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Students run 26.2 miles in
Portland Marathon





Uta Kreusel celebrates after completing the Portland Marathon.

Uta Kreusel, a Multnomah Bible College student, joined hundreds of other runners in the 28th annual Portland Marathon on Oct. 3. The morning air was crisp as the runners began. Four hours and 11 minutes later, Kreusel crossed the finish line, tired, sweaty and hungry.

The marathon started in downtown Portland at the corner of Madison Street and 4th Avenue in front of City Hall. The course looped around Portland for 26.2 miles, ending at the Justice Center at Madison Street and Southwest 3rd Avenue.

The cost of entering the marathon was $55 per person, which included participation, a pin and medal, a long-sleeved T-shirt, Gatorade along the way, and orange juice and cookies when the race ended.

The average training time for most marathon participants was six to seven months, according to Kreusel. Kreusel began training in June after joining Portland Fit, a group training for the marathon. Kreusel's decision to run came after running a half marathon in Vancouver, Wash. After she completed that goal, she decided to press on toward her goal of running a full-length marathon.

Tom McIntosh, a seminary student, and his wife, Jody, director of admissions, also trained for the Portland marathon with Portland Fit, beginning in April. The training included motivational and educational seminars on Saturday mornings and group runs every week. Each month they completed a benchmark run. The last benchmark run was 21 miles long, three weeks before the marathon.

When Kreusel began the marathon the morning of Oct. 3, she felt good. "I remember the air being crisp, cool. I felt like I had lots of energy. I felt like I was flying," Kreusel said. By the end of the marathon, Kreusel began to expend all of her energy. "By mile No. 24, I was beginning to lack strength. I hit the bottom of my strength at the bottom of the hill," Kreusel said. She placed 2,450th overall and 741st among women runners. Following the marathon, >participants ate cookies and juice to replenish their energy. If she ever ran a marathon again, Kreusel said she would eat something before the marathon began.

Kreusel said the most exciting part of the marathon was "the bathroom routine, waiting in line to get your plumbing in order before the marathon began, and the anticipation of the marathon, not knowing what to expect."

For Tom McIntosh, the most exciting part was to see "10,000 people go down four lanes of traffic at 7 a.m. in Portland. Downtown's never that busy on a Sunday morning," McIntosh said.

Kreusel said she learned a lot preparing for the marathon and running in it. The marathon became an analogy of life for Kreusel. Although she felt like a lion before the marathon began, she felt like God began to tell her by the end that she was only a child.

McIntosh compared the marathon with the race that Christians run in Hebrews 12. He saw the similarity between running the marathon with perseverance and running the spiritual race with perseverance.






Uta Kreusel placed in the top thousand among women.