“Why do I keep signing up for these?” was the question going through my head over and over. I certainly don’t need any more medals or running shirts. It must be for my health, however everyone keeps saying I am ruining my knees.
Thanks to Jet Lag I was already awake at 3am so a 30 minute drive to Long Beach would prove easy. I loitered around the parking garage, reading my book, and then wandered over to watch the Marathon start at 6am, thankful I wasn’t doing that distance today.
My race actually didn’t start until around 7:30am, my wave actually went at 8am. I enjoyed the usual experience of people watching at the starting area. For some this was going to be their first half marathon. it was my super sweet 16th.
I have not done real well over the last 3 weeks with training as my bike incident still haunts me. Also running a race with jet lag is starting to make it harder. I did my best to take the first few miles slowly and felt pretty good. I got a few nice photos as well.
By mile 7 things were starting to hurt. I got the obligatory mile marker selfie (even had a photo bomb on purpose). By mile 9 it was starting to get really hot out. For the first time in a long time I started to feel the symptoms of “hitting the wall”. In the end I finished and that was my main goal. This race completed the Beach Cities challenge (OC, HB, and LB) so I earned a starfish medal too.
San Francisco next month…”Why do I keep signing up for these things?”
