Bridge to Bridge 20 miler

When you run the same routes over and over, it can get monotonous and boring, but simply changing the location can make a big difference!

My friend had told me about running from the Vancouver waterfront to the I205 bridge, across the Oregon side and back over the I5 bridge and it sounded like a really awesome run!

A group of friends and I met up at the Vancouver waterfront. We ran from there along the Washington side on the beautiful paved trail. There were lots of people out walking and running, dogs on their morning walks, and restaurants with people having coffee. It was fun to people watch and the view of the Columbia River was so beautiful! There are ample bathroom options and places to fill water on the Vancouver waterfront side, too, which is always a plus.

We saw a lot of pretty birds in the water and enjoyed the scenery before we climbed up a little bit to the neighborhoods. The neighborhood we ran through was so beautiful with gorgeous large houses with views of the Columbia River. We even saw someone’s beautiful pet swan!

After a little while of running through the neighborhoods, we headed up again and then ran parallel to the on ramp to the I205 bridge. Going on to a bike and pedestrian lane between the two sides of traffic, it felt like we hit a wind tunnel! It was so loud, and cars were whooshing towards us and past us on both sides. I felt protected with the rails on each side, but I was glad to be with friends, too.

Once we crossed over to Oregon, we looped around a little bit until we hit the Marine Drive Trail. This runs next to the Portland Airport and along many scenic views of blue herons, the islands in the river, and the beautiful river itself. For those interested in amenities on the route, there isn’t anywhere to get water or use the bathroom for quite a while, but there are also no cars to contend with. We ran along the trail until we hit the Columbia Edgeway Country Club, where the LPGA tour was happening! A little further down the road there was a marina with a public restroom and porta-potties. We had a bit more to go on the Oregon side and we saw the cute little marine village area and the floating homes, which was a nice distraction, because it was getting warm at this point!

As we approached the I5 bridge, I noticed that it was much shorter than the I205 bridge, for which I was very grateful, because it was a bit scarier to me! When we ran along the bridge, it felt like the little holes were big enough to fall through, even though I knew they weren’t. The hum of the traffic was loud and the cars whooshed by again, but it was a bit quieter and thankfully shorter.

The rest of the run was along the Vancouver waterfront again and it was beautiful and nice. I had quite a bad stomach ache at this point, so I was grateful we were close to the end. After we hit 20 miles, my friend and I walked into the river at the little beach and it felt so amazing!! I highly recommend doing that if you try this route! This is an awesome route and it was so cool to run across state lines twice!