Monday, October 15, 2007

10/14/07 Long Beach Half Marathon

The full marathon course is yellow and red. The half marathon is just yellow.


It looked like a nice day for a run. There were 2,340 marathon finishers and 5,967 runners finished the half marathon. Both events started together at 7:30am on Shoreline Drive. I ran the half marathon. It was humid. Although it was sunny, temperatures were pleasant and there was a slight ocean breeze. It was quite humid. For the first half of the event, we ran directly into the sun. Did I mention it was humid? For the last three miles of the half marathon, we completed the loop by running away from the sun down Ocean Blvd. Every so often, someone would cheer, "Come on Runner's High!" I'm a big fan of 'runners high' so I cheered for it too. Who doesn't love that feeling of delirium that often occurs after a run?

His sign said "Last Mile - All Downhill From Here!" I guess he didn't think we could handle the truth: "Last Mile - All Flat From Here!"

The goal for my "training run" was to run at 7:30 pace. I finished in 1:37:36 which was about 7:27 pace.
Well organized, fun bands, aid stations with cute themes, and nice weather - especially if you like humidity! Click HERE for results.

As always, thanks to Lorenzo (see the lower left corner of this photo) who told some great jokes to keep my spirits up, took amazing photos while riding his bike alongside me for much of the course, and picked up my extremely sweaty clothes afterwards!