Running Wild at the Vernonia Marathon & Half

The Oregon Road Runners Club is known for putting on well organized, low-key, and awesome events.  The 2024 Vernonia Marathon/Half Marathon/Marathon Relay, which will be held Sunday April 14th, 20204, will be no exception. These ORRC Volunteer RD’s are all passionate and dedicated runners themselves so they know everything that needs to be in place to create a memorable event.

I’ve run the Vernonia Marathon once and the half many times. The course, which is mostly on a paved path along the forested Banks-Vernonia State Trail, is really beautiful and almost all downhill or flat. This is a Boston Marathon qualifier and it’s USAFT Certified. I got my best marathon time on this course, which is a point-to-point route that is mostly closed to vehicular traffic. I “borrowed” this description of the trail from the Oregon State Parks and Rec website because they described it better than I could:

“The Banks-Vernonia Trail, a multi-use trail paved over a decades-old train bed, allows the walker, jogger, biker or mounted rider the chance to catch a whiff of Oregon history  while delighting in the forest’s renewed splendor. 21 miles of tree-lined easy-grade pathway conducts through sun- dappled glades and across swift ,clear streams, filling your nose with wildflower scents and your ears with the songs of birds. 12 old bridges, wooden trestles rise up to acquaint you with days of the past. And at a mere 26 miles west of Portland, all this peaceful, quiet, natural beauty awaits you right down the road.”

The marathon and marathon relay will start at 8:00AM at the Cedar Ridge Retreat Center in Vernonia and the course will travel around the lake, proceed onto the trail, and finish at Banks High School. The course is predominately flat but you should expect a gradual uphill from miles nine to thirteen. There will be downhill from miles fourteen through twenty-one, then flat to the finish.

The half marathon will start at 9:00AM inside Stub Stewart State Park and will cover the bottom half of the trail, finishing on the BHS tracks as the marathon does.

New this year is the marathon relay! This is a 4 person relay that follows the same course as the marathon does, but it’s simply divided into 4 legs. The legs aren’t equal due to the trailhead parking logistics. Leg 1 is 4.65 miles, Leg 2 is 8.45 miles, Leg 3 is 5.3 miles, and Leg 4 clocks in at 7.8 miles.  You’ll have 7 hours to complete the relay.

There will be water, Gatorade, Gu, and sweet and salty snacks at each of the 9 aid stations on the course.

Please note that all the courses are point-to-point, so there will be shuttle buses available to transfer runners and walkers to the start line. Read more about this on RunSignUp.