LONG BEACH INTERNATIONAL HALF MARATHON RECAP

This past weekend I participated in the 29th annual Long Beach International Half Marathon and let me tell you it was a fun weekend. I had the opportunity to run as part of TeamVW, and I have to say if you ever have the opportunity to sign up for a race through them, please do. My journey began Saturday at the EXPO. My big pet peeve with race weekends is having to pay for parking to go pick up my bib. I am not a big Expo shopper, so to pay $10 to be there less than an hour doesn't not seem like money well spent. However, Long Beach provided alternative parking ramps that wouldn't charge as much for those of us who weren't staying all day. That was the first sign I would like this race. When I arrived at the Expo center I knew that our route to the entrance had been changed thanks to the communication the race provided earlier that week on their facebook page. They also put out numerous signs to help us find the alternative route which led us around the back side of the center. Upon entering there was a security guard checking for large bags and such which has become the norm since Boston. Bib pick up was easy and fast and then it was time for me to pick up my TeamVW shirt. They had the shirt ready and then surprised me with a backpack and two extra shirts to give to my cheering crew! I was not expecting this and the backpack was put to use right away! After that it is on to shirt pick ups. Again easy and fast and no problem with getting the right size. I then decided since I was paying for parking to enjoy my hour and peruse the Expo. What I noticed was that some of the best booths (KT Tape) were hidden around corners and had no one going there. This was good news to me since the taping line for KT was only two people.

I also noticed some vendors didn't show up, which is sad since their table was set up but just empty. I left the expo feeling good and excited for the race. I made sure I got home and ate a good pre-race meal and went to bed early, 8 pm, because my ride was coming at 4 am. My pre-race night ritual includes laying everything out, because sometimes my brain just doesn't want to function properly before 6 am.

So when I woke up it took my less than ten minutes to get ready. I grabbed my banana, made my ZipFizz drink and headed out the door. Getting to the race was again easy because we got there before major road closures. We were able to park right by the host hotel and made the quick walk to the starting line to cheer on the marathon runners. My only complaint was that there weren't many signs and volunteers there early enough to help the marathoners get to where they needed to be. But if you went to the information tent, they were very knowledgable and could point you in the right direction. Once the marathoners were off I had about 90 minutes to kill so I headed over to the runner's group tent area. The Pasadena Pacer's were leading a stretching group for the half marathoners which I took advantage of. Very glad I did. We then walked over to the corrals to get ready and boy was it crowded. The bathroom lines made a lot of people late to their corrals, and most ran out of toilet paper. Also the corrals needed more room since it wasn't assigned, everyone rushed to the front ones.

I was so excited for announcer Rudy Novotny and was excited when finally I crossed the start line. The course itself is great. Pretty flat, the hills are minor and at the beginning. There is enough space for the most part for runners. The hydration stations were great, but in the future I would like to see one table where they can refill bottles for those of us who run with them. The first four miles are a circle looping us back to the coast where we get on a running path. It was nice to run back past the start and have a big support group. Then the beach path stretches for what seems like forever with little entertainment and cheering. But once we get close to mile ten we turn back onto the road and the atmosphere changes and you get that second wind. I was excited that the ClifShot stop still had plenty of shots for us and grabbed mine. At the finish, I waved again to Rudy and said hi to Joe Taricani from the Marathon Show! I then made my way to get my medal and the volunteer put it around my neck congratulating me on my new PR (2:44:46). This race also marked my completion of the Beach Cities Challenge (Surf City, OC and Long Beach Half Marathon. I picked up the great medal and got my post race massage.

Overall this is a great race and I look forward to participating in the future. There are just a few tweaks: make sure the bathrooms have enough toilet paper, assign corrals, make sure mile markers are in correct spot (at least three were off by more than .10), have more massage volunteers.