Long Beach ICB Half-Marathon 2009

EVENT: Long Beach ICB Half-Marathon
DATE: Sunday, October 11, 2009
LOCATION: Long Beach, CA
RACE BEGAN: 7:00 am
FINISH TIME: 02:01:31

This was the third race I needed to run for the California Dreamin' racing series. I've run this race twice before, so was the third time the charm?

I'm finally taking the time to update this, so I guess this ends my short hiatus from blog postings.

Prelude

Race weekend was wonderful. I took off a couple of hours early on Friday to take "The Ukrainian" to the expo at the Long Beach Convention Center. There, we picked up our jackets that we earned from the California Dreamin' series, got our bibs/D-tags, and other goodies. Since it was SUCH a beautiful day... sunny yet cool... we spent the day walking the pier, eating breakfast (at The Omelette Inn in Downtown Long Beach -- see pics of black bean omelette and biscuits that we shared!) and beer (Yard House!) for dinner, and getting free admission into the Aquarium of the Pacific's shark lagoon. We were able to gawk at the pretty birds (laurakeets[sp?]) while we were there.







"The Ukrainian" had to teach on Saturday, so I relaxed, worked on my dissertation, and then enjoyed a nice pseudo-carbo-loading dinner at Souplantation. We have been doing most of our carbo-loads there now, since I am finding that the mix of carbs and greens works better than pasta, which often hides dairy and stuff that gives me a hard time on race day.

The Race

I decided to start in the first wave with "The Ukrainian" and was surprisingly not plowed over... in fact, the pace worked out well, since I did not have to weave around any walkers or really slow runners. I had made a special playlist for the race and was happily running in the cool, overcast weather.

I won't go over too many course details, since I've done this race twice before. The conditions were ideal for a PR, but although I felt I was pushing hard, did not walk or stop at water stations, and even chugged a gel, I seemingly was lagging in terms of pace during the long stretch along the bike path near the coastline between miles ~6-9.

My chip time was 2:01:31. I thought I was going to break 2 until sometime in the 12th mile, and although I pushed, I think that my leg speed has disappeared since I've been recovering from my injuries. My overall race pace was 9:17, which is actually somewhat slower than my training pace. Again, I have no idea what happened. I am disappointed, but in reality, this is my fastest over-2 time and 4th best half-marathon out of the 14 I've done now.

Epilogue

Watching all of those marathoners, including TeaTime (yay for so many marathons in a year!), come in made me nervous about my upcoming race, which only means I need to keep training.

Also, I found out that my "Ukrainian" came in 1:32:31... the freak... just kidding! We got our huge California Dreamin' medals and went to the beer garden for some 9:00 AM beer. I maybe had a fifth of my cup, since running and alcohol really don't mix. I had my share later that night when my classmates and I toasted to a test well done.

Anyway, that rounds out my last half-marathon of the year and the only race I've done a whole three times! I chose this picture proof (right) to post because I think it's funny that I look like I have a male entourage! Okay, so the real reason is because I am the most unphotogenic runner out there... And check out my loot below!!

P.S. I saw Moby in concert last night, and it was absolutely amazing!! More on that later...