The Portland Marathon is an annual marathon

Marathon

The marathon is a long-distance running event with an official distance of 42.195 kilometres , that is usually run as a road race...

 sporting event held in the city of Portland, Oregon

Portland, Oregon

Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...

. The 2011 Portland Marathon was held Sunday, October 9, 2011. It was first held in 1972 and has been held every year since. The marathon is generally held in October, with as many as 9,000 runners competing. It features both full marathon and half marathon

Half marathon

A half marathon is a road running event of . It is half the distance of a marathon and usually run on roads. Participation in half marathons has grown steadily recently. One of the main reasons for this is that it is a challenging distance, but does not require the same level of training that a...

 events.

The marathon starts and finishes at Chapman/Lownsdale/Schrunk Parks in downtown Portland. Participants have eight hours in which to finish the marathon. The men's course record of 2:17:21 hours was set by German runner Uli Steidl in 1997. Japan's Hiromi Yokoyama holds the women's course record with her time of 2:36:40 hours from 1991.