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FoPo Run Club (foporunclub.com) prides itself on being the best cheering station along the Portland Marathon route every October. The Foster-Powell Run Club sets up tents, signs and music and blows bubbles at the east end of the Sellwood Bridge, ready to encourage the thousands of runners who stream by on their 26.2-mile journey (and those who are busting out an also impressive half marathon). They wear costumes—a T. rex, a banana and Slinky Dog from Toy Story have all made appearances—and create human tunnels for runners to pass through.
A core value of the station is to stay until the very last racer finishes, usually a walker. FoPo Run Club founder Natalia Barwegen doesn’t pack up until she sees the race vans collecting the orange cones along the route. (Barwegen says she is proudly an “incredibly slow runner” herself.)
“Walking 26 miles, their body is going through it in different ways than those fast runners,” Barwegen says. “They have to be on their feet a lot longer.”
FoPo Run Club has won the Portland Marathon’s neighborhood cheer challenge three out of the past four years, bested in 2025 by its rival, Southeast Portland’s Brooklyn Action Corps. This fall is FoPo’s chance to reclaim the throne, plus the top $1,000 cash prize, which the run club uses to fund its website and race aid stations.
The Portland Marathon is coming up Oct. 4. Barwegen plans to be on the Sellwood Bridge from 7 am until about noon. “It’s our Super Bowl,” she says.
See the rest of Willamette Week’s Best of Portland 2026 here!
