Long Beach International City Bank Half-Marathon 2007

EVENT: Long Beach International City Bank Half-Marathon
DATE: Sunday, October 14, 2007
LOCATION: Long Beach, CA
RACE BEGAN: 7:30 am
FINISH TIME: 02:11:58

This race was particularly special for me for three reasons:

- It was my longest race since the marathon.
- It was the first race I've repeated so far.
- It was the first time I ran a race with people besides my sisters.

I was trying to PR in this half-marathon, though my secret goal was to hit 2:00. It might have been able to happen had the weather not been so hot (it was low/mid 70's pretty mu

ch in the beginning, which was a huge contrast to last year), my stomach didn't hurt, a chest muscle didn't cramp, and my hip didn't suddenly give up in the tenth mile. I had other forces working against me that morning, but I probably shouldn't elaborate.

Anyway, the first few miles went smoothly. I was forcing myself to slow down because I knew I would lose it if I didn't. I hit the 10k point pretty quickly (for me, at least). I think anything over that mileage is no-man's land for me. I dramatically slowed down after the 10k point because everything started to fall apart. I already knew I wasn't going to make my goal at the 10k point, so I just accepted it and was now just aiming to PR. I didn't miss the GU station at mile 10 like I did last year, but after a small mouthful of chocolate gel, I gave up and drank water and Powerade.

The last miles were brutal. I actually had to stop and walk a few times because of some of the things I listed above. Upon crossing the finish line, I took a finishing picture and proceeded to the food/fluid area, where I didn't get to "crust" any bagels because they were the onion kind (yuck).

Luckily, I PR-ed, though not by as much as I had wanted. I know I was capable of doing better (based on training and the last race I ran), but with races, you never know what can happen. You just have to enjoy the experience for what it is. And I, of course, definitely enjoyed it.

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