The event is open to both runners and walkers, start gun at 8 am. The event is chip timed so everyone can know their finish pace and place.
Rewards: The entry price includes a t-shirt, medal and a Helvetia burger or Gardenburger at the finish.
Route: The circular course starts and ends at Hillsboro Stadium. It circles through Helvetia, a farming and rural area west of Portland. The course has hills with altitude gains of 250 feet, mostly in the middle of the course with a flat start and finish. It is mostly unshaded, with only a few stretches through wooded areas. Walkers and runners start at the same time. The course is open for four hours and is walker-friendly with good support for slower participants.
Route and elevation map of the 2009 Helvetia Half Marathon course
Overall: This is an excellent walker-friendly event, voted best half marathon in Oregon by RunOregon.
Registration and Event Information: Helvetia Half Marathon
Helvetia Half Marathon 2009
I had last participated in the Helvetia Half Marathon in 2002, and they have made many changes and grown significantly in seven years. The changes have been good, making it an even friendlier event and giving good value for the increased registration fee.The event organizers tried to get out word about the traffic jam in arriving at Hillsboro Stadium. I should have gotten off the highway at 185th, but stupidly took the exit at the stadium and was in a line-up for 45 minutes before getting off the freeway. Next year I will know to take backroads and park at Intel for an easy walk into the stadium. But I arrived in enough time for a porta-john stop before starting.
Participation has grown to over 3000 in the half marathon and over 700 in the Drop Top 10K, which starts at the same time. Starting five minutes into the start time, I was still up with the back of the pack, although many runners caught in the traffic were also passing frequently.
The route goes through rural Washington County, Oregon, with great memories from my youth. We pass hay fields and cows grazing in the pasture. There is little shade on the entire route, except for a couple of forested stretches. Wear sunscreen and a hat. I enjoyed passing by the u-pick berry signs, vineyard signs, lavender farm signs and other evidence of a love of the farming areas. The road was closed to vehicle traffic in the right lane, and there was no difficulty in avoiding traffic on the course. There were a couple of live bands playing along the course.
Support stops approximately every two miles provide water, sports drink, and porta-johns. The volunteers were friendly and were in place till the slowest walkers passed by.
I was in the final 50 finishers but finished just under the four hour time limit. The finish line was fully supported for us tailenders. Everyone had their name called, a smiling face handed out the medal, and directed us to the t-shirt pickup and hamburger line.
Hillsboro Stadium is a much better venue for start/finish than they had in the first couple of years. With the stadium, there is a place for all finishers to sit and eat and recover, either outside at picnic tables on in the stadium seats. The finish had a number of vendor and sponsor booths. Some t-shirt sizes were out, but you could sign up to have one mailed to you in your size.
I really come for the burgers, and as a tailender there was no big lineup for burgers and mine was freshly grilled. The burgers are provided by Helvetia Tavern, a rural tavern known for its giant burger. I assembled mine with lots of pickles and onions and their mayonnaise/mustard/relish secret sauce and settled in at a picnic table. A beer garden is provided by Widmer Brewing, but I was exhausted already and driving myself home, so I passed on the beer.
I give the Helvetia Half Marathon top grades for walker-friendliness and it definitely deserves votes as the best half marathon in Oregon.
