Long Beach Marathon- by Holly

First, seriously, Long Beach was BEAUTIFUL!!! Wow... had no idea! Of course, you look down in one direction and it's harbor beauty and the other direction is stinky oil refineries, so hey, you just look one way... ;-) No seriously---it was a GREAT place for a race. This race had MORE aid stations than any other race I ever did!!!!! They were so well supported, great energy, and the fans cheering were SO FRIENDLY! It will be my most "friendly" race! Even the TEAM IN TRAINING cheering folks were friendly? OMG, yes, that is what I said!! One of their coaches jumped on the course and ran a block or so with me to cheer me on at Mile 23ish.... never in my life would I have believed it if I didn't live it! And now for the gorey details... the first half was GORGEOUS for me! The second half???? Let's just say that I found new meaning to the word PAIN? And you guys know me... do I EVER stop and use the restroom during a race??? 13th mile sent me glorious side stitches, nearly hunched over... I had tummy probs from dinner before I went to bed the night before and they went away until about Mile 13... and then BAM... I blew about 15-20 minutes on pain and slowing down...grrrr... and it sent me running for the toilet. It really wrecked the midsection of my run... because I had about a 10:40 pace up until that point---ARGH!!!!! I was better by 16...and near perfect again by 18-19...and Mile 20+ was fantastic!!!!!!!!!!!! So I got the majority of my miles under control...and we had a GREAT course, GREAT weather, GREAT energy from all those volunteers and fans... all those things helped me cope with the on-the-course problem, get over it, and get rolling again. so could I have cracked 5 hours?? I'm thinking I would have come closer... so what the heck did I eat the night before that rocked my world??? Not the regular pasta I always have----we did the pasta feed with regular pasta (instead of my whole wheat stuff) and the killer was 4 bites of a piece of pizza with friggin' GOAT CHEESE on it!!!!!! DARN IT!!!! aw man!!! between that, that usual excitement/anxiety of night before race...who knows. But I did still beat my PR (NYC/5:33) and did Long Beach at 5:25, so hey, every minute counts! But if I ever walked away from a race and was totally done, ready to stop, how would I ever be ready to set my next PR??? hee hee. Carlsbad---bring it!! With a vengence!!! But yes, I did sprint at the end and it was all downhill and felt amazing... seriously, Mile 23 on was great... legs felt great, no pain in the calf, no feeling of blisters, no nothing! side stitch was gone...and I was plowing forward, happy to see all those people, and all that beautiful sunshine, palm trees, blue water coastline...it was a gorgeous moment. One of my favorite finishes... and as soon as I stopped to take a breath, I looked up and there was Michael, who had finished 30 minutes BEFORE that... but he waited in that Medal area for me and that was the best hug I ever had!!!! And day after? or the day AFTER the day after? Doing ok... quads are definitely worked. I had backed off my trainer's sessions the last few weeks and I think I might have needed to keep up some of those lunges and squats... and shoulders/upper back are sore... Chiro is my friend! If I sit for a bit and stand up... it SUCKS.... but once I am moving, I feel pretty good... so hey, victory!!!! ;-)