Another week, another race expo to attend. I got to the expo at about 2:30pm on Friday, 30 minutes before it opened. There was already a long line formed. When the expo opened, they controlled the inflow of people so that the volunteers handing out race packets did not get overwhelmed. Good organization, but they should probably use a bigger tent. It got pretty crowded inside. But I'm sure it's fine during the off-peak hours.
Entrance
long line for the expo at 2:30pam on Friday
Bib pick up
After picking up my race packet I then picked up a cotton long sleeve "legacy runner" shirt and a teal with black sleeves race shirt. I then went through the expo saying hi to a bunch of my friends. I thought about signing up for the Long Beach Marathon, but I resisted. I visited Andrea at the Renegade Racing booth. I've met so many cool people through running. The only thing I wanted to buy were some mid-weight Injinji socks, but the booth was out of them. I bumped into my friend, James, who has been out of running for a while due to injury. We left the expo and I gave him a ride back to his parent's house that was a few blocks away.
Friends at RunRacing
Andrea at Renegade Racing
Sunday - race day
I drove out early to make sure I got a parking spot on Beach Blvd. The beach parking lot north of Beach Blvd is hit-or-miss when it comes to the parking fee. The instructions always states that you pay upon exit, but there are years where no money was collected. I didn't want to bother with that, plus exiting could be a pain in the butt. I parked around 4:15am and took a quick cat nap.
Around 5am, I got my stuff ready and started jogging over to the Hyatt. I kind of felt stupid as I felt the tongue of my right shoe digging into the top of my right foot during the jog. It was causing enough pain that I had to walk. I had other pairs of comfortable shoes and I obviously brought the one that was the least broken in. I went to my favorite spot inside the Hyatt and just relaxed. I adjusted the offending shoe and hoped that it would not hurt me during the race. I need to make sure I properly break in a new pair of shoes before taking them out for a marathon!
As it got closer to 5:45am, I jogged over the Hyatt bridge to meet up with my fellow Marathon Maniacs for a pre-race photo. We took what felt like about a hundred photos. :)
Marathon Maniacs
Howard and I jogged over to the corrals, but it was still a bit early so we headed into the expo tent. Then right before the 6:30am start, we headed out to our corrals looking for our friends that were pace leaders.
"Why should I practice running slow? I already know how to run slow. I want to learn to run fast." - Emil Zatopek
People always ask me why I don't try to run the entire race at an even pace. The answer is always the same, I don't have the endurance or the patience to jog that slow for an entire marathon. I'd rather work on running faster for at least the first parts of the race. You won't run faster until you spend time running faster. In time, I will take a break and put in the proper training so that I'll have the endurance to run fast with even paces from start to finish.
Goal: 5:10
1st half: 2:10
2nd half: 3:00
Race
I was supposed to start in wave 2, but somehow our group went out with wave 1. I have not run a 8:30 min mile in quite some time. So for the first mile, I wanted to see how it felt. There was discomfort in the right ankle and calf, but tolerable. Since I had 25.2 miles left, I decided to just back off each mile until I got into the 10 min mile range. So for the next couple of miles, I slowed about 30 secs. But I had to speed up a bit to get through the narrowness of the park. I bumped into my friend and was fortunate to run with her until we got out of the park. I then backed off on the pace. Wasn't really much I could I do. With zero training, my endurance is still incredibly lacking.
gun-to-the-head moment shortly after reaching mile 10
When I got to mile 10, I had to switch to the "2 min walk, 5 min run, 2 min walk, run until I get to the next mile marker" strategy. A lot of my friends passed me along the way. I got to the halfway mark at around 2:13. One of my friends spotted me. He was running the half marathon and was having a rough day as he was having back problems. He jogged and walked with me until we got to the point after mile 16 where the marathoners split off onto the beach bike path. He kept my pace honest and was surprised at how many people recognized me on the course.
I like this race, but I really dislike the ~9 miles on the beach bike path. It is narrow and not closed off to the public. It got pretty hot during this section. I was having a rough time around mile 20. I really wanted to sit down and had to take extended walk breaks. As I was leaving the beach path and running back on PCH, my hamstring started to cramp. When I reached mile 25, I walked a little bit and it seemed to help with the cramps. Running towards the finish line was a pain in the butt as they have the marathoners running in a narrow lane in the cambered right gutter. At least it's roped off. Also spectators were crowding the already very narrow lane. I almost had to hurdle a small boy that didn't understand my hand gestures to back up. I am definitely not a fan of races where there's a mixture of runners running different distances.
1: 8:34
2: 9:02
3: 9:26
4: 9:48
5: 8:56
6: 9:00
7-8: 18:32 (9:16)
9: 10:41
10: 10:43
11: 12:46
12: 12:25
13: 12:05
14: 12:02
15: 12:36
16: 12:11
17: 12:46
18: 14:37
19: 15:22
20: 16:09
21: 15:20
22: 13:12
23: 14:54
24: 15:43
25: 13:43
26: 14:32
26.2: 1:58
Finish: 5:17:04
Post-race
This current bout with a lower right leg injury is thankfully almost over. I had sunk as low as finishing DFL with a 7 hr marathon at the St Louis RnR Marathon and a very uncomfortable 3:21 at the Los Angeles RnR half marathon. Injuries will eventually heal. I figured as long as I could walk, I would "run" all of the races that I've registered for prior to the injury. Because even if I took complete rest, I would still have to walk to my car, walk to the office, walk to the market, etc. I switched back to Chi-running to lessen the discomfort. Slowly things started to feel better.
10/23/11 - 7:05:10 St Louis
11/05/11 - 6:32:03 Savannah
11/13/11 - 6:30:54 San Antonio
12/11/11 - 6:04:05 Honolulu
01/08/12 - 6:18:18 Walt Disney World
01/15/12 - 5:31:47 Houston
01/22/12 - 5:44:48 Carlsbad
02/05/12 - 5:17:04 Surf City
Lately, I've altered my diet a little. I used to eat 2 plates of mostly meat, potato, and pasta for lunch. After switching one plate out for a salad, I've felt more energetic, content, satisfied, and no longer suffer from a postprandial dip. It has helped with maintaining my weight despite the lack of consistent running.
I bumped into my friend Jenny in the finish area. We then met up at BJ's with my San Diego friends. I had two beers and the barbacoa tacos. I've been trying a lot of IPAs lately, but I still prefer stouts and porters.
BJ's Tatonka Stout
BJ's barbacoa tacos
BJ's PM Porter
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