’ll be 77 years of age next week.”

Another marathonophile is Marc Frommer from Portland. “This is number 54, I think. I’ve done maybe eight or nine Portland Marathons. I ran it 29 years ago; it was my first and it started at the University of Portland. This is my ninth [marathon] this year. I qualified for Boston 2008 so I’m all set.”

Coming all the way from Cleveland, Ohio, Holly Koester was in Portland to run the marathon because she belonged to the Fifty State Club. The club is a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of health and fitness with the members sharing the common goal of running a marathon in each of the fifty states. Just to become a member you have to run a marathon in at least ten states.

"This will be my 31st state," Koester said. "I just joined last year, but there have been people in it for a couple of years and they have done all fifty states, like four times or three times. A marathon in every state; that is the goal. I did Hawaii two weeks ago, the Maui Marathon. That was awesome, it was just really cool. I signed up for this one to get my Oregon state. My main goal is just to finish, so I don’t have to come back and do this one unless I want to."

Making the trip from Hendon, Great Britian, Portland Marathon regular Peter Torre was back again this year. "I came over here first in 1987, so it’s 20 years and I’ve done 10 Portland Marathons," said Torre. "Portland Marathon Race Director Les Smith is a personal friend of mine.

"Les always gets nice weather, and my only regret is that I am not doing the Marathon this morning, because of my injury. But it’s still good to be part of it. I was a tour guide yesterday on two of the marathon course tours. It’s always a pleasure; it really is a pleasure to be here at Portland. It’s worth the long journey to come here for Portland Marathon Sunday.

"I like this; it is a masterpiece of organization: Les tells people what to do; they know the score. It’s like a well-oiled machine, he just leans against the wall literally, and they get on with it. It will be a unique experience for me because I’ve always done the marathon. I’m going to be 65 at Christmas; that might be my limit. We’ll see."

Asked about the London Marathon, Torre said, "Oh yeah, I’ve done it 21 times, but I also volunteer. I marshal the children’s mini-marathon the first thing and then go help with the finish afterwards. We finish 32,000 marathoners! Can you imagine 32,000 coming in to the square here? There would be a few heart attacks on the committee. Big is not always best, but it is still the marathon.”

A multiple-marathoner himself, Director Les Smith was very happy with the weather and the turnout for this year's event. “It’s really been going outstandingly; it’s the best of the 35 years,” said Smith. “We had the most people registered, we went over 9,000, and we will no doubt have the most we’ve ever had finish which would probably be in the range of about 7,800 with the fall out for people who never trained and never make it to Portland.

“We had all fifty states and 19 foreign countries. We had 58 percent women signed up; that is the highest number in the world for a marathon. We have teams from various states that are coming here specifically to walk this event. We are hosting the first Nordic Walking World Championship, which is a new fitness craze and which will be getting even bigger in coming years. These people are really the pioneers, and we’ll continue to hold our championship here. And we are all having fun.”

Nordic Walking is becoming more popular, because it is a total body workout; when you push off, you are using your arms, you triceps and you are building the back of your legs and your bottom. Speaking of Nordic Walking, Sue Bozgoz and her friend, Millie Daniels came all the way from Georgia just to take part in the world championship.

“We’re on the Fit Solutions Nordic Walk team,” said Bozgoz. “We work for the CEO of Fit Solutions, and he was interested in Nordic walking, so he allowed us to go to the instructor's course in Naples, Florida, and we got certified. Then we looked on the Internet and saw the Nordic Walking World Championship in Portland. We are marathoners; this is my 51st marathon. Both of us just got in a car accident; a semi truck hit us last week. We didn’t know if we were going to make it here or not; we are pretty much in pain. But because we lived through that accident, we decided we’re going to take it. This is our last marathon; it hurts. We’re no spring chickens. Woohoo."

“What we are tying to do is to spread Nordic Walking across North America, it’s really big in Europe,” said Daniels. “We’re trying to create interest for it and just get a lot of people seeing us walking. We were at the [Portland Marathon] Expo, showing them the proper technique. You drag the poles behind you. A lot of people want to hold them in front like skiing and push off. You leave them behind you and you dig."

After the marathoners have left the starting line, a couple of other events keep people's attention until they return hours later. The Five-Mile Mayor's Run was won this year by Portland's Christopher Clancey, a local runner who has been in the winner's circle more often than not lately. His time was 26:21.

"It was a perfect day for running, perfect weather," said Clancey. "Going up the hill and coming back down, I didn’t feel real loose, but I was happy with the run. Joe [Dudman] was on my butt for most of the race."

Dudman from Portland finished second in a time of 26:26 followed by Tigard’s Roger Cross in 27:24.

Portland's Carrie Strichland won the women's 5-Mile in a time of 30:24. "It was really hard; it started downhill, so everyone went out very fast, and then it went straight up hill after that for a couple of miles," she said. "I lost a little steam on the uphill, but then it went down so I’m OK. It was fun to see some of the marathoners out there cheering for me as I went by."

Erin Skourtes, also of Portland, came in second in 30:56, and Vancouver, Washington’s, Jennifer Teppo came in third with 31:01.

Jennifer Bruce of Sequim, Washington, was the first woman in the 5-Mile Race Walk with a time of 40:51, and long-time walk-competitor Rob Frank from Banks, Oregon, was the men’s champion with a time of 44:56.

Most people doing their first marathon set some goals, but are happy to just complete the distance in a respectable time. For 23-year old Mike Heigt from Shoreline, Washington, that first marathon time was a winner, as he crossed the finish line ahead of the pack in a time of 2:21:52. Afterwards he said his legs were tired and hurting. “It’s my first marathon ever,” said Heigt. “I just wanted to run under 2:22, that was my goal. I knew I was close at the end. I barely got it, so I’m really happy.”

Bret Winegar, also from Shoreline, came in second with a time of 2:28:00, and Jim Rucker from Spokane came in third in 2:28:53.

Women’s champion Danita Erickson, from Tacoma, Washington, crossed the finish line in 2:53:14. She said this was her fourth marathon, but her first win. “I’m doing pretty good now that it is over,” she said. “It was great! I had a good support team out there. Well put together, nicely organized, good water stops and stuff like that.”

Laurie Porter from Brush Prairie, Washington, came in second in 2:58:11, and Emilie Miller from Portland came in third with a time of 3:00:26.

The Nordic Walking championship was won by Murray Wood of Orillia, Ontario, in a time of 5:27:36. Sally Richards from Evergreen, Colorado, was the first woman walker with a time of 5:58:32.

Oregon's well-known running writer Joe Henderson was also at this year's race. "I’m here for a different reason this year. I’m usually running or part of the Race Director’s program, but we have 35 runners on the Joe Henderson’s Marathon Team from Eugene," he said. "We’ve been training together since June, and they are looking for some good times today. Good times in every sense; having a good time and running a good time both. It’s a four month program, and this is our fifth round of it. We ran Portland last year as well, and everyone had a good time so we are glad to be here."

As it turned out, finding romance at the Portland Marathon may not be that unusual after all. After finishing the race with his girlfriend, Heidi Journey, William White of Tigard knelt in the finish area and proposed to her. He said he decided on proposing two weeks ago because he knew it was right. Journey accepted and said she had absolutely no idea it was coming. Do you suppose they should think about adding a wedding planner to the marathon committee before next year?

Speaking of next year, the marathon will be held on October 7, 2007 starting at 7:00 AM. If you are going to do a marathon in 2007, this is the one to do. You can get all the information about it on www.portlandmarathon

Written by Walt Amacher 

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