Palos Verdes Marathon

Suckfest 2009: Palos Verdes edition - same story different race.

Twisted Thinking
Before I ran the La Jolla half marathon last week, I came up with a brilliant plan to motivate myself to run a honest good race. I said to myself that if I can muster up a sub 2 performance on a tough course that I would run the full marathon instead of the half at Palos Verdes. That's how I ended up at the starting line for the Palos Verdes full marathon.

Pre-race
The week leading up to the race, my co-workers have been showing up to work sick. Work has been stressful and I worked late on Friday. I woke up Saturday morning feeling pretty lethargic and feeling the malaise you feel right before the onset of a cold or a flu. Normally I would drink Campbell's soup when I feel sick, but I was tired so I stuck to the good 'ol whole wheat toast with Nutella and orange juice. I got to the Point Fermin Park just before 5:30am. I was the 2nd car to park in the parking lot. I took a nap waiting for them to setup the race.

First Half
The race started promptly at 7am. The wind gusts were strong at the very beginning. But once we got a little inland, it was ok. I was a little eager beaver and went out as hard as I could. I figured it was race day and what have I got to lose? I might as well give the legs a little test. Some of the mile markers were off, so I had a hard time gauging exactly how fast I was going. I pretty much just ran the race based on feel. I kind of knew that I was going too fast when my left Achilles was feeling tender and my right IT-band was feeling tight. I covered the first half in about 2 hrs which was too fast for me.
1: 8:10
2: 7:53
3-4: 20:35
5: 7:15
6: 9:41
7: 10:12
8-9: 18:34
10: 9:17
11: 8:44
12: 9:21
13: 9:12

Second Half
What can I say? I went out as BIG as I could which resulted in an Epic blowup Long Beach style. Everything siezed up on me. I sat down on the curb twice and once on these big pipes. I could not even walk! I must have looked like crap because the other runners that saw me asked me if I needed them to go get help. Of course I told them that I'll be alright, that I'll just walk it in. Then God sent one of His angels to come help me... actually it was a fellow runner #305. He stopped and massaged both of my legs for me. He told me that I'll be able to run later on. And that I did when I eventually was able to HTFU and run/walk it in. I switched to walking every time I felt the cramps coming on. I was able to squeek in under 5 hrs and keep my sub-5 streak alive for this year.
14: 10:27
15: 9:39
16: 10:42
17: 14:04 - pottie break
18: 10:50
19: 9:28
20: 21:38 - meltdown Long Beach style
21: 21:24
22: 11:22 - time to HTFU and salvage a sub 5
23: 14:42
24: 11:33
25: 12:50
26: 12:32
26.2: 1:43
Total: 4:52