I know, I know. Enough about Long Beach already! I prrrromise this’ll be my last post. Seriously. Cross my heart, hope to die. Pinky swear!
This is the full blown account of the race, to the best of my memory. You can skip this entry completely. I’m mostly just writing this for posterity’s sake.
Race Expo
Marvin and I took the Metro from LA down to the Long Beach Convention Center where the race expo was being held. It was the first time I’ve ever used the LA “subway system,” and for the most part it was just alright. Only part of the ride was underground, the rest of it was above ground, which made traveling very, very slow. It took about an hour to get down there. If we had driven, it would have taken about 25-30 minutes, but the money spent on gas we plus the $8 parking fee would have added up to a lot more than the $2.50 we paid, roundtrip.
The expo was just as I remembered it last year. Lots of vendors, lots of people, lots of freebies. You could feel the energy in the air. After we picked up our bibs and our race packets, we browsed around the various booths. We each picked up some free Odwalla Juice, an awesome red transit canvass bag, some tasty granola, and sunscreen samples. After we made our trip back to LA, we headed over to C&O for some carb loading goodness.
When I got home, I carefully laid out everything I needed for the race the next day: filled up my handheld, dissolved the Nuun, made PB&J sandwiches for breakfast, packed Shot Bloks, pinned my bib to my shirt, and packed my post race bag.
Race Morning
I woke up at 4:15, even before my alarm clock went off. It was set for 4:30, 4:45, and 5:00. I got dressed and double checked that I had everything ready to go. Marvin picked me up at 5:45 and we were off. Our route to the race was free and clear until we were about 4 miles from the end of the 710. Then, it was like a parking lot. We ended up exiting early and taking side streets to a parking lot not too far from the start line. We made it to the race area with just enough time to hit the port-a-potties (gross). When we were done, they were singing the national anthem and revving up the crowd to start.
The Race
We ended up starting at the very back of the pack, which I think may have been part of the problem. I should have started in Corral B (the under 2:30 group), but instead we started with Corral D. Three minutes into the race, my Garmin fritzed out on me. It stopped doing intervals and I ended up running 6 minutes straight instead of the 3min:50sec interval I had planned. I restarted my Garmin and prayed that it would stay golden the rest of the race. Overall, I felt pretty good early on, and I thought I made good time up until I hit those two hills early in the race. I also made a few pit stops to readjust my shoelaces, which were tied way too tight – prolly nerves =)
The roads were pretty packed with people. It freed up at around the second mile, but it crammed up again once we hit the boardwalk portion of the race, which was between miles 6-10. This was definitely one of the toughest parts of the race. It was very difficult getting around people because sometimes there would be a wall of people blocking the entire path in front of you, and I suspect this is where I lost a lot of energy from trying to pass and weave through walls of people. Along with my Garmin fritzing out at around mile 4, the crowds also made it hard to keep my pace. But even with all the weaving, I could tell I was still making decent time. I kept up with the 2:30 pace group, which was now my only indicator of whether I was on pace or not. I kept up with them through the whole boardwalk portion up until mile 10.5. This is where I lost them and I never saw them ever again.
I felt physically and mentally strong until mile 10. It was around mile 10.5 when my legs started failing me and my mental toughness wore off. I broke one of my rules and started walking more than my 50 second walk interval allowed me. I picked things up again around mile 12. This is where I had my emotional breakdown.
With the pace group out of sight, I no longer knew how close I was to my goal anymore, but I knew I wouldn’t be meeting it. There was a part of me that felt great disappointment knowing this. But there was also another part that couldn’t believe the race was almost over, that I’d be crossing the finish line in 12 minutes. And I felt happy it was almost over. To tell you the truth, it had all gone so fast. I know it probably sounds forever to be running for 2.5 hours, but it flew by like nothing.
At this point, I was overwhelmed. Excitement, happiness, disappointment, relief… I was one big ball of emotions.
About a quarter mile from the finish line, I sucked it up and sprinted for it. I wanted to finish strong, and even though I was tired as hell, I knew I still had it in me to do it. As I was making the last .03, I heard a guy’s voice yell out… GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SHERYL!!!!
hahaha =) I thought it was Nick. I thought for sure that Nick and Marvin had finished before me. But I actually finished before they did! Definitely a big surprise to me =) And that voice turned out to be Wesley’s. He and Christine had come out to watch me finish. I’m glad they caught me just in time!
Post Race
Wesley was nice enough to get me water as we stood around looking for Marvin and Nick. I ran into Nick about 20 minutes later with a bagel and banana in hand. I stole his banana =) Next, out of the finish line was Marvin, and then about 20 minutes later came Jo Nisha.
I wrapped up the day with a 20 minute ice bath when I got home and soon dubu later that night. Food for the soul =) Once I settled in back home, I wrote up the shorter version of the race report with many tears and smiles.
Thoughts and Random Stuff
It took me two days to physically recover from LB and almost two weeks to recover emotionally from it. I can’t help but still feel the sting of disappointment when I think of my time. Everyone has been really great and supportive, telling me that what I did was still great, that I was close. And I believe it. I think it was a great race. But deep down inside, it still really bothers me that I was physically ready to run LB in 2:30 but I couldn’t that day.
Not to worry though! I think I’m done with my wallowing. Now, I’m turning that disappointment into productive energy. I’ve finally finished tweaking my training schedule leading up to Surf City and it’s a doozy. I’ll be sharing that soon =)
And speaking of Surf City, I’m SO excited that there will be a good group of us doing that race, too. So far, I have the Gregs, Marvin, Jo Nisha, Kim, Wesley, Wesley’s brother, Christine, Nick, and me doing it =) The list of possibles include my brother, Raciel, Raciel’s sisters, and my friend Marisa! Weeeeeeeee!!! I’m so excited!!! Now if only I could get more people to do the SD RnR =)
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March 17th, 2010 at 3:37 am
Excellent Article!
If I could write like this I would be well chuffed ;-)
The more I read articles of such quality as this (which is rare), the more I think there might be a future for the Web. Keep it up, as it were.