2024 Long Beach Half Marathon Race Recap

This past weekend I ran the 40th anniversary of the Long Beach marathon/half marathon. I had originally signed up for the full marathon last year afte running CIM (recap here). I felt like I made a breakthrough with last year’s CIM in terms of fueling and training properly and figured that I would like to try my hand at another full and go for another PR. With lots of changes in early 2024 and then a significant drop in mileage in the summer I elected to drop to the half marathon distance. I’m very glad that the race organizers allow a drop down in distance without any additional fees. I emailed the race folks and they seamlessly changed me from the full marathon to the half marathon. Leading up to the race my long run was 8.5 miles. With this being my 23rd half marathon, I knew in my mind that I could run it and felt reasonably confident that I could finish and still have a decent time. My very first half marathon back in 2010 was just shy of the 2 hour 30 minute mark and since then I’ve had a goal to continue a sub 2:30:00 streak for as long as possible.

Race Expo: The race expo was held on Friday and Saturday before the Sunday race. The location was on Marina Greens, a grassy area by the start and finish line by the Long Beach Port. I elected to find some parking in the nearby neighborhood and walk about a half mile to the pickup (otherwise you could park across from the expo but would have to pay – along with wait in line with all the cars trying to get in). I was also scoping out where I might be able to park on race morning (again to avoid paying but also waiting in line to get into a parking lot/structure). After getting my race bib and shirt, I walked through the expo area. There were many tents set up with all the usuals (official race gear, various food/drink vendors like Zico, protein powder/drinks, snacks, Yakult, etc). With the shirt we received a tote bag which came in quite handy and I must say that my expo haul was a lot better than most of the ones I’ve attended. I tried a sample of some protein drink and it left a bad aftertaste (I can’t recall what company it was though).

The night before the race I had my usually pizza dinner.

Race morning: The race organizers earlier in the week had altered the starting times for the races due to projected hot weather for race day. Originally the forecast had stated it would hit 90 F on race day (actual temps ended up being high of 84 and low of 62 . The organizers moved the marathon start from 6:00 am to 5:30 am and the half marathon start from 7:00 am to 6:30 am (with wave starts). I woke up around 3:06 am on my own (had set the alarm for about 3:30). I had some toast with peanut butter and jelly and peanut butter and honey. Also before leaving, I downed a glass of UCAN energy powder. I had experimented with this for the 2023 CIM race and seemed to sit fine with my tummy.

Getting to the start: My plan was to leave a little over an hour before race start to give me time to park and walk to the starting line (I had anticipated that driving would be about 20-25 minutes and then walking another 5-10 minutes). What I didn’t foresee is that many many other people had the same idea as me (finding free street parking). I circled and circled looking for places and slowly made my way further and further away from the starting area. I was getting frustrated and started thinking that maybe I’d just give up and go home and call it a day. But I gave it one final circle and saw a spot that was just big enough for my car. I parked and started making my way to the start line (it was about a mile total) alternating between jogging and walking because it was starting to inch closer to 6:30 am (I also really had to pee since I had drank that big glass of UCAN before leaving the house). Luckily I arrived and hopped into the porta potty line and managed to work my way up to the starting line for one of the wave starts around 6:50 pm.

The race: The race started on Shoreline drive and the first 6 miles of the race had us running through the Long Beach Waterfront area. Within this area are the Long Beach Arena, Performing arts Center, Aquarium of the Pacific, Hotels, shops, harbor (sail and motor boats). This is also near where cruise ships often leave from. The weather at the race start was overall something I enjoyed – it was quite foggy and remained overcast during the entirety of my race (I think the sun ended up coming out later in the morning after I was done). The first mile was along some flat streets and overall fairly crowded. I settled into an easy pace. Just past the first mile we made a U turn and headed back the way we came. We hooked a right before mile 2 and climbed up and over the Queensway bridge.

On the other side we wound our way under the bridge for miles 3 and 4 and then headed back over the bridge. We passed by the Aquarium of the pacific and then wound through Shoreline Park along the water.

I then made my way back by the start/finish line area but closer to the water and headed on out along the paved beach path (starting around the 6.5 mile mark). My race plan was to consider the run-walk method which I have employed in both longer training runs and a few races. For this race I had set my watch to remind me for a run/walk ratio of 5 min/45 seconds. I did not end up listening to my watch for every single one of those intervals but kind of strategically employed it throughout the race – looking at my stats I think I ended up with about 13 walk breaks (some were not during the watch’s recommendation but for the aid stations. I suspect I crossed the halfway mark around the 1:08 time frame. This put me in good position to get another sub 2:30 time. Overall I felt good – legs weren’t too tired, breathing/heartrate seemed to be good. Running along beach was cool – the actual beach was empty and it was still overcast.

We crossed over the pier area (which had an incline and decline) and continued to make our way east along the beach. Our turnaround to head back to the finish area was in the Belmont Shore/Naples area. I used to come down to this area as a kid to go kayaking in the canals. The turnaround brought us onto Ocean Blvd which was lined with many spectators. Throughout the race there were pockets of people playing music (much of it was hip hop which I could get down to). I had my Aftershokz on but didn’t end up turning them on until about mile 10 for some added motivation. At the mile 10 mark I told myself to start picking up the pace since overall I was feeling good – I still did a few walk breaks at the aid stations. For mile 12, 13, and the final 0.1 I really pushed it – my garmin states I was sub 10 min/mile pace during this last effort. The preceding 11 miles I averaged around 10:10-10:26 min/mi. I sprinted to the finish in a time of 2:15:01.

Finish line: The finish line area was quite crowded as you would expect – there were 2 separate finishes (one for the half and one for the full). I had brought a plastic bag with me since I know often you can get goodies (water, choco milk, bananas, etc) at the finish but don’t have a way to carry it. Another guy actually stopped me because he had pulled out his bag and was like “time to go shopping.” I collected some water, coconut water, banana, protein bars and then continued towards the finish area/expo. There were so many people crowding the exit that I elected not to even try to go to the finish line festivities area (you could get a free beer after finishing). Instead I pushed my way through the crowds and crossed the street to the parking area and then weaved my way back onto the street area and walked back to my car.

Gear/nurition: I ran the race in my Saucony Endorphin Pro 3s. I used this for my last full marathon. I also used 2 Maurten gels during the race. I had a Gu watermelon energy gel as well but didn’t end up using it.

Final thoughts: Overall I thought the race was well organized in terms of packet pickup, course selection, etc. My biggest critique is probably the aid stations. At some of the aid stations they weren’t ready for the crush of runners and actually had cups lined up on the tables that had yet to be filled with water. Luckily some other tables did have water and electrolytes ready but it still required stopping, searching, etc. I didn’t get too much chance to explore the starting area since I was running late and needed to use the porta-potties but it appears that there were decent lines at most of them (and then there was a hidden one that didn’t have much of a line but I didn’t see it until I was almost to the front of my line so didn’t want to chance it). I felt good after the race with some soreness that day and actually felt minimal soreness the next day. By Tuesday I made it out for a recovery run and felt good overall. That does tell me I wasn’t “racing” and putting in hard effort for the race but that was never my intention for this race.

Total time: 2:15:01 (10:18 min/mi)

-StewsCat

2023 California International Marathon Training summary

Prior to the start of lockdowns and the world changing in 2020, I had signed up for my 5th full marathon (California International Marathon) along with one of my good friends. However due to circumstances surrounding the pandemic, that year’s marathon was cancelled. The race organizers were extremely gracious and provided all registrants with a voucher for entry into a subsequent year’s race for 3 additional years. This was the last year to use the voucher so my friend and I agreed to sign up early in the year. I have only done one in-person race since 2019 (my first 30K – here).

I’ve never truly followed a training plan fully in any of my previous marathons – either due to injury, travel, or just lack of focus. This time I wanted to create a plan and try sticking to it in an attempt to break 5 hours (my previous best time was 5:00:03). I created (more like cobbled and frankensteined) a 16 week training plan from a few different plans I reviewed online. I created monthly calendars with goal miles and some idea of how to run them (tempo, race pace, intervals, easy, etc). I tailored it off my work schedule.

Prior to starting my training cycle, I had been running consistently the last few years of COVID. A few years back I had set a goal of running at least 1000 miles a year, which I hit in 2021 and 2022 as well as this year. Before I embarked on this training cycle, I had been heavily relying on treadmill runs. Once I started marathon training I forced myself to do more runs outside (to get my body used to the pounding of outdoor running). I did want to incorporate more strength training into my marathon training plan but failed to do so at a level that I think benefited me. I had been doing some body weight exercises in the first maybe 4-5 weeks but then somewhere along the way that fell off.

2023 California International Marathon Race Recap

I originally signed up for this race in early 2020 before COVID and then when it was cancelled that year the race organizers provided us registrants with a free voucher to run in one of the next 3 years (2021-2023). This was the last year of the voucher so I signed up. I then followed a 16 week training plan (see here for my training).

Expo

The race expo was held at the Sacramento convention center on Friday and Saturday before the race. My friend and I arrived shortly after they opened on Friday (after I picked him up from the airport). Overall it was well organized. Instead of assigning race numbers prior to the expo, they would scan your barcode (on your phone) and then a barcode on the race bib to match you with your number. I thought this was smart as they could just pick up numbers as they went instead of having to have them alphabetized and such. I gearchecked my stuff for after the race (just a light jacket with a breakfast bar in case I needed it) as there was no gear check on race morning. We checked out some of the merchandise and I picked up a few CIM branded t shirts. Something I hadn’t seen before was they had multiple “picture stations” that you could take pictures in front of for the ‘gram.

2022 Clarksburg Country Run – 30K Race Recap

On a cold and windy day a few weeks back I did my first in person race in a little over 3 years. Prior to COVID I had planned on running my 5th full marathon in 2020. The world had other ideas and that race was moved virtually with the option to postpone it for the next few years. I had initially planned on running CIM 2022 but missed the deadline to use my voucher. Instead I thought I’d tackle a new race distance and challenge. Previously I had looked into the Clarksburg Country Run back when they had a 20 mile option. I looked and saw this year they had a 30K which is 18.6 miles. I figured this would still be a good distance to challenge myself (after having done tons of half marathons and knowing that distance).

Much of this year’s running has been done on the treadmill, a combination of not wanting to run in the heat but also just me not wanting to get outside like I used to. Nevertheless I created my own training guide and tried to follow it as closely as possible.

Packet pickup at the Fleet Feet Store was no frills and I picked up my bib and shirt the day before (no swag bag or other goodies and I didn’t feel like browsing the store). I was in and out in under a minute.

Race morning turned out to be quite cold but super windy. Temperature when I arrived was around 42F. I don’t particularly mind the cold but the wind is what turned out to be something to reckon with. Parking was about half a mile away at The Old Sugar Mill – which houses multiple wineries in one area. I had actually visited this many years back with my MIL and did wine tastings.

After the chilly walk to the start/finish area (a local high school), I visited the portapotties and then dropped off my sweatshirt/pants at the sweat check and waited for the start. I feel like at most races I’ve run, people start getting into the start area well before the start. This one seemed a little less urgent. The 30K was the first to kick off at 8 am and people were just milling about until about 5 minutes before race start. Finally we all gathered behind the timing mats but again people didn’t seem all that keen to be up near the front. There were only 148 of us doing the longest distance (other race distances were half marathon, 10K, and 5K) so I ended up pretty close to the start line (even though I knew I would probably be one of the slower participants).

April 2019 Road Races

Thist post got put on the backburner as we went on our trip and then I kind of forgot about it. However I wanted to make sure I documented it.

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Prior to April, I hadn’t done a race in over a year. So this year I decided to try again at the Buzz Oates RunSac Race Series. I had signed up for it last year (the mileage program) but never got past the one race. It’s been a few years since I did shorter races (5K) and so I decided to do a 5K and then my coworker wanted to do a 10K so I signed up for one as well. They all happened to be within a few weeks of each other so I decided to lump them all into one post.

First up was the Credit Union SacTown Run on April 7. They have both a 10 mile and 5K option. I had not been doing much distance work and wasn’t feeling up for the 10 miler so I did the 5K. Starting at the beginning of the year my running has been more consistent. I’ve been doing more treadmill running but this does allow me to do incline and speed work. I wanted to see how my speed was given that I’m getting older. My last 5K was in 2017 where I ran ~8.5 min/mi pace. The race started just west of the Capitol and there was plenty of street parking within a few short blocks of the start/finish area. They had plenty of portapotties and also various tents with vendors (other regional races, local businesses). My one gripe was that the people who had set the portapotties put them against the curb and there was quite a bit of road camber (the curve on each side of the street to allow for water to run away from the street) and so the portapotties weren’t level and would rock when you got in and tried to sit down. I knew it wasn’t me because every single person who went in or out of them commented about it and would tell the next person: “good luck” and then laugh. lol. Small gripe I know.

Otherwise the rest of the race was straight forward. The course consisted of running through the streets near the Capitol and then crossing the famous Tower Bridge into West Sacramento by Raley Field (home of the minor league baseball team Sacramento River Cats) and then back across to the finish.

I went out comfortably hard for the first 2 miles and then still feeling pretty good I pushed myself hard the last mile to see if I still had some speed. I crossed the finish line in 26:18. This was actually 34 seconds faster than my last 5K in 2017 – not bad! The other great thing about 5Ks is that the recovery period is minimal.

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