Long Beach Half Marathon Expo & Race Recap

Life has been very busy lately and I am very behind on recaps, but I promise to catch up on all of them. Let’s start with last weekend, the Long Beach Half Marathon.

So last saturday, hubby and I headed out for the Long Beach Half Marathon expo at the LB Convention Center. It was one of the bigger expos I have ever been to, and overall it was very organized. Hubby was there to pick up his 5K bib, and I was there to pick up my Half Marathon bib. I am happy to report that hubby took advantage of the Rock n’ Roll Races booth at the expo and signed up FOR HIS VERY FIRST HALF MARATHON. YAY!!! I am so proud of him. He will be running the Rock N’ Roll Las Vegas Half Marathon with me next month!

Hubby has been looking for his ZipFizz refills at a few expos now and finally found it again at the LB expo.

So excited for my Beach Cities Challenge Medal!

So Sunday was the actual event.  The race was beautiful and overall I really enjoyed the mood and service of the event. I was proud of my college town for putting up a great show 🙂

Up bright and early and ready to go!

Plenty of porta-potties!

Lighthouse!

Queen Mary!

The last half of the run was right by the sand and water. Beautiful!

My ex-co-worker lives right by mile 10, so she came out and cheered me on! So sweet! Thanks Cindy 🙂

So happy!!!

As has been the case this entire year, I wasn’t following a training plan and it showed in my SLOW finish time. But the improvement came in my endurance…

• I ran more of the 13.1 miles than I ever have. Usually, I end up running about 70% of the race and the remainder is taken up by water breaks, breathing breaks, etc. Yesterday, At this race, I can confidently say that I ran probably about 80 to 85% of the race. Part of the reason why I was able to run more, was because my running pace was slower. I finished in 2 hours and 58 seconds. Disappointing, but I have no one to blame but myself. Until I follow through with the consistency, expecting a miracle PR is unrealistic.
• So this being said, I really need to follow through on my two running goals:

1. To be able to run a half marathon in LESS than 2:30.
2. To be able to run a half marathon without taking walking breaks.

Training and consistency will easily help. Again, the only thing in my way, is ME.

But even not breaking my PR couldn’t get in the way of the excitement I felt. This race was the final leg in the three necessary for me to earn my Beach Cities Challenge Medal. I DID IT. 39.3 miles later 🙂 Nothing was easy about it, but the joy and satisfaction of meeting such a challenge is something I am very proud of myself for. While I am one of the slowest runners I know of, I know how difficult it is to get out there and give it your best shot, and to finish.

Disneyland Half Marathon Recap

I apologize again for the lack of posts, but I am finally starting to feel like I am getting my feet underneath me my with my new job so I should be able to blog more regularly. I cannot believe I am already at the start of week 3 of being a teacher! I am still super busy and working day and night, but the excitement and joy is still stronger than ever. I really, really, really, love this.

I also really loved that I went through with the Disneyland Half Marathon last week even though I was super unprepared.

So here is the recap, over a week late…

The truth is that it was HOT, DIFFICULT, HOT, and DIFFICULT…BUT…the magic of Disney still managed to shine through. In a nutshell, it was already 75 degrees by 5:30am. That was problem #1.

Before Sunrise and already HOT…

Problem #2 was that, AS EXPECTED, there were almost 20,000 people there which means, the race I was supposed to start at 5:30am, didn’t actually start until after 6:00am for me, which meant more heat down the line.

Early on I was HOT, oober sweaty, and hurting, so I decided to just have fun (which is what Disney races are supposed to be about anyway, right?) and just focus on finishing. Usually, this would make things less stressful, to just focus on finishing and not think about my time, but seriously, it was so HOT and HUMID, that I even questioned my ability to FINISH. Problem #3, I only got two hours of sleep the night before due to stressing about how unprepared I was for the race, and finally problem #4, I didn’t have any breakfast. Again, the stress and lack of sleep left me with an upset stomach in the morning, and eating was the last thing I could get myself to do. Luckily, my parents came out to join my hubby in cheering me on at the finish line; THIS along with the beautiful allure of a Run Disney medal kept me going. I finished with MY WORST TIME EVER, over 3 hours (even worse than my first half back in 2012) but I am not beating myself up too much about it. I ran walk and still came out sweatier than ever. I knew my goal for a PR was better left for the Long Beach Half Marathon in October, where I will get my Beach Cities Medal…cannot wait!!!

Perks to running a Run Disney race:

• gorgeous medals
• great start line fireworks and celebration for each wave
• amazing volunteers throughout the course
• great showing of marching bands, community groups, and Disney workers and characters
• sufficient water stops, Powerade,
• you get to run through Disneyland park, Disney’s CA Adventure park, and Angel Stadium

CA Adventure!

Main Street USA!

Stopping to enjoy the moment!

Angel Stadium!

I really enjoyed myself despite the challenge and it felt great to have my parents there.

And of course, my husband, who woke up early with me, WAITED for me the entire 3 hours AND made sure to meet up with my parents, and cheered me on! I couldn’t have done it without him!

I really miss running regularly but am happy to report that I am feeling settled in enough at work where I can start to really get consistent again!

OC Fair Fun Run 5K Recap

Yesterday morning was the OC Fair Fun Run 5K. Overall, this was a great race. The course was flat, it was fun running through the fairgrounds, and there were plenty of goodies for particpants, including the free ticket to the fair.

One of the cons was that the line to get your goodie bag/tshirts was very long and not very organized.

Also, this is a fun run, so I wasn’t expecting corrals or anything, but they didn’t even try to seperate runners from walkers. So my first mile was SLOW. Unless I was willing to fight my way through the walker/runner mish mash, I was going to have to just deal, so my entire first mile was a very SLOW jog.

Start line AKA Mish Mash of Runner’s & Walkers

After mile one, the path was cleared of walkers and the the rest of the time was just great fun running through the empty fair!

They had “fun detours” where you could play some carinval games or go down the giant slide but I passed because as I suspected, there were super long lines for every detour.

My time was just okay. That first jammed mile really threw a wrench in my overall time, but I made up for it with my speed in the last 2 miles.

They had tons of goodies at the end too. Plenty of drink options, fresh fruit, and great freebies at the mini expo.

AND, guess who I found at the finish line??? POM RUNNER GUY! Remember him? I saw him at the OC Half Marathon where he ran the entire race with his Pom! They were there yesterday too! He was nice enough to stop for a photo again 🙂

I was just so excited to be out at a race again earning some bling!

Next stop, Disneyland Half Marathon! Gotta get busy on my running outfit!