Bob Mann: 2023 Yakima River Canyon Marathon

Sat Apr 1, 2023

On Sat Apr 1 2023, I ran the Yakima River Canyon Marathon in Washington state. While I still haven't fully committed myself to running all 50 states again, I reckon I'll keep at it for the time being. Washington became the 5th state that I have completed twice, and my 56th marathon overall. With only 4 completed for the second time before this, I had plenty of states available to choose from for this next race. The previous 4 had all been in the middle-ish part of the country, so I decided I wanted to get one of the more distant states out of the way. I still have all the northeast states left to go, and those are certainly the easier ones for me to get to. So knocking off one from the Pacific Northwest is nice.

This particular race in Washington is a rather small one, but it has been on my radar for a long time. I had heard that it was one of the most scenic races in the country. But for reasons I can't remember, I had chosen to run in Seattle for my first race in Washington, back in 2018. I knew that if/when I went back to Washington, I would want to run in Yakima.

I flew into Seattle on Friday, rented a car, and drove to Yakima. I wasn't aware that Yakima is technically considered to have a cold desert climate. Seattle of course gets tons of rain, and is only a little over 100 miles away. But the mountains in between apparently affect the weather patterns enough to leave Yakima rather dry. Race day was going to be cool and mostly cloudy. The only potential weather problem would be wind in the canyon. I was told that it can get rather breezy in the canyon, with the wind sometimes blowing one way, sometimes the other way. It would be a crapshoot to see whether that wind would be helping us or hurting us.

Technically the race wasn't in the city of Yakima. It started in Ellensburg at one end of the canyon and ran to the town of Selah at the other end. Selah was next to Yakima. Bright and early on race morning, I drove from my hotel in Yakima to a spot near the finish in Selah, where we boarded buses that shuttled us up to Ellensburg to the start line.

The race began at 8am Pacific time in cool cloudy conditions. Practically perfect running weather. The canyon totals about 22 miles in length, so the race needed a little extra bit added on. That was accomplished by us running a short loop around Ellensburg before entering the canyon. I started off the race running with a fellow 50 Stater who was from Nebraska. We chatted about the various places we had run, and I didn't realize that I was keeping a faster pace than I normally do. My first three miles were all faster than 9 minutes, which is faster than I think I should be going. I was feeling good, so I wasn't complaining. But I was a little worried that I be holding a little more back. I eventually excused myself from my Nebraska friend and slowed myself down to a more-typical pace in the 9:30 range.

Once we entered the canyon around Mile 4, I could instantly see why this was considered such a beautiful course. The views down the canyon were amazing. We ran on state Route 821, which was immediately next to the river through most of the canyon. Unfortunately, this road wasn't closed to traffic. But the vehicles were few and far between so it wasn't too bad. Nonetheless, the scenery was amazing. I'm not sure the pictures I took (see below) will do it justice. I love running in places that have scenery different from what I'm used to. And this was definitely unlike anything I could see in New Jersey.

Since the course followed a river downstream, we were slowly and steadily heading downhill. This certainly made for an easy first half. I completed the first half in about 2:04, which is one of the fastest first halves I've had in a long time. Between the nice weather, the nice smooth downhill, and the fact that I was just feeling good, it added up to a really nice first half.

The second half became a little more difficult. There were a couple of spots where the road moved away from the river. I'm not sure of the reason, but I suppose it's because the terrain was such that it would have been too expensive and required too much earthworks to stay hugged to the river. At these spots, the road climbed back up for a while before dropping back down to altitude of the river. The first of these spots occurred at about Mile 15. After descending for 15 miles, it was a little annoying to have to climb here. And yes, my pace was definitely affected by this. We continued on along the river, until Mile 22, where we hit a massive uphill climb. According to the elevation provided by my Garmin, by Mile 23 we had climbed back to an altitude approximately even with that at which we began the race 23 miles earlier. I did a lot of walking in that 23rd mile, and it took me 15:15 to complete it. That's one of the slowest miles I've ever recorded in a marathon. Quite possibly the very slowest. (I'm too lazy to check all of my history to verify this). The 24th mile was quite a downhill drop back to the river. But I was spent by this point, so it still wasn't terribly speedy. And oh by the way, one we crested the top of that hill at Mile 23, we got hit with a sturdy headwind, and had to run the last 3 miles into this strong wind. That also kept the pace down near the end of the race.

I eventually crossed the finish line in a time of about 4:36, which is pretty much on track to what I've been doing recently. Most importantly, I felt good all the way through, much like my previous marathon in Mississippi, and quite unlike the one before that in South Dakota. Yes, the late hills and wind made it a bit more difficult. But I am most certainly not complaining. As I've written numerous times, I am not shooting for any specific time goal any more. I am much more concerned with having fun and enjoying the race. And I definitely did that here in Washington.

There were only 102 runners in the Full Marathon, so it was not a big event. But it was well managed. And it definitely lived up to its billing of being one of the most beautiful.

About 3/4 of the hops grown in the U.S. in grown in Yakima Valley, so brewpubs were in no short supply in the area. I hit a few over the remainder of the day. The following day I drove back to Seattle, and was able to meet up with my college friend Larry who now lives in the area. Larry and I were planning on both running in Chicago all the way in 2005. He ended up getting injured and missing that race. But I went through with it, and it became the first one along this crazy adventure I'm on. I still don't know if I'll do another 45 states and finish off this second round. But for now, it's still a possibility..

And now the photos. Click any image to enlarge.