Emerald City Quarter Marathon Race Report

October 4, 2017 / Nicole Huston
Updated Mar 2, 2020

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I’ve ran this race for the past three years. Back in 2015 I ran the half, and it was hot enough for me to say “Nah I’d rather just stick to the quarter this time of year.” The course is mostly exposed with a few brief stretches through shade. The heat usually makes it pretty brutal.

Except this year, when it was randomly near perfect racing weather. I was in a singlet and shorts but would have appreciated gloves for the first few miles due to the breezy winds. Seriously, gloves in August… It wasn’t something I would have even thought to bring this time of year. The weather made me wish I had signed up for the half this year.

The start had moved locations from one side of the parking lot to the other this year. This threw me off when I got out of my car and walked to the usual starting place only to find it deserted! Luckily it was a short walk to the real start.

I wasn’t expecting much from this race as I have felt slow training for the Canal Corridor 100 and after my slow recovery. I was hoping to run a 7:30/mile pace and calling it a day.

As the race started my first 1.5 miles were much faster than I was hoping. Soon after the half and quarter races split, and I started to pull back. I focused on feeling comfortable through this stretch until I crossed the wooden bridge through the Glacier Ridge Metro Park. Being familiar with the course I knew the finish was nearing closer. My motivation wasn’t high enough to speed up at this point (2 miles to go) but about a half mile later I forced myself to pick up the pace.

Due to the change of the starting line, the course was coming up short. It made me wonder where the extra distance was going to be added in. I pushed on and worked to pass other runners, slowly but surely and focused on running the tangents in the last stretch. When the finish came into view it became clear no extra distance was added, it was just a bit short.

I pushed on to finish something in between a 10k and a quarter marathon. I was happy to finish 5th female, surpassing my 7th female finish last year.

Final Time: 46:02

Last Years Time: 47:20

Considering a few factors including nicer temperatures and a shorter course, my qualitative analysis is that I was in about the same shape or maybe slightly better than last year. Overall my performance beat my expectations, bringing some joy back into one of my slower racing seasons.

Race Collections

This race came with a SINGLET!!!! as the race shirt this year for females. I cannot say how happy I was to receive a singlet for a race shirt. I have so many short sleeve t-shirts from races but prefer to run in singlets when the weather allows. It is breathable and true to size. This easily became one of my favorite race shirts!

Additionally this race had a free 11” pizza coupon from Dewey’s Pizza included in the race bag. I did some online researching and discovered that they have vegan pizzas. You can read about my vegan Dewey’s experience here.

Race Photos from Cap City Sports Media