13 Weeks to 13.1: I did it!

WooHoo!

First things first: Happy Birthday, Mom!!

So here it is:

The Race Recap

Before the race: Woke up at 5:30 am. Who does that? WAAY too early. Drove over to Santa Monica, parked, and did a little warm up run. Paul left and headed for Mile Marker 4 around 7am. I lined up between the 2:10 and 2:20 pace signs, and was able to stay pretty warm because there were so many people around me. The announcers were getting everyone pumped up and told us that Santa Monica, CA was the warmest place in the country this morning – 63* at race start!

Sunrise on the beach. Pretty awesome way to start a race.

A cool thing: The Santa Monica noise restrictions wouldn’t allow them to play a taped recording of anything (including the National Anthem) before the race. Instead, a runner led us over the speaker system as we all sang it together. I think it was WAY cooler that way, anyway. It was kind of amazing to be standing there with thousands of people, all singing together, watching the sun come up over the ocean.

Starting line: At 7:13 (get it? – 13.1 miles, 7:13am? They like 13’s) the race began. I was near the middle/back so it took me about two and a half minutes to cross the start line.

Mile 1: Running along the boardwalk in Venice Beach is really interesting. Lots of crazy colorful shops (for example: “Doctor 420: Medical Marijuana Evaluation Center”) and outdoor gyms for the beach-side body builders Venice is famous for.

Mile 2: The first Aid station. I grabbed a water from one of the awesome volunteers. Note to self: Running + Drinking = more water on your face and chest than in your mouth. After that, I took 2-3 walking steps through the aid stations so I could actually hydrate.

Mile 3: “Hey, I’m managing to hit exactly 10 minute miles without really trying. Awesome!”

Mile 4: Paul was there cheering me on. I tossed him my jacket (which I had tied around my waist at mile 1).

Mile 5: The course was an out-and-back along Venice Blvd. It was in mile 5 that the first place runner passed me going the other way. All of us plodders cheered. Then we thought, “holy crap, how do you even GO that fast?!?” The crazy part was how far he was ahead of the second guy. It was a huge gap - maybe a whole mile. Ridiculous. (Update: turns out the first place guy finished 4 minutes before the second place guy. He averaged a 5:17 mile, so yeah – almost a mile between them).

Mile 6: U-turn on the course. All I could think was, “Headed home!!”

Mile 7: My fastest mile of the course at 9:50. After running the first couple miles at a 10 minute pace, I started doing negative splits hitting 9:58, 9:55 a few times, and finally 9:50. After mile 7 my pace got a little slower again and settled around a 10:00.

Mile 8: “Only 5 miles left! Only 5 MILES? I am a crazy person.”

Mile 9: A few spectators were holding up a great sign: “Run Now. Beer later.” Awesome.

Mile 10: Paul and our friends Mal and Chris were there to cheer me on! Totally gave me a much-needed boost as I started the last 3.1. I actually picked up my pace a little!

Mile 11: “cough cough spit. Ew. Swallowed a bug.” Mmmmm, protein. Also, only 2 miles left. I told myself if I could make it 11 miles, I could power it out for 2.

Mile 12: From Mile Marker 12 to the finish line was the longest mile ever. Literally. Since they didn’t mark mile 13 (the finish line was only .1 of a mile later, after all), it was loooong. I really really wanted to walk, but I kept telling myself, “less than 1 mile. You’ve come this far, you can’t stop now!” and something a high school cross country teammate told me once: “You can do anything for a mile.” I always picture someone hopping backwards for a mile, and it makes me laugh. Fortunately, there was lots of support from awesome fans on the last mile. Best sign in the last mile: “Your feet hurt because you’re kicking so much ass!”

Finish line: YAY! I gave it a little kick at the end, but I honestly didn’t have much left. That’s good, though. I left it all on the course.

Stats:

My official chip time was: 2:10:25 (WOO! Even though I wasn’t racing for time, I really wanted to beat a 10 minute pace (a total time of 2:11:00) and I did!!)

Average pace: 9:57 minutes/mile

Place in my division (Women 20-24): 35th of 93 runners

Total finishers: 2671

No walking!! (except for 2-3 steps through the aid stations. But that doesn’t count)

My medal! The piece that says 13.1 spins within the piece with the green swooshes.

I’ve gotta say. At the end of this race, I could not fathom why anyone would want to run a full marathon. Ouch. Maybe my opinion on that matter will change in the future, but for now, I think the half marathon is just about the perfect distance for me. It challenges me (without killing me) and I can make the time to train for it. So… I’ll be running another one in 8 weeks! I’m headed north to Ventura to run the half marathon there with my cousin-in-law Heather. I think I need a few days to recover first, though. I’m walking a little funny at the moment.