That’s funny and sad all at the same time.Congrats! Sure wish the Cards were doing as good as you did!!!
Cause it wasn’t that bad and we have a lottery to enter next week ok. Good talk.I guess I should write about this before my brain blacks it all out.
Long Beach Marathon – October 13, 2019
I definitely could have planned this entire week better, but I didn’t so here we are. We spent Sunday – Wednesday at Disneyland. Drove home and worked Thursday and Friday. Got up early on Saturday and drove back to California for this race. Then drove home Sunday afternoon. It was a lot of driving. We live about 5 hours from Anaheim/Long Beach. So yeah super fun.
Expo: We got into Long Beach a little later than we wanted. There was a Nuun Ambassador meetup at the Expo at 12 that I missed, but they still gave me a bottle and some samples so that was cool. (But more importantly, we missed the start of the Cardinals game.) Anyway, I was already salty about having to pay for parking to go to the expo. It wasn’t stated anywhere on the website that we would have to pay for that. Then we get in to the expo and I get my bib and my shirt, but no like bag to carry any of this around with me. So as I am going through the expo and grabbing samples and last minute things (the Gingersnap Honey Stinger Waffles are soooo good) my arms were literally full of stuff. Then people are trying to get me to sign up for races or do whatever and I am like “I literally cannot use my arms for anything else.” I stopped by the booth that was promoting a new Half Marathon in my hometown, so that was cool. Then I was basically over everything, so we left.
Night Before: After that mess, we went to this bar called Roundin’ 3rd to watch the rest of the Cardinals game. We shared some nachos and I drank one too many Margaritas as we watched our team lose. Afterwards we headed to a little cove nearby so Bay could play in the probably freezing cold water (I have no idea, I didn’t get near it.) We sat on the sand and shared a beer while she played, just enjoying our afternoon. We headed out to find some pizza to take back to the hotel room. We checked in and settled in for the night. I got all of my stuff ready for the next morning and we snuggled in bed together watching TV. It was perfect. Then we were all in bed, asleep at 10pm. Then at about 1am, my husband wakes up in a panic and looks at the time because it looked REALLY light outside. Then he laughed and said I thought we slept in. But after that I woke up about 3 more times swearing that all of the clocks and phones in the room broke and all the times were wrong and I was missing my race. Needless to say, I wasn’t and I slept terribly. Yay.
Getting Ready: My first alarm went off at 4:50am, my second alarm went off at 5:06am. That’s when I finally got out of bed. I got ready and ate some food: Nuun Endurance, a boiled egg, and a honey stinger waffle. I packed my pockets with two uncrustables, a gu packet, a bag full of chews, sports beans, and skittles, and my ID & credit card (you never know). I picked a hotel within walking distance because I was not about to try to deal with driving and parking, and I started my 10 minute trek to the starting line around 5:45am.
THE RACE: I didn’t know what to expect because I didn’t have a corral placement, so I got to the start line, momentarily wished I signed up for the 20 mile bike tour instead, and found my friend who was also running the marathon. It was her first one, but she kept asking me if I was okay?? I guess I looked tired because I didn’t have any coffee in my system. I dunno, I was fine though. The race started at 6am and I guess you were just supposed to find the pace group you wanted to run with and start with them. I started a little after the 4:55 pace group (definitely should not have done that, but whatevs) and started my race.
Miles 1 – 10: I decided not to turn on my music for the first bit and just take in the scenery. The sun was rising, we were running around the water, it was very nice. I was trying to “run slow” but I really didn’t know what that meant. I thought my “long run” pace would have been fine. I was feeling really good. Around mile 8, I stopped and ate an uncrustable and drank some water and Nuun. The water stations on the course were serving Nuun so that was awesome and I don’t feel like there weren’t enough of them either. Yay for hydration. At this point I was well on my way for a sub 5 hour finish…..
Miles 11 – 20: BUT THEN, I got tired… Once I hit the halfway point I was like “okay only half left to go!” but I mean a Marathon isn’t just two halfs put together. It’s a full forking Marathon and my body was like “whatcha doooooin?” Also this advertised “flat fast course” was pretty hilly and I wasn’t having it. I walked up a lot of these hills. At mile 14/15, someone handed me an Otter Pop! Then I think I ate another uncrustable at mile 16, maybe? At mile 17, I stopped to help someone who had stopped running and was just clutching her knee. I moved her off to the side so she could stretch it on the curb and she said she would be okay, so I kept running. At the bottom of the hill we were going down was a medic station so I stopped there and told them about the lady stuck up the hill. They had a golf cart and said they would go check it out. Mile 19, I finally found some college kids who were handing out beer!!!! Praise. Then mile 20, I watched the 4:55 pacer cruise by me as I hit the wall.
Miles 21 – 26: Like I am not even joking that I crossed the mile 20 marker and was like “WHAT AM I DOING WHY AM I DOING THIS LIFE IS STUPID I WANNA CUT MY LEG OFF.” My knee started giving me grief at mile 15 but I was trying to power through. My virtual cheerleaders were amazing and I was so thankful to have them all there with me. Mile 23, I cried, while eating another Otter Pop. Then I just kept ticking them away. 24 – last water station. 25 – pet a doggo named Dobby. 26 – got a kiss from my husband and daughter. Point 2 – FINISHED. It wasn’t pretty, but I did it.
Official Time: 5:29:49
(Not my goal time, but a PR!)
Thoughts: Running a Marathon is H A R D. My body hates those last 6 miles so much that it just gives up and my brain allows it. It happened during the WDW Marathon this January too. It’s enough pain for me to say that I don’t want to run a Marathon ever again. But my stupid brain is already trying to convince me that it wasn’t *that* bad. IT WAS THOUGH. It really was. Shut up brain.
Special thanks to: @rteetz @roxymama @croach @Keels @lhermiston and everyone else in the group chats that were cheering me on via text. Y'all the real MVPs.
And thanks to everyone else on here who congratulated me!
I really REALLY missed having you by my side during this race.You powered through that race! You should be damn proud. So.....about this thing called Goofy......
OH YES YOU DOI really REALLY missed having you by my side during this race.
Goofy? I don't know him....
Running a Marathon is H A R D.
I guess I should write about this before my brain blacks it all out.
Long Beach Marathon – October 13, 2019
I definitely could have planned this entire week better, but I didn’t so here we are. We spent Sunday – Wednesday at Disneyland. Drove home and worked Thursday and Friday. Got up early on Saturday and drove back to California for this race. Then drove home Sunday afternoon. It was a lot of driving. We live about 5 hours from Anaheim/Long Beach. So yeah super fun.
Expo: We got into Long Beach a little later than we wanted. There was a Nuun Ambassador meetup at the Expo at 12 that I missed, but they still gave me a bottle and some samples so that was cool. (But more importantly, we missed the start of the Cardinals game.) Anyway, I was already salty about having to pay for parking to go to the expo. It wasn’t stated anywhere on the website that we would have to pay for that. Then we get in to the expo and I get my bib and my shirt, but no like bag to carry any of this around with me. So as I am going through the expo and grabbing samples and last minute things (the Gingersnap Honey Stinger Waffles are soooo good) my arms were literally full of stuff. Then people are trying to get me to sign up for races or do whatever and I am like “I literally cannot use my arms for anything else.” I stopped by the booth that was promoting a new Half Marathon in my hometown, so that was cool. Then I was basically over everything, so we left.
Night Before: After that mess, we went to this bar called Roundin’ 3rd to watch the rest of the Cardinals game. We shared some nachos and I drank one too many Margaritas as we watched our team lose. Afterwards we headed to a little cove nearby so Bay could play in the probably freezing cold water (I have no idea, I didn’t get near it.) We sat on the sand and shared a beer while she played, just enjoying our afternoon. We headed out to find some pizza to take back to the hotel room. We checked in and settled in for the night. I got all of my stuff ready for the next morning and we snuggled in bed together watching TV. It was perfect. Then we were all in bed, asleep at 10pm. Then at about 1am, my husband wakes up in a panic and looks at the time because it looked REALLY light outside. Then he laughed and said I thought we slept in. But after that I woke up about 3 more times swearing that all of the clocks and phones in the room broke and all the times were wrong and I was missing my race. Needless to say, I wasn’t and I slept terribly. Yay.
Getting Ready: My first alarm went off at 4:50am, my second alarm went off at 5:06am. That’s when I finally got out of bed. I got ready and ate some food: Nuun Endurance, a boiled egg, and a honey stinger waffle. I packed my pockets with two uncrustables, a gu packet, a bag full of chews, sports beans, and skittles, and my ID & credit card (you never know). I picked a hotel within walking distance because I was not about to try to deal with driving and parking, and I started my 10 minute trek to the starting line around 5:45am.
THE RACE: I didn’t know what to expect because I didn’t have a corral placement, so I got to the start line, momentarily wished I signed up for the 20 mile bike tour instead, and found my friend who was also running the marathon. It was her first one, but she kept asking me if I was okay?? I guess I looked tired because I didn’t have any coffee in my system. I dunno, I was fine though. The race started at 6am and I guess you were just supposed to find the pace group you wanted to run with and start with them. I started a little after the 4:55 pace group (definitely should not have done that, but whatevs) and started my race.
Miles 1 – 10: I decided not to turn on my music for the first bit and just take in the scenery. The sun was rising, we were running around the water, it was very nice. I was trying to “run slow” but I really didn’t know what that meant. I thought my “long run” pace would have been fine. I was feeling really good. Around mile 8, I stopped and ate an uncrustable and drank some water and Nuun. The water stations on the course were serving Nuun so that was awesome and I don’t feel like there weren’t enough of them either. Yay for hydration. At this point I was well on my way for a sub 5 hour finish…..
Miles 11 – 20: BUT THEN, I got tired… Once I hit the halfway point I was like “okay only half left to go!” but I mean a Marathon isn’t just two halfs put together. It’s a full forking Marathon and my body was like “whatcha doooooin?” Also this advertised “flat fast course” was pretty hilly and I wasn’t having it. I walked up a lot of these hills. At mile 14/15, someone handed me an Otter Pop! Then I think I ate another uncrustable at mile 16, maybe? At mile 17, I stopped to help someone who had stopped running and was just clutching her knee. I moved her off to the side so she could stretch it on the curb and she said she would be okay, so I kept running. At the bottom of the hill we were going down was a medic station so I stopped there and told them about the lady stuck up the hill. They had a golf cart and said they would go check it out. Mile 19, I finally found some college kids who were handing out beer!!!! Praise. Then mile 20, I watched the 4:55 pacer cruise by me as I hit the wall.
Miles 21 – 26: Like I am not even joking that I crossed the mile 20 marker and was like “WHAT AM I DOING WHY AM I DOING THIS LIFE IS STUPID I WANNA CUT MY LEG OFF.” My knee started giving me grief at mile 15 but I was trying to power through. My virtual cheerleaders were amazing and I was so thankful to have them all there with me. Mile 23, I cried, while eating another Otter Pop. Then I just kept ticking them away. 24 – last water station. 25 – pet a doggo named Dobby. 26 – got a kiss from my husband and daughter. Point 2 – FINISHED. It wasn’t pretty, but I did it.
Official Time: 5:29:49
(Not my goal time, but a PR!)
Thoughts: Running a Marathon is H A R D. My body hates those last 6 miles so much that it just gives up and my brain allows it. It happened during the WDW Marathon this January too. It’s enough pain for me to say that I don’t want to run a Marathon ever again. But my stupid brain is already trying to convince me that it wasn’t *that* bad. IT WAS THOUGH. It really was. Shut up brain.
Special thanks to: @rteetz @roxymama @croach @Keels @lhermiston and everyone else in the group chats that were cheering me on via text. Y'all the real MVPs.
And thanks to everyone else on here who congratulated me!