11.15.09

Malibu Marathon Race Report

Posted in Races, Run, race at 7:00 am by luluorange · Digg! this story.

Coming into the finish line, Finally!

The course of the marathon started from Camarillo Airport, where it will take us through the flat farmlands of Ventura Valley. Acres upon acres of farmland are a site to see for a city girl like me. The Santa Monica Mountains loom to the east as we run the first ten miles towards the Navy base at Point Mugu. Coming onto the southbound Pacific Coast Highway, we make our way two miles along the base before entering the “Keyway to the Coast”, the rock valley passageway to the ocean at Point Mugu.

As we ran along the beautiful cliffs lining the undeveloped coastline around mile 11-12, we were hit with strong headwind.  The wind was so strong, it was pushing us back as we ran uphill, the wind was also creating mini sand storms.  This was a rough challenge that I have never experienced before.  I held my footing firmly on the ground while keeping my head down so the sand doesn’t get into my eyes. I thought to myself, “This must be what a derma abrasion procedure feels like. My skin better be baby soft after this…”

During this section of the route, I recognized “my rocks”.  There were two huge rocks hanging off the cliff over the Pacific Ocean where I used to drive here to think and contemplate in the middle of the night.  In the era of dealing with “loss”, lost of family through divorce, lost of my father, lost of relationships; a lot of emotional stuff.  I used to get in the car, drove on to Pacific Coast Highway and just drive until I see “my rocks”.  I would park my car, put the seat down and look up in the sky and watch a million stars while I listen to the Pacific Ocean wave pounding the coastline.  I am at a different place in my life now, but actually running by “my rocks” in broad daylight was surreal.

As the wind died down, the sun came out and there were no shades to relief us from the sun beating down. The next 8 miles was a test of mental toughness. The rolling hills don’t seem to let up, but the coastline in its pristine beauty distracts me from thinking about how uncomfortable I was. I ran passed a restaurant called Neptune’s Net; my husband and I used to come out on his motorcycle for a Saturday morning ride. Neptune’s Net was the restaurant where all the bikers ended up for lunch. Bikers are scary creatures to me when I am in a car, but when I was on the back of my husband’s motorcycle, all the bikers were so friendly, they would wave as we rode by each other. I’ve never experience such friendliness. Running by Neptune’s Net brought back some fond memories.

The final 6 miles took us on a tour of beautiful and secluded homes of Hollywood superstars. Because of the inaccessibility of the road, there were few supporters cheering for us. But a lot of residences came out of their huge home; sat on the driveway with their morning coffee and newspapers; cheering for us as we run by. At this point, all I can think about was my coffee and newspaper and maybe a nap.

As I approached the edge of Zuma beach, the activities started to get busy, there were crowds cheering, I turned into the beach parking lot, smiled and waved at two photographers as they snapped my pictures. Crossed the finish line as my friend Julie came up and gave me a big hug! The medal was beautiful and heavy, I loved the feeling of a medal around my neck!

I wasn’t really thinking about finish time, I set a silent goal of sub 5-hour. I ended up with 5 hour 4 minutes. Better than San Francisco marathon of 5 hour 15 minutes. I think overall considering the terrains and the weather, this marathon was a tougher race than San Francisco. I was proud of myself that I shaved off some time. As for all physical challenges I took on this year, I suffered the agony during the challenges but gloat in the knowledge that I’ve done it again! That’s something that no one can ever take away from me!

So this is it for the year; with four marathons and two half marathons under my belt, not bad for a newbie on her first year of racing.

The fitness goal and my training will continue as I wrapped up this year.  Setting new goals for next year, continuing on with new challenges.  Until next time…

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 11/15/2009
• Time: 07:00:00
• Total Time: 5:04:00.00
• Calories: 3195
• Distance: 26.2 miles
• Average Pace: 11:36.32/mile

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10.18.09

Nike Women’s Marathon – 2009 Race Report

Posted in Run, race at 7:00 am by luluorange · Digg! this story.

What a great weekend! San Francisco is a great city to race. The expo was in Union Square, amongst hundreds of stores, the best shopping in town. The expo location is also the starting line.

I arrived in San Francisco on Friday night, my husband and I got up early Saturday morning to explore the city and to get coffee. I suggested that we walk to the starting line just to orient myself the route from the hotel for race day. The streets were hilly, which is a preview of things to come. We found the union square Nike Town that is crossed the street from the starting line; on the wall of the store they have listed all the runner’s names. It took a while but I finally found my name…

Yeah! My name is on the wall

My friend Julie and I met up to go the expo together on Saturday afternoon to pickup our race packet, we were both Nike Plus members so we had some nice privileges in the expo including free manicure, free goodies and entries for gift cards. It was very cool. We also walked around all over Union Square after the expo to shop all afternoon and had had a hearty carb-loading dinner. All and all I think I walked about 8 miles on Saturday. Probably not a good idea before a marathon…but I had a great time.

This is Union Square and the starting line

Race morning had perfect weather, there were 20,000 runners, the crowd’s excitement was hard to contain. The line wrapped around the four corners of Union Square.  Imagine getting 20,000 people through the starting line, it took me about 15 minutes just to inch along to get to the starting line.

Starting line that filled all four corners of Union Square

Theme for this race

The first two miles of the race was just to get out of the city, from Union Square though Embarcadero to the Pier. The were so many people and given that this was a walker friendly race, people walked – side by side by side forming walls in front of me. All I remember for the first two miles was to find space between runner/walkers and to zig zag my way to keep the pace that I want to keep. I know clearly some people didn’t follow the rule; slower runner and walkers stays back, but no….they have to get to the front to start early as if it really matters. It’s kind of crazy, but at the mean time, it kept me distracted and made time go by really fast.

Mile 2 through 6 was relaxing for me, I finally found my footing and pace that was comfortable and not having to pass people. I settled into a nice spot and went with the flow. There were performances along the route, choir singing, Scottish bagpipe performance, very random but interesting.

Starting at mile 6, we approached Chrissy Field Road and Mason, the hills started to rear its ugly head. I’ve been training for hills and felt prepared, despite the slowing down of the speed; I felt strong and kept running, powering up the hill. The hill went on and on and on for about a mile, a 300 ft climb. Have you ever felt like you are running but you are actually going at the speed of walking? Yeah, like that for the entire mile… I thought to myself, I guess the expectation to set a PR (personal record) is out of the question today. And sure enough, the hill never stopped coming, there were virtually no flat road in the entire course after mile 6, if it is not uphill, it’s downhill. More on that later.

Beginning of the hill

As we approached mile 10, the rolling hill settled into a steady 2 miles downhill right into Great Highway. The uphill takes all the strength out of you and the downhill simply shreds your quadriceps. As I pickup speed and tried to control the speed and the same time, we turned a corner and saw the breath taking view of the ocean in beautiful San Francisco fog. There was also a big screen in front of us showing our pictures as we ran by. Very cool! As I ran towards the ocean, feeling the breeze and watching the waves pounding the rocks, I got a little teary eyed. How lucky am I to enjoy this?

Running into the ocean

Seeing yourself on the big screen while running into the ocean

Turning the corner on the Great Highway lead us right into Golden Gate Park, the coastline is windy but beautiful. I managed to take a picture of myself as I ran, not my best pictures but it will do.

Me on Great Highway running towards the ocean

Running into Golden Gate Park as we clocked mile 11, this is where the ½ marathon runners break off from the marathon runners. Majority of the runners in this race were running the ½ marathon, there was a five-miles loop around the Golden Gate Park for the full marathoners to go before we get back on the Great Highway coastline again while the ½ marathon runners run two more miles to their finished line. Once the ½ marathon runners veered off, it got a little lonely as the road really opened up at this point.

Mile 12 through 16 was pretty uneventful, the fatigue was setting in and I was trying hard to fight it off. Losing more than 70% of the fellow runners didn’t help either. I thought to myself “maybe I’ll just run off to the ½ marathon route and I can go back to the hotel and take a cold bath and a nap, wouldn’t that be sooooo wonderful!” Tempting…but I knew better, I had to get rid of the little devil sitting on my left shoulder whispering these awful thoughts to me.

Mile 16 through 19 are entirely on the Great Highway, full view of the ocean for thee miles was very nice, my legs started to get cramped so I pulled over to stretch and take some pictures. I figured, since I am not really pushing for time, might as well stop and smell the roses. I took a few moments to enjoy the view; ocean always sooths me, I love being close to the ocean! The only problem is, we were running towards Lake Merced, the route takes us around the entire lake and come back on the Great Highway on the other side. As I was running, I could see the faster runners heading back pushing for the finish line. I still have 10 miles to go, oh…how I wish I was them… It’s not fun to get a preview of what is to come, the anticipation of what’s ahead was killing me except I still have to work for it to get to the other side!

Slow down to take in the ocean view

Lake Merced is about a 4.5 miles loop, we are going on mile 19 thru 24, the toughest mental part of the course; the race sponsor Safeway had a huge cheerleading squad for us along the way. It helped a lot. There were people holding big signs that said: “ This is your road because…” “You sacrifice sleeping in on the weekends” “You nursed countless blisters and sore muscles” “All for today…” As I ran on, repeating the mantras in my head and ignored the pain I was feeling. At this point, EVERYTHING hurt!

The rolling hills are still coming, even though they are less aggressive than previous ones, the damage has been done and it was really taking its toll on my body. My left ankle, right heel and left knee are screaming bloody murder. I swallowed two ibuprofens and pushed on, I took long walk breaks between miles 20-24 trying to ease the pain. I saw many runners broke down on the side of the road, trying to ease the muscle cramp. Part of the road along the lake looked like war zone.

I chatted with some of the runners, asking them about their stories, making jokes about our beat-up conditions. At this point, you can recognize most of the runners next to you as you were all going pretty much the same pace, you caught up next to each other more than a few times. Some girls broke down and cried; I found that a little strange…

The theme of this race is “Run Like A Girl”, not “cry like a girl”! Come on, suck it up and keep going, we are almost there!

All I can do at this point is move forward, pushing the forward movement. I thought about a quote that inspired me “Runners just do it, they push for the finish line even though someone before them had already crossed it.” I laughed as I thought, “boy, are we a stubborn bunch!”

I completed the Lake Merced route and looped back onto Great Highway, look who’s laughing now! I was checking out the runners on the other side still heading to the lake. “Suckers!!! You still got a long way to go! HAHA!”

I am where I wanted to be, so closed to the finish line, Yeah!!! I ran into one of the veteran in my running club (LA Leggers), she is pacing for the 5:15 time goal. I thought I would be happy if I can finish in 5 hour 15 minutes. So I stuck with her, running with a small group of runners. As we were approaching the finish line, I looked at my watch and saw that there was only 0.3 mile to go, I pulled ahead of the group and dashed to the finish line. How sweat and surreal it is!

As I stepped on the blue strip to clock in the finish time, I saw a bunch of hotties with tuxedos holding trays of Tiffany box with the finishing medal necklace inside. What a treat! Yummmy…

Arm Candies with Treats

Beautiful necklace, it says “Run Like a Girl”. That’s right, that’s how we roll!

Finishing medal is a necklace from Tiffany with engraving

The race t-shirt was handed out at the finish line, this is different from other races where you pick up the race shirt at the expo the day before. The shirt is so cute, dry-fit technical shirt, beautiful color. It says “FINISHER 09 Nike Women’s Marathon” on it. This is a shirt you have to earn.

A shirt I am proud to wear

The finish line village had stretching stations and photo booth; I went to take my pictures first then went to the stretching stations for a good long stretch. I then proceeded to the medical tent to get an ice pack wrapped onto my knee. Ahhhh…all better now.

We had to be shuttled back to Union Square since we were all the way at the other end of the city from the starting line. The bus ride was nice, it gave us a good tour of the city, as I looked out the window, I couldn’t help but wondered, did I really just run all that way?

My husband took me out to a very elegant dinner in the city to celebrate. The famous Tommy Toy Restaurant signature dinner; a six course French Chinese Cuisine with French wine. (See below for some of the yummy items) What a treat, what a good man! I am a lucky girl. I ran like a girl today and now I am going to eat like a girl!

Course 3 - Lobster Stir Fry

Course 2 - Seafood Bisque in Coconut with Puffy Pastry, sooo goood

I can’t wait to do it again next year!

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 10/18/2009
• Time: 07:00:00
• Total Time: 5:14:00.00
• Calories: 3304
• Distance: 26.2 miles
• Average Pace: 11:58.56/mile

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07.26.09

Race Report - San Francisco 1/2 Marathon

Posted in Races, Run, race at 5:54 am by luluorange · Digg! this story.

This race was special, because I was running with my sister.  This was a big weekend as both of our extended families live in San Francisco.  This race brought the families together, and of course, with a lot of eating, drinking and celebrating. Running was secondary but I think of it was icing on the cake.

I booked a hotel 7 blocks from Embarcadaro which was the starting line so my sister and I can walk there in the morning.   With San Francisco Bay Bridge as backdrop at 5:30 am, the Bridge was lit up with lights and looked majestic.

As we get starting, the weather God was with us, a consistent 54 degree. My sister and I haven’t seen each other for months and we were excited to share this experience together.  We chatted pretty much the whole way while enjoying the scenery and people watching.  We approach the Golden Gate Bridge at mile 5, from a distant the Golden Gate Bridge was submerged in fogs, as we approached it, it was a bit misty, the ground was wet.  They closed down traffic and block two lane for us runners, the cars that drove by honk at us for support.  We loved running on the Bridge!

The last three miles were three rolling hills, we kept good forms and push through the hills all the way into Golden Gate Park.

The result are in, I didn’t care about the result really, it’s not everyday I get to run a race with my sister.  The best part about this race was the time we spent together and experience that we shared.

I had an extra bling waiting for me at the finish line, in addition to the medal for this race.  I also received a California Dreaming Series medal for participating in Long Beach marathon, Huntington Beach Marathon and San Francisco within two years.

All and all, a great time and a great race, San Francisco is beautiful and a wonderful city to run in.

Next on my race calendar, I got to get serious about training for the next marathon in October!

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 07/26/2009
• Time: 05:54:00
• Total Time: 2:18:12.00
• Calories: 1633
• Distance: 13.1 miles
• Average Pace: 10:32.69/mile

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05.31.09

Marathon race report - A New PR!

Posted in Races, Run, race at 6:30 am by luluorange · Digg! this story.

Today marks the one year anniversary of my first race; I celebrate it by running my second marathon.  In the past year, my running resume includes two 10ks, two half marathons and two marathons.  I’m having fun running races.

Today’s marathon is the Rock N Roll series marathon by elite racing held in San Diego.  This is my second marathon and I found this marathon was more difficult than my first marathon in February, I’ll explain this later.

A side note, we met up with some friends who live in San Diego and spent a wonderful evening on Saturday at their beautiful home.  The home happened to be right next to the starting line, I could see the my assigned corral from their home.  I certainly appreciated the preview.

The morning of the marathon was nice and cool; my husband dropped me off at the starting line.  I managed to find my long time friend from this site “marathonwannabe”, we chatted for a while and wished each other good luck.  It was really nice to finally put a face to the name.  We were also supposed to meet up with another friend from this site “xr4000″ but we missed each other.

The starting line celebration was exciting and off we go.  All is well for the first 10 miles, starting mile 9 we got on to a freeway with 4 miles of slanted concrete.  My weak left ankle started acting up; I tried to zigzag to find a comfortable spot but ending up wasting a lot of energy.  In addition, I wore a pair of new socks that has special cushions on “hot spots” on the foot but it was a lot thicker than the socks I normally wear.  That was a big mistake. By mile 12, my toes were throbbing from the expansion of my feet.  By mile 18, my feet went completely numb and not in a good way.  I pulled over and re-laced my shoes to loosen up and get the blood flowing again.  But the damage was done.

Mile 22-24 was probably the most difficult section; I really tried to dig deep within myself to keep going.  My ankle and feet were on fire, I resolve myself to give up and walk to the finish line.  As I walked for a few minutes, I assessed my condition but realized that walking did not feel any better than running.  I said to myself, “Hey, it doesn’t make any difference in comfort or reduce the pain, it just takes longer, hurry up and get it over with!” So, I picked up my pace again and started to run.

By mile 23, I realized that even with all the difficulties I was faced with, I was still on track to beating my previous marathon time. That gave me motivation to speed up my pace.

I also thought about my father, who passed away in 1999 when I was 31. I miss him terribly. When I was a kid, he always wanted to take me to exercise with him but I didn’t like it and often refused to go. I knew he was disappointed about that and I wish he could see me now, running a marathon.

As I was pushing thru mile 24, I imagined my dad standing on the other side of the finish line cheering for me. I saw the proud look on his face and I started to cry. I forgot about the pain I was feeling as I entered the last ½ mile with the welcoming crowd screaming and cheering. Crossing that finish line was bitter sweet. I did it!

Final stats are in:

Time – 4:47:20

Overall placement 6870 out of 13291

Women placement 2571 out of 6463

I am happy with the result; I shaved off 9 minutes from my first marathon.

Now…the aftermath of the race. The logistics at the finish line were not ideal. The ground of the marine base was huge, and various stations were very spread out. My husband was in a completely different section than where I ended up after walking out of the runner’s secure zone. It took us long time and a lot of walking to find each other. After that, the only way to get out of the base is to take a shuttle, and the line was sooooo long I couldn’t bear to wait so we walked another mile to get to the trolley station. At this point, I have a big blood blister on the ball of my foot and walking was so painful I was beside myself. When we finally got to downtown in the Gaslamp district, I was ready to pass out from pain and hunger. I walked with my space blanket on and I wore my medal.  I went into a restaurant, people cheered and congratulated me, I thought that was kind of cool and of course, a big slab of Bar-B-Q Ribs and French fries really made me happy.

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 05/31/2009
• Time: 06:30:00
• Total Time: 4:47:20.00
• Calories: 3395
• Distance: 26.2 miles
• Average Pace: 10:58.14/mile

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05.26.09

Antsy about tapering…

Posted in Run, race at 6:30 am by luluorange · Digg! this story.

Short run today, trying to stay loose and relaxed, four days till marathon.  I studied the course map last night and the elevation chart, mentally mapping out my strategy as I ran this morning.

Good workout.

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 05/26/2009
• Time: 06:30:00
• Total Time: 00:41:27.00
• Calories: 490
• Distance: 4 miles
• Average Pace: 10:21.76/mile

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05.24.09

Last long run before marathon - 9 miles

Posted in Run, race at 7:00 am by luluorange · Digg! this story.

I met up with a couple of people at the running club and head out for a early morning run.  We went fast today, running Temescal Canyon Hills and down to PCH. I was relaxed and feeling good, looking forward my marathon.  I also tried on my new running skirt I bought yesterday at the LA marathon expo. I went there just to check out the products and take advantage of the discounts.  The running skirt works great, I think I will use it for my race next week.  Looking cute crossing the finish line is also important!  :)

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 05/24/2009
• Time: 07:00:00
• Total Time: 1:32:00.00
• Calories: 1087
• Distance: 9 miles
• Average Pace: 10:13.29/mile

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03.22.09

Race Report - Pasadena 1/2 Marathon

Posted in Races, Run, race at 6:30 am by luluorange · Digg! this story.

I was excited for this race, it was totally unplanned, I signing up for it at the last moment. Running more than 13 miles in training is a regular occurrence for me but an actual race has very different energy than just another training run.  In addition, this is an inaugural event, once I participated in this event, I would be able to have a legacy status when I come back each year.   This was the first marathon I signed up last year but was canceled and I ended up running another event as my first marathon, doing this one on the fly sort of come full circle for me.

I got an early start in the morning heading out to Pasadena which is 25 miles from where I lived.  I left the house one hour and 30 minutes before start time and I was stuck on the freeway exit for 15 minutes, unable to get off to my destination.  The race official only gave one set of directions which EVERYONE followed, I decided to take a chance to get off the next freeway exit instead.  I got there just 20 minutes before starting time, I can’t imagine the people who didn’t do what I did that are still on the freeway off ramp, there is no way they could get here on time!!!

As I get to the starting line, it started to drizzle, then it started to rain, then it started to POUR.  It rain so hard, the rain drop made such loud noise, it was surreal, all of us standing at the starting line were drenched from head to toe.  I made jokes with fellow runners around me “Well, guess we don’t have to worry about sweating getting us wet!”  I don’t think I have ever run in the rain like this, I was pretty relaxed and just went with the flow.  I want to enjoy this event no matter what.

The route is pretty hilly, about 5 miles of the 13 is rolling hills, I have been running hilly courses every week so I felt prepared.  I met up with one of my running club’s member.  We kept each other on pace, keep up with the intensity of the hills by pushing through the pace as much as we can.  The rain slowed after mile 2 but came back at mile 7 when we were entering the Rose Bowl area where it was really hilly; combined the rain with the headwind and the hill, it was challenging.  My feet felt like they were under water, I actually felt water swooshing between my toes.  I was a bit worry about chafing and blisters on my body but decided to put it out of my mind and survey the damage when it’s all over.

By mile 10, we got to the highest elevation of the route, and the rest is all downhill from there.  My friend and I picked up speed and are determined to make good time.  I knew I wouldn’t PR today because the elevation of the course but I felt I made really good time and was consistent throughout the run.

The results are in, see below; I felt good about it as I am at the top 24 percent for women and women in my age group and 38 percent overall.

Overall: 1089 out of 2865

Women: 387 out of 1600

F 40-44: 54 out of 219

I was prepared for the rain, I packed towel, dry clothing and sandals in my car to change.  I was so happy to get out of soaking wet clothes and shoes, as I drove home, it was only 9:15 in the morning, most people are still in bed!!!  I had a big smile on my face all the way home, so happy that I did this, it felt great!!!

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 03/22/2009
• Time: 06:30:00
• Total Time: 2:12:56.00
• Calories: 1559
• Distance: 13.1 miles
• Average Pace: 10:09.14/mile

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03.20.09

Trying out my new running skirt.

Posted in Run, race at 4:37 pm by luluorange · Digg! this story.

I bought a pair of running skirt, I wanted to wear it for my 1/2 marathon this weekend but didn’t want to take a chance. So I tested it on a short run at the gym this morning. I love it!!! It’s cute and comfy, has side pockets on the inside shorts formy ipod. I got my outfits picked out for the race this weekend, now all I have to do is run it!!!

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 03/20/2009
• Time: 16:37:28
• Total Time: 00:30:00.00
• Calories: 391
• Distance: 3 miles
• Average Pace: 10:00/mile

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02.01.09

Surf City Marathon – race report

Posted in Races, Run, race at 12:00 pm by luluorange · Digg! this story.

The race took place in beautiful Huntington Beach; the course is fairly flat overall.

Let me give you a little bit of course overview about the course.  The last 10.2 miles was on the bike path right along the beach, the rest of the course covers 9 miles on Pacific Coast Highway with ocean view, we also get to venture into the city thru the Huntington Beach Park with lots of trees and a beautiful lake.

The weather couldn’t be more perfect, 50 degrees at sunrise (gun went off two minutes after sunrise at 6:48am).  By 11am, the temperature was about 67 degree.  The fact that most of the route is right along the water; I really enjoyed the ocean breeze. 

We were told that there were total 18,000 runners, about 2000 of them ran the marathon.  11,000 did ½ marathon and rest was 5K and kids run.  The marathon runners went out first; the ½ marathon runners followed an hour later and joined us at mile 8.

The residents at Huntington Beach all came out and showed their support, despite the inconvenience caused by the massive road closure.  The support all along the entire course was incredibly generous, makes you feel so warm inside.  Every chance I get I thank and wave to the volunteers, and boy, there were a lot of them.

Having the run a ½ marathon last October taught me a few lesson, one being “never go out on a distance run going too fast at the beginning, regardless how much I get wrapped up in the excitement”.    I keep reminding myself that thru out the first half of the race.  I did pretty good, took my scheduled walk breaks from the beginning, even when I feel I don’t need it. It was easy to do at first because there were only 2000 of marathoners and we hogged the road with ample room, everyone is running with the distance in mind, until mile 8, where the roads merged, we were suddenly joined by 11,000 ½ marathon runners who’s running faster than us.  Being passed constantly puts this invisible pressure on me.  I had to consciously slow down to not get caught up with the pressure.  After all, I still have 16 miles to go.

Mile 11 thru15 gets a bit mundane, the grinding of the miles starts to take its toll on the body, but the mind wonders all over the place besides tracking technical data (pace, walk break, trying to synchronized my scheduled walk breaks with water/support stations which I took advantage at every one) all that kept me quite busy. 

Starting miles 16, we were routed to the bike path; I started to realize why they limit the marathon entry.  The two narrow lanes of the bike path are all we get, 4 miles out and 5 miles back.  I see my fellow runners heading back as I was starting out at mile 16 and I regret not study the course map a little more carefully before hand.  I wondered how long I have to be on the path before turn around time.  Being that after the turn around point, we will officially be on the last leg of the race.  The “are we there yet?” mentality is nagging at me the whole time and I tried hard to block it out. 

At this point, the physical pain the discomfort had reached its limit and I just ignored it as long as it’s not “bad” pain.  The good thing is, it hurts to a point and it doesn’t get any worse.   I manage to take in the beautiful scenic route; the surfers are in the water riding the wave as we run by.  How California!  I realized how lucky I am to be able to do this.  This is REALLY COOL!!!

Mile 21, the left brain started to send out negative message, “I don’t really have to finish this.” “Why am I doing this?” “Let’s just stop and go get breakfast then take a nap”.  My right brain chimed in “Oh, no, you are not stopping, we’ve come this far, you ARE going to finish today.” “Do you know how embarrassed you will be if you don’t finish?”  The back and forth went on for a couple of miles, and my right brain wins.  When I see the “Mile 25” sign, I decide to cut out walk breaks and pickup speed to take it to the finish line.  I was so elated when I saw the finish line ahead, and then I found my husband with a camera taking my pictures.  There’s also the race photographer setting up on the other side of the finish line taking pictures as I cross the finish line.   I got a lot of photo opts today.

The results are in: Tag time – 4:56:35, I placed 1290 out of 1947 participants.

Out of 841 women, I placed 466.

I felt relieved, happy, exhausted and a sense of accomplishment!  What a great first marathon experience.

“There will be days when I don’t know if I can run a marathon, and there will be a lifetime that I know I have.”

I am 50 yards from the finish line, hooray!!!

At the finish line party

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 02/01/2009
• Total Time: 4:56:35.00
• Calories: 3492
• Distance: 26.2 miles
• Average Pace: 11:19.25/mile

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11.11.08

Troubled LA Marathon, I am changing plan to run Surf City Marathon.

Posted in Races, Run, race at 3:55 pm by luluorange · Digg! this story.

Disturbing news about the LA Marathon.  For 23 years, LA marathon had occurred on the first Sunday of March every year.  In September, Frank McCourt (who owns LA Dodgers) acquired the rights to operate LA Marathon.  They gave in the City’s demand that the race be moved from its traditional Sunday in early March to the Monday Presidents’ Day (February 16, 09)

The calendar change was designed to address complaints form religious leaders, who blamed race-day road closure and traffics congestion for making it difficult for their congregations to get to church.  I mean, are you kidding me?  Who runs marathon on a Monday?  In addition, President’s day is NOT a holiday for a lot of people, I for one, have NEVER gotten that day off but I was willing to take a vacation day to run it.

So to add insult to injury, it was announced yesterday, that the race day will be moved AGAIN to May 25^th, 09.   Need I say more?  My running club – LA Leggers, one of the official training programs for LA Marathon, has about 1300 members training for this race.  We are in peak training season, so now…at the end of February; we have no race to run.  Is this lovely?  Angry emails started to circulate last night amongst the members.

I took action quickly this morning, and signed up for the very limited space Surf City Marathon in Huntington Beach.  The race allows 15,000 runners but only 1,500 are to run the full marathon because of the bike path route limitation.  I figured most people are going to scramble to find a race to run in the area, I better get on it.  Forget about LA, if these people don’t know how to respect the runners and all they care about is their political agenda, I want no part of it.  I hope they go bankrupt, as it stands, they were in financial trouble (I wonder why), and they didn’t pay the elite runners who won the race two years ago.  Can you imagine that?  Runners that run as a business, run to win money, they won the race but didn’t get paid.  Those people are already boy-cutting the race; they are predicting the race participation will be down by 30 to 50%.

I still have yet to hear the backlash from this idiotic move from our club officials as to what are all the people going to do.  No one can maintain peak training condition for three months.  Should be interesting, I’ll keep everyone posted.  :)

Meanwhile, check out the Surf City Marathon link.

http://www.runsurfcity.com/

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