Eugene Marathon draws thousands, from first-timers to Olympic hopefuls

Some runners come to finish. Others come from around the world chasing personal bests and qualifying times. For a morning in Eugene, they share the same course.

The annual Eugene Marathon and Half Marathon returned Sunday, drawing thousands of runners and even more spectators to Hayward Field and city streets under sunny morning skies. The race, which serves as a qualifier for major long-distance running events, attracted a mix of elite athletes and first-time marathoners from all 50 states and 27 countries. 

A total of 9,210 runners — 4,536 marathoners and 4,674 half marathoners — crossed the finish line by 3:35 p.m., according to race results. Organizers projected about 10,000 total finishers and reported roughly 1,500 more registrants than last year.

Lyle, a Lyft driver who began his day at 4 a.m., said about 60 people were waiting for rides to the start of the course Sunday morning from a pool of just 11 available drivers. 

“This is our busiest day of the year,” he said. “It’s not even close.”

Anxious and eager anticipation hung in the air just before 7 a.m. as runners lined up outside Hayward Field and finished their pre-race routines: stretching, trading last-minute tips, jumping up and down, and stomping the ground like racehorses at the gate.

Then they were off, snaking south down Amazon Drive before cutting back north past Hayward Field. Half-marathoners split off through Alton Baker Park and over the Autzen footbridge, finishing back at the stadium; marathoners continued along the Willamette River to Springfield and into northwest Eugene, before returning to cross the finish line.

“I’m in shock,” Amanda Martin, the women’s marathon winner with a time of 2:34:20, told Lookout Eugene-Springfield. “I can’t believe that just happened. I feel like that was every dream that could have possibly come true today.”

It was Martin’s seventh marathon and her first in Eugene. She is from Knoxville, Tennessee, and lives and trains in Salt Lake City. She said she pushed through the final miles with a mantra from two-time Olympic marathoner Ed Eyestone: “Fierce, flow, fearless and faith” — though in the moment, she admitted, she forgot the “fearless” part.

“My mentality really shifted this time,” Martin said. “A lot of self-belief and working through that. Any athlete who’s doubting themselves, you just have to believe in yourself. People say that half-heartedly, but it’s really, really true. It took a long time to get to where I am right now, but just keep showing up.”

The women’s second and third place finishers in the marathon were Hannah Calvert, with a time of 2:37:40, and Nicole Lane Clancy, with a time of 2:38:08. 

The top three men’s finishers in the marathon were Jax Siddall, who placed first and set a new course record of 2:15:02, Brayden McLaughlin, who came in second at 2:16:55, and third-place finisher Christopher Brenk, who got a time of 2:17:34.

The previous course record of 2:16:07 was set in 2014 by Jacob Chemtai.

“There’s only up from here,” said Siddall, the men’s winner, who threw up at mile 19 and plans to celebrate with a cheeseburger. “It was a good start. It was my debut marathon. Happy with the [Olympic Trials qualifying time], obviously, and I think there’s a lot more in the tank.”

He wasn’t the only one. Dozens of runners carried blue vomit bags at the finish line, while medics treated others for exhaustion and pain, wheeling some away on gurneys and in wheelchairs. Blood streaked a few runners’ faces and bibs. At one point, medics performed chest compressions on a man feet from the finish line before he was taken away, waving to spectators in the stands.

The race also marked one year since the death of 23-year-old Mateo Cruz, who collapsed after finishing the half-marathon last year. Organizers honored him with a moment of silence at the starting line Sunday, noting that some of his friends and family were running.

Others, too, showed up for something — or someone. Diedre and Ben Hope, the parents of Shannon Hope, said their daughter was running the marathon to raise money for Parkinson’s disease, which her uncle and late grandfather both battled. 

“My daughter’s friends are going to be voice-texting her during the race, encouraging her,” Ben Hope said. 

Meanwhile, Meriem Arachiche of Boston planned to surprise her son Malik and eight of his friends — who refer to themselves as the “50 Tree Boys” and ran the marathon together — with a handmade sign she was showing off from the stadium stands.

She was “a little scared” for her son, she admitted; Sunday’s race was his first marathon. 

“I don’t mind if he finished last as long as he made it,” Arachiche said. 

Also seen along the course: a pair of runners with matching monarch butterfly wings; a man clad in an American flag suit and tie; faces twinkling with glitter; a rainbow afro; and a whole lot of neon, spandex, visors and shield sunglasses. Dressed in a green jacket, Mayor Kaarin Knudson stood at the finish line, clapping for runners as they fought to finish. 

Dennis Atita, who is from Kenya and lives in Oregon, said the race was a test of athletic memory. He said he has run marathons before, but Sunday’s race marked his formal return to long-distance running after a 10-year break.

“I feel like I’ve forgotten everything that I used to do,” Atita said near the starting line. 

He trained for four months for the race alongside first-time marathoner Vicky Sandhu, a 48-year-old from Washington State. Atita said the pair ran between 40 and 50 miles a week to prepare and, Sandhu added, ate carbs until they “could not eat anymore” the night before.

“Life is hard, so I’m trying to see how I can accomplish the hard things,” Atita said. “Probably less than 5% of people run marathons, so you want to go out there and do the hard things so that you can see what your body is capable of.”

Atita hoped to qualify for the Boston Marathon, but he fell short of the required time for his age group, finishing in 3:28:09. He plans to run four more marathons. Sandhu, who simply hoped to finish the race, had a time of 4:33:09.

“I always wanted to do it for years and years,” Sandhu said. “Now I have time and I can do it.”

In the half marathon, Jenny Schilling won the women’s race with a time of 1:13:04, followed by Kate Peters (1:13:38) and Amanda Theodore (1:14:24).

Noah Rasmussen won the men’s race in 1:05:19, finishing just ahead of Paxton Smith (1:05:36) and Mark French (1:05:43).

Beyond his podium position, the race marked another first for Rasmussen: though he’s completed between about 10 half-marathons, this was his first in Eugene. Winning surprised him. The runner said he spent most of the winter snow-skiing; if somebody faster had shown up, he said he could’ve “blown up a bit.” 

“I haven’t raced really hard since November, so it’s fun to feel the jittery feelings again and get all excited again,” Rasmussen said. “And just honestly hurt really bad.”