Long Beach Half Marathon

It's been a rough week... I didn't do either of my midweek runs, and if I hadn't already made plans with my Mom I'd have been tempted to skip the half marathon. But I didn't! Drove down to Long Beach yesterday, leaving around 12:30–1 pm, and arriving at the Long Beach Westin Hotel at 3:40ish. Found the Expo and picked up my packet (going the loooong way around to the Convention Center), then had dinner in the hotel restaurant with my mom. We were both tired and went to bed early, but I didn't sleep well. Got up at 5:30 feeling sluggish and icky, but was okay by the time I headed out for the race at about a quarter to 7 am.

I'd meant to locate the starting line the day before, so I'd know exactly where I was going in the morning, but didn't. The area is very confusing, with the convention center across the street from the hotel and lots of little twisty, turny streets, but I figured when the time came, I'd just follow the crowds. Which I did, and the start line turned out to be just the other side of the Convention Center, across from the hotel. No problem! Everything's a lot closer together than it looks on the map.

I wore my WearYourNumber shirt and my long gray running pants. It was a bit chilly waiting but by the time the race started, it had already begun to get warm. The weather was great for running all day, breezy and warm but not too hot. I'd considered not wearing my waist pack with water bottle, since there'd be water stations along the course, but decided I had too much other stuff to bring with me—GU and handkerchief and ID and chapstick—so I did wear it.

I had a good run. Started off with under 15-minute miles, which gradually increased to near 16-minute miles, but I had enough energy left to run the last maybe six minutes or so—turned the corner and saw the finish line and just ran it in. Finished in about 3:24—yay! I'd been hoping to finish under 3:30, but would have been happy with 3:40. 3:24 was icing on the cake! Averaged under 16 minutes/mile, and still felt good when I crossed the finish line.

Afterwards, I made my way back to the hotel to rejoin my mom. Rested in the room for a bit, then took a shower, and we headed out to find lunch. Ate in the Old Dubliner Irish Pub—yummy! Then, to top off the day, we continued on to the Aquarium of the Pacific to see all the fish and jellies and crabs and sea lions and sharks and rays and other sea animals. I petted several rays of various kinds and took lots of pictures.

That pretty much wore out both my mother and me. We got back to the hotel around 4 pm and are resting up before dinner.

All in all, a good day and a good run!