So the long awaited race report. This is long winded and just plain words play by play of the day before and day of (which is still today). Throughout the week as I upload and get some pictures I’ll be posting some of those too. Don’t worry I won’t leave much out in here, though Mr. R said I should stop posting about the bathrooms. :)

It began Friday night with me packing up my stuff and getting ready to go down to San Diego. This was the day where I was the most excited by far. Everything still feels like a dream as I type this. I went to bed at 9:30, and had a great sleep. Woke up at 6:00, showered, curled my hair (much to my dismay it was raining in SD and my hair became a lion’s mane) and went down to meet up with Alisa, and Kristen and their husbands, who were gracious enough to let me get a roll away in their hotel room. I met up with Alisa and we were instantly friends, she is so incredibly sweet and so fun! So is her husband!

We started out with a quick trip around the expo. I’m not made of money so I didn’t buy anything and wasn’t too interested in anything there. It’s a lot of stuff you can find online for cheaper. I swear I saw a jacket that was made out of the gear check bags for $100. Are you crazy? We then went to breakfast at a wonderful place called something along the lines of the ‘pancake house’ but I forget the whole name. It was amazing, and worth the wait, annnnd I taught Alisa and Justin my trick about using sour cream on pancakes instead of butter. Sounds gross but it’s BOMB. We got some race morning snacks at Ralphs after.

We then went back to the hotel room, relaxed and got ready for the blogging/tweeter meet up at the expo at one. We walked over there and the expo was packed, but I met up with ALL my favorite girls and boys! It was incredible, and I felt like we were all long lost friends. I then changed my corral number to be with the some of the girls at the start. I will include all the links to every one’s blogs in my picture post.

Then it was time to go back to the hotel, relax and get ready for dinner. I met up with a huge group at Spagettini’s in Little Italy right down the street and it was great to hang out with everyone and meet even more people. Super fun and I gabbed away with a bunch of amazing, super fast runners.

I got back to the hotel at 7:30 and got ready for bed and watched Will Ferrel in Kicking and Screaming. I was laughing hysterically, and was super relaxed. The only thing about the whole entire day Saturday was I felt like I wasn’t running a marathon the next day. I guess part of me couldn’t believe that it was actually, really here. Alisa came home shortly after and french braided my hair for me, which was amazing for the race.

We went to bed and I was out by 10. I slept great, except for some drunkards wandering the halls that i heard for maybe 5 minute at our hotel. We stayed right across from the “Gaslamp District”, where a lot of partiers go, but I fell back asleep shortly thereafter.

Funny thing happened though, right before I went to bed, Josh Cox, tweeted that he was in SD for the marathon tomorrow and asked if anyone else was around for it. I tweeted that I was and was going to be running my first the next morning. I also was watching one of my favorite female track stars, Allyson Felix, race on TV earlier in the afternoon. I have watched her race in high school and actually went to high school that she raced against. She blows my mind. I tweeted her too that I loved watching her race and would be channeling “her speed” during my marathon. Both are incredibly talented professional, Olympic athletes.

I wake up in the morning, realizing that today is the day, and lay in my bed letting it all sink in. I was warm and didn’t want to get up yet so I checked my tweets, and BOTH JOSH and ALLYSON tweeted me back good luck in my marathon. Talk about amazing motivation. I couldn’t even believe it. I was beyond excited and it made my entire day.

I got ready with my blue tank, spandex and got my gear bag ready. I was still semi-stunned and not nervous at all. I think I felt like whatever was going to happen would happen. I was just ready to get it started. We took a cab to the starting line and I had already gone to the bathroom twice and got in the portapotty line to go once more. I gear checked my bag and went over to the starting line to find corral 6. I still never felt like it was really going to happen.

Saw a few more people I knew, wished them luck and got in my corral. Though I couldn’t find the girls I wanted to start with, I was just ready to get going. The gun finally went off and we slowly started moving forward, FINALLY! I still felt fine but I just wanted to go forward.

There were some rolling hills on the first few miles, and within mile 1 I saw the girls I wanted to meet up with and ran with them. I remember just wanting to get to mile 6 because then it would be 20 more miles which was what I had run before. I ran the first 16ish miles with Aron, who was amazing because she put up with my whining about my bathroom issues.

At mile 6 the balls of my feet were on fire already and I knew I wasn’t going to break 4 hours. I have the issue sometimes that where my toe connects to my feet it just goes numb and burns with every step. I remembered to tell myself that it was okay, and that any pace, a finish was possible. It was somewhat discouraging to be only at mile 6 though. I had considered also already going to the bathroom which I DIDN’T want to have to do. At mile 8, I unfortunately had to stop to go to the bathroom. I thought this was going to be super helpful to me to make me feel better. Wrong. WAY wrong.

Yup, that’s right. I got something that only girls get and it just happened to come at mile 8. WONDERFUL. I wasn’t expecting this for a few more days and in the past 10 years of running this has NEVER happened to me. I came out and was just in disbelief. This and my somewhat upset stomach lead to four more bathroom stops for me! I sure experienced a lot of portapotties at this marathon that’s for sure. Looking back, and even at the time, I laughed and just thought, no way is this happening. Really?! Out of all things that was the least expected! Oh well, it was just one of those things I guess. Nothing I could do about it.

Around mile 10, we ran up a hill that I didn’t know was a hill. This sounds weird but it was a long, gradual hill that lasted a mile. That was incredibly tough for me. I think it was hard for me because some reason I didn’t realize we were running up hill. Aron and I talked about some random stuff and it was seriously so amazing to run with her. I was so glad that she was there, and after the hill, she said something along the lines, “Wow that hill was rough!” and I said, “Ohhhhh that’s why I was feeling like crap! okay, so I can do this!” We got to mile 13 and I realized it was going to be a long day. I’d already had two bathroom stops and knew I would have to stop more. That was the most disappointing thing.

Aron and I parted ways when she met up with Tara and I still needed to make more bathroom breaks. I saw them another time right before a hill and then they passed me again. Around mile 2o my legs were shot. This was when things got a little weird. I saw two people who were racing get engaged at the top of the hill at mile 20, I was going up the hill and started to cry when I saw them. Then for the rest of the race, I was on somewhat of the verge of tears at any given point for no reason at all. At this point, I was tired but I knew I could get it done. I just kept chugging along and tried my hardest not to think of my legs who were screaming at me to stop. Then around mile 22, I began to walk through a water station and drank some Cytomax and that stuff is pretty amazing! After the water station I would run again and then if I wanted to drink water, I would go through the station walking again and actually enjoy the water or Cytomax. I ended up walking through two water stations. I stopped three more times after my two stops with Aron for the bathroom. Awful, my stomach was not happy.

I got to mile 23 and told myself it was only a 5k to go. I knew I could run three miles. I just kept going and watched the ground. Then I saw the 24 mile marker. I kept just counting down the steps in my head and telling myself that I felt good and that I could do this and it was only another 20 minute of running. It was really messing with my mind though, and my legs were very sore. Then, I saw a friend named Emil and he ran with me from mile 24 to mile 25 and it was amazing to run with him too. He told me to keep going and he is a marathon MANIAC. He’s already done 7 this year and 25 overall. I told him he was a crazy person for doing these so often, but he did keep my mind off my legs and told me how much farther to go. At mile 25, I pretty much took off and gave it everything I had left in me.

I am interested to know my last mile time, but I will not have that until I upload Claude, my garmin, but I think it was the fastest mile I ran all day. I was in so much pain but I was so over the race and I just wanted to see the finish line and to stop running. I saw so many cheerers and I was hopeful that Mr. R would be at the finish line. I felt like we were going around the ‘bend’ in the marine base to the finish forever. FOREVER. I was thinking to myself, I can only go this fast for so long!!!! Then finally, it was over. I did some weird movement thinking that it might look good in a picture across the finish line and started walking after I crossed the mat. My legs were killing me but I wasn’t tired at all. My official finish time was 4:28. I made my A goal and finished a full marathon!

I got my medal, which is hideous and disappointing, ha ha, and some water and some of my new favorite Cytomax. Then I found chocolate milk and ditched the water and took a picture at the ‘photostation‘ with my medal and the photographer told me it was “cute.” Which I think in my somewhat dazed state I said, “Good.” I continued to wander and finally saw the girls I was running with for a while. We chatted and then I got a foil blanket. Finally I went to find Mr. R who texted me he was waiting and I saw him right when I walked out of the crowd. I was so surprised to see my roommate and her mom there too! It was an amazing surprise!!

I stood around and told them what ‘happened’ at mile 8, which grossed everyone out, and then I think I proceeded to talk about poop, I am full of class, but honestly, my mind wasn’t working at all. I feel like I was just talking nonsense. My roommate and her mom walked back to their car and I met Ryan Hall and told him that Josh Cox twittered me. I follow both of them. I got a picture (will post soon) and then Mr. R asked me how we were getting back to the hotel. Doy, didn’t even think of that, so we met back up with my roommate who was kind enough to wait for us and then drive us back to our hotel. Walking was slow and steady.

We got back and Mr. R, being the best ATC that he is, got ice for an ice bath and stretched me out a little bit. I was a little nauseous but showered up, and got ready to go. We went to a nearby mall and walked around for a little bit, and he even took me to a wonderful mecca called the Tory Burch Store and in my bewildered state I just took it all in, and it was amazing. We walked around for a bit until I got too tired and then we drove home.

Honestly, I’m not really tired at all, but my legs are very sore. Mostly my ankles hurt to go straight and my quads are very tight. I chafed in a sweet spot on my thighs too so that hurt a lot when I hopped in the ice bath. My hips are sore from my fuel belt and constantly pulling it down but the part of my body that hurts the most by far is my lower back. I am going to stretch a lot and hope for the best but I know I’ll be sore for a little bit. I am going to try to run again on either Wednesday or Thursday.

Well if you read that whole thing, you as well deserve a medal as well because I think I may still be in somewhat of a delusional state. I will give out cute medals though, just wait until you see the blue, yellow and red glittery WINDSURFER on my medal…. yes, I’m serious. I think I still can’t believe that it’s over, and I did do it, and all that crazy/funny/random stuff happened to me, but hey, it happens!

I will be posting the pictures and links and anything else exciting from the weekend soon and I am so thankful to everyone who was tweeting me, and send me such nice messages and commenting. You guys really pulled me through some tough times today, and each and every one of you are so inspiring to me! Seriously it means so much to me. I had a great time this weekend and a great race and I’m proud to say that I ran a marathon. I am going to let it marinade for a while and see how I feel about it before I post my ‘feelings’ and possible new endeavors. I will also be posting a review of the course for any of those interested in running it anytime soon. :) I hope you all enjoyed this long drawn out report. Everything is such, and still is a blur.

Thank you, thank you, thank you though, from the bottom of my sore little heart.

xoxo

First off, I want everyone to visit Wine and the Finish line, It was because of them that I got to actually be chip timed this weekend at the Seal Beach 10k and I’m so thankful that I didn’t have to run as a bandit! I hope your foot gets better asap Kristen! They are such a cute couple and I love reading about their training and races.

So as I mentioned last week, I ran to the starting line and back home after the Seal Beach 10k this weekend. It seems lately that I don’t just want to race but I want to take it to the next level and do some extreme racing. I thought that running to and from the race would also be ‘green’. It actually worked out pretty well. I woke up and put on my new Zensah arm warmers, my running skirt and my favorite racing tee, my Nike Women’s Virtual Half Marathon shirt. I got maybe the worst bar ever, a Roman Meal bar. Don’t even try it, it’s DISGUSTING. I could only eat half of it and then I threw it away. I had my hydration belt and two gus ready to go when I felt the urge. I had to go number dos.

I ran my last 10k and thought I was going to poop my shorts the ENTIRE time, so I knew I better take care of it when I was still in the comfort of my own home. I always get nervous before a race and I have to go. So I did that and then forgot to check my watch before I left to know how much time I had to run there. I had allotted myself a solid 45 minutes but then with the bathroom issue I forgot to check when I actually left. I had about two miles to go and I started to freak out that I wasn’t going to make it there in time. So I ran faster, and got some strange looks while running to the race by the people walking there from the surrounding parking lots. I got there with eight minutes to spare. Perfect. I had half a gu, drank some of my water, said hello to a few random people I saw. I took off my hydration belt and left it under a tree by the starting line and then tried to figure out where I needed to be in the pack of people surrounding me.

Now, I totally understand some people were walking the 10k, running the 5k, had strollers, had dogs, had small children. I’m not exceptionally fast and I reminded myself numerous times that this was just a part of my longer run. I had ALREADY run three miles to the starting line anyways. But this starting line was a MESS. I was dodging kids, dogs, strollers, faster people were trying to get by me, it was just a jumbled up chaotic hullabaloo. I don’t want to sound mean but if you are going to walk a 5k, do not be in the front of the starting line. I wasn’t even that close to the front of the starting line, but the zigging and zagging was a little bit to much for me, and I always feel bad when I have to almost cut someone off to get through, but sorry I don’t want an elbow in my boob. I was trying to make my way to some open space when someone tapped my arm, it was the speedy LA Runner. He was zooming by but we exchanged some quick words and then he powered ahead.

So after the 5k-10k split things started to get much better, it was much more open and I had to tell myself constantly, “Self, DON’T RACE TOO HARD”. When the 90 year old grandma passed me I let her go, when the 5 year old kid ran past me I let him go. I was a-okay with letting people pass me and just chugged along reminding myself I had to go home later. I worked really hard at getting my splits even, which Claude was saying I was right at a 8:15 pace. I tried to keep that pace even throughout the race without burning out or going fast and then slowing down and going fast again. Call me Miss. Consistent, because I got all my splits to be within 10 seconds of 8:15. When I rounded to the finish line I saw all these people eating Popsicles and thought that they would be at the finish. They weren’t and I never even found them. LAME.

The course was long and boring, 10ks are not my thing but for being a free race, ‘inside’ my long run, it worked out perfectly. My final time was 50:34 with an average pace of 8:09. I came in 357th overall out of 1576. I was 9th in my age group and the 76th girl overall.

I traveled with LA Runner to his car after so we could of course take pictures, we slow jogged and got some cool pictures and then I headed back to my hydration belt under the tree. It was still there so I took the remained of my gu and headed back home. Once I got home I had two more miles to run according to Claude for my long run. It was getting hot so I ran in my sports bra. I haven’t done that in forever, nor should I do it ever, but it was fun and it felt good to finish my run and feel so free. That was a really lame line. So I finished with 16 miles, including my 10k race.

So here’s the race report, pictures and all, including no official finish time, since I didn’t get timed. Good to know though, looking back if I would have ran the half I would have won my age group. Wha-Wha… Anyways, oh well, what can you do. I decided race morning to limit myself to the 5k, because I had looked at the course (shocking!) and knew that it was a a giant loop. Once I was seven miles out, I was seven miles out and had to finish to come back to the car. I knew I could probably run a solid seven miles, but a half marathon doesn’t end at seven miles and after that who knows what would have happened. Don’t get me wrong, I REALLY wanted to run the 1/2, but I knew that I would be dealing with being sick for a lot longer if I did run it, and I was already over the whole being sick thing and wanted to feel better asap.

I also know I am uber competitive. This would have been disastrous and probably would have ended in me pushing myself WAY to hard and getting even more sick, missing more days of work, being sick in Hawaii, the list goes on. So I 5ked it up, and even that was out of control for me. I decided not to bring Claude so I wouldn’t be checking my splits and super worried about my time and just have a good solid run. We set off and I was with the back of the pack because started with my cousins and I also like working my way up through the pack. Stupid, but whatever, don’t judge me, I was on medication.

We take off and the course for the first mile and a half is on a paved neighborhood like street. I race through the crowds zigging and zagging my way around people. I was the one who held onto the car key because I was going to finish the race first and it was going to be cold so I wanted to wait in the car for a while. I tucked the key in my shorts like so.

As you can see it was a really pretty area, but this is my thumbs down for my race time.

My cousins and I after the race, happy to be done with the 5k for sure.

So yes, the race was completed, I didn’t have Claude the one time I really needed him, but I did find the key, so all in all a success. I am going to go for a run tomorrow and get my training plan back on track because I have definitely not been on track because of this sickness. I have to get working on my mileage again so that I can continue to train for my full marathon at the end of May.

Hope you enjoyed the debacle.

xoxo

PS oh by the way (congrats on making it this far down the post…), tomorrow I’m having a GIVEAWAY!!! Be sure to lurk by then! :)

So I preface this report with the fact that I’ve run trails once before. I really enjoyed that trail run and felt really good after it. That was a 10 mile out and back. The Malibu Creek Trail run was one giant loop. I don’t really do to well on looped runs but I figured what the heck, and I got conned into the race by Billy. I was lucky enough to be able to stay with Sara, and we went out dinner with some friends before the race at C & O Cocina, and they had amazing food!

At dinner, remind me never to wear that vest again. Thanks.

Here’s the elevation chart. Yea, possibly should have looked at this before the race.

Onto the race. Sara and I woke up early and ready to go. I just didn’t have the worlds best feeling about my knee but I knew I would hopefully be able to tough it out. I liked the last trail run. I was excited to run 15 miles, a new race distance pr for me. We drove to Malibu Creek and it was freezing. We had checked the weather beforehand and it said it would be 45 degrees. When we got there it was 33. That’s a pretty big difference! I actually walked over to the race check in wearing my blanket that I slept with the night before wrapped around me. I got a few funny looks but I’m not a cold weather lover unless I’m prepared for it.

Hi, I’d like to check in to get annihilated now. Thanks.

Then I went back to the car to put down my blanket and get my bottle and everything, and yup, as I’m walking back I totally missed the start. Cool. I would have normally FLIPPED out, but I was like whatever, I’m going to take my time and make sure I’m prepared and then take off. I finally left the starting area around 5 minutes later. I quickly caught up to the last of the packs and I was SUPER annoyed. There were random people yehawing? I was already dead at mile 3 and I had 12 more to go. My love for trail running was slowly dying. I climbed a few hills and on the first downhills my knee immediately was killing me. I knew it wasn’t smart to push myself and just figured I would run when I could and walk/jog when I couldn’t.

This was the start. I missed it. See that mountain in the background? Pretty sure we climbed it.

It was then when I met up with Yolanda, which I will go into more tomorrow, she was so inspiring and I can’t wait to tell you all about her!!

It was pretty, but I don’t know about worth it.

Another totally funny part of the race. We were running along and some guy told us to follow up to the road. Now this was a busy road and we had to hike up a little mini hill to get to the top and travel down the road, I felt like the race directors wouldn’t have us run down this road, but I followed him because he seemed to know what he was doing and I didn’t know the route. WELL I MISSED THIS RIVER because of him! How funny and GREAT… I would have flipped. So yup, this race I technically cheated as well. Well again I was told that this was the path but seriously, how funny.

The hills, yup, no joke here. This one wasn’t even that bad at all.

So I slugged along, the hills were BRUTAL. I have NEVER experienced something like this before. They kept coming and coming and coming I would think that the next one would be the last, but no it wasn’t. It was like you got to the top and then you could see the next path you were about to travel. Hard-freaking-core. Then as it always happens, what goes up must come down. Yikes. So the downhills were pretty hard for the knee but it held up, but the toes are a little hurt from being squashed into the front of my shoes, especially with two already beat up toenails. I hopefully salvaged them last night and this morning and they are looking okay. I’m in a wedding this weekend and my feet look like those of an ogre. Cool fashion statement.

Back to the race. I continued to slug along. I asked someone how much farther and they said about 3.5 more miles according to their garmin. I realized that my nike plus just stinks it’s pretty much worthless. After I found out how much farther I thought okay, YOU CAN DO THIS. My whole body was aching. My quads were killing me from so much hill work, my toes and feet hurt and I was positive that I was getting a huge blister on my heel, but I thought it’s only a 5k more. We were running on a pretty flat surface and I was fighting to finish the race, when I fell. I just twisted my ankle and went down. It was a straight down awkward slow motion fall. I think a weird incomprehensible sound flew out of my mouth and I oddly heard the thud as I fell. I just was like wow, this was just the icing on the cake. The women in front of me and the guy behind me were immediately asking if I was okay and I totally was, I walked off my ankle and almost started laugh crying. It was a weird, weird feeling. I tried my hardest to slow jog the remaining 3 miles and re-met up with Sara and she encouraged me, it was nice to see a friendly face. Then FINALLY after three hours and forty minutes of running, hiking, jogging and PURE TORTURE I finished.

Things I learned from this race:
1. I need to stop listening to Billy and allowing him to con me into races
2. I NEED hill work
3. It’s okay to be slow. It’s more than okay to walk.
4. Clip your toenails SUPER short before any type of running activity
5. An elevation change of almost 3,000 feet may not be the best idea to climb
6. It’s okay to get your BUTT KICKED every now and then
7. Sometimes, it’s okay to be happy with just finishing the race

I did enjoy the race, I learned a lot about a totally different type of running and I have SO much respect for trail runners now. It was a trying experience to say the least. Today my butt is KILLING ME, and so is my lower back. Tonight I’ll be doing some hardcore stretching while relaxing since it’s thankfully a rest day for me.

I think that this post goes to show that what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger. Thank you Malibu Creek 25k for bringing me out of my comfort zone and just kicking me when I’m down.

xoxo

PS: Thanks to Billy who ran with a camera and stole all his pictures from his site. :)

So to start this off, I’m very disappointed and upset about this race so I’m sorry if this isn’t my normal peppy upbeat post. I just have to share with you guys and then I hope to never think of it again. I know I can’t keep beating myself up about it, but I literally cried about it yesterday. Sitting at my computer desk, tears rolling down my face, crying. It was bizarre, but I felt like it was a good cry and that helped me to not be so hard on myself. After that little preface, read on!

So the night before the race we had a little forum encounter from the Runners World Forums. It’s incredibly motivating to me to meet more runners and hear more stories. Everyone was so nice and it was a blast to meet more people that I ‘talk’ to daily on the forums.