Long Beach Marathon

Packet pickup/Expo
I left work early on Friday to pickup my race packet and attend the expo. I first went to Costa Mesa to eat some ramen. Then I made my way up to Long Beach. I parked at the meters for 75 cents... good for only 30 mins so I knew I had to hurry. I used about 10-15 minutes just from walking to and from the expo. I picked up my bib and t-shirt and then proceeded to rush through the expo. I picked up a wristband for Train4Austism. I'll be wearing it at all of my future races. I said hi to the girls at the Rock n' Roll booth, Dane signing/selling his book, and Dennis at the Surf City booth. Then I hiked back to my car. The meter had just expired as I got back to my car.

FE at Nino's
I kind of wanted to control my diet so I had a solo dinner at Shinsengumi in Fountain Valley. That place is over-hyped and over-rated. The ramen was good, but not even close to being the best. Then I made my way to Nino's for the FE. At the FE were Vixen (+1), Ingrid, Charlie, Kevin, James, Mae*, Roccco, Renee, Cindy (+1), Kwikkchik. I believe I got everybody. It was fun chatting with folks about running that can appreciate the sport.

*I knew I was missing somebody! Sorry Mae!

Pre-race
I pre-paid for parking this year which was something new. It was painless getting to my designated parking structure. I got in a quick nap listening to Snoop Dogg, quite fitting since the guy came out of Long Beach. When it came close to the start, I jogged out to the starting area. My right Achilles felt sore. I headed for the portapotties and was immediately spotted by James. Yes, I was wearing my orange Worldvision shirt. Then when I came out of the potty, I was spotted by Howard. Again the shirt made me stand out like a brightly lit Christmas tree in the middle of summer.

James and I headed to the starting area to catch the start of wave 1. We wished Howard a good race since he wanted to run with the 4:15 pace group in wave 2. While waiting for the start in wave 1, Sam and Tiffany spots me. It seems that all of us were planning to run in the neighborhood of 3:40. We spotted Dane Rauschenberg, a fantastic runner. He started with us to provide some comedic relief for about 200 meters and then took off to run his race. He would go on to run a 3:06 while claiming to be out of shape.

1st Half
I ran behind James for the first couple of miles. Then somehow I lost him and ended up in front of him. Then he zoomed by on a downhill. Later I saw my friend Lori up ahead, so I chased her down to say hi. I ran with her for a little bit but I realized that we were right behind the 3:20 pace group. So I wished her a good race and dropped back. I reached the 10k mark at exactly my 8:30 target pace, but my Achilles was not feeling good at all. If I pushed on, I would probably end up causing real damage. I considered a DNF, but I decided to slow down and try to get to the halfway mark in one piece. It was weird filling up my handheld and putting in Nuun on a road race. It felt like everybody was in a hurry to get somewhere. Mile markers for 7 and 9 were definitely off. I felt like hell after getting off of the concrete bike path. Concrete 3 Me 0. I was able to see James, Sam, and Tiffany as I was heading towards the mile 13 turnaround. Then shortly after the mile 13 turnaround I saw Chicrunner. She would catch up to me and pass me later. I got to the half in about 1:59:30, but I was toast.
1: 8:24
2: 8:15
3: 8:13
4: 8:56
5: 8:32
6: 8:42
7: 10:37
8: 9:44
9: 7:15
10: 9:37
11: 9:48
12: 9:21
13: 10:54

2nd Half
It was like driving a car with a flat tire. And what do you do when you have a flat? Pull over, slap on the donut and drive 35 mph to the nearest garage. Since I'm not a car, I jogged as much as I could at maybe 4 mph trying to get back to my parking garage before the 5 hour mark. I had to rest the Achilles with lots of walking especially when going uphill. I got to see Dane and Lori heading home while I was still going out to visit Cal State Long Beach. Howard and the 4:15 pace group passes me. At around mile 24 all I heard was a loud speaker playing domoarigato mister roboto! There was a guy dressed like a Hotdog on a Stick employee. Yes, he was wearing a cap that was red, blue, and yellow along with a matching outfit. I was for sure that Howard would hang on to the pace group and finish at 4:15, but around mile 25 I caught up to him. We walked together a little bit and he took off. I continued to jog here and there. Walked to and fro... but I didn't open up my stride until I saw the 26th mile marker. It was one of those crisis control marathons, but I was glad that I didn't have to literally crawl across the finish line like I did the 2 previous times that I've ran this race.
14-15: 21:31
16: 12:12
17: 12:38
18: 13:28
19: 12:12
20: 12:29
21: 13:18
22: 13:23
23: 15:44
24: 13:42
25: 14:27
26: 13:58
26.2: 1:50
Finish: 4:49:21

Post-race
I am through with Long Beach. I've consistently had horrible racing experiences at this marathon. It might just be coincidence, but this will probably be my last time running this race. Nuun prevented the cramps again but since I was only jogging the 2nd half, I had to keep using the portapotties. It was really cool to have people you know cheer for you... thanks Billy, Renee, and Ingrid! Now I have to go fix my flat tire before the MCM, NYC, Fresno, and Malibu fiasco... 4 marathons in 4 consecutive weekends. This race pretty much sealed the deal and decided for me that there will be no Death Valley-Las Vegas double marathon this year. I aggravated the same tendon earlier this year around the time that I ran the Malibu Creek trail run.