It was really a very good day. This is the fastest I have run a half marathon since my all downhill adventure in Fontana. I felt strong, even though I had a big training weekend, and my confidence is growing that I will be able to finish Ironman Arizona.
The Long Beach Half Marathon (and Marathon) is a reasonably well organized event and it goes through some nice, scenic areas. I got a nice view of the Queen Mary and a good portion of it runs along the beach. The only down side is that it is a very crowded run throughout the entire race. Usually the crowds will thin out after the first mile or so as all of the runner find their pace, but much of the course is so narrow that never really happened. The people who did the full marathon got some relief when they split off, but that didn't happen until about mile 11. I guess I shouldn't complain too much, I had a very good day.
I saw quite a number of L.A Leggers out there and we shouted our support to each other, I only saw a couple of L.A Tri folks running.
At about mile 12 the street I heard vehicles from behind clearing half the street to make way for the full marathon leaders coming through. I decided that as he came, I would try to run with him for as long as I could. After all, whoever it was was a good runner, but this is hardly an event that would attract the world's best. I there probably weren't any Kenyans or Ethiopians running in this race. I could hear the police escort and then the lead vehicle and I turned back and saw the leader. He was coming pretty fast. I took off in a sprint as he was approaching a few feet behind me and was able to keep up for about ten to twelve feet. However, this did inspire me to pick up my pace a little and a finished the last mile in under ten minutes, where as I averaged 10:45/mile according to my Garmin.
I am very happy with my results of 2:23:20 and it finished my three-day ironman.
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