The course was amazing! It actually had no hills nope not even one! A great beginners choice. Myself and 24,000 ran from the aquarium on the Long Beach Harbor around the island where I had just departed on my girls cruise a month before, along the Long Beach Board Walk and through a college campus.
I will forever be grateful to my friend and elite runner Billy Strick because he gave me some great advice before I left for this run.
1. Fuel before you feel like you need to.
2. Take a mineral supplement so you don't get dehydrated along with your water.
3. Run the race at your pace.
He also told me if you feel that you are in trouble before mile 13 you are in trouble if you feel it around mile 18-20 you are normal and if you feel it after mile 20 you are blessed.
I am grateful to say that I was blessed! At mile 13 I felt great, right on pace I was averaging 14 minute miles and still feeling strong. I had been fueling every hour along with stopping at every bathroom along the course since I was being so good to drink water every few minutes. At mile 18 I still was feeling great and trying to decide what "hitting the wall" felt like, then I figured if I had to wonder if I was hitting the wall I was probably not hitting it. By mile 20 my only complaint was that I was chaffing under my arms and could not wait to see the next first aid station for some Vaseline to put under my arms. Once I checked that off my complaint list I really was feeling good. I could feel a few hot spots on my feet and knew that I was going to have a few blisters but they were okay for today.
Mile 25 was where I had my only real challenge and that was my left leg (the kinda numb one) decided to give out for just a few steps. Even this was not too bad just caused me to slow way down....yes it is true the almost slowest person in the race can go even slower if it means finishing. Funny at this exact moment where my leg gave out I was following a person with a t-shirt that said "Run Walk or Crawl Just Finish" I finished the race with an 18 minute mile in the last mile but I did not care I was just so happy to be finished. As for that wall I never did hit it.
I will forever be thankful to my amazing husband who was standing on the wall a the finish line screaming for all he was worth. Seeing the tears on his face as he hugged me Priceless! The question would I do it again my answer YES a thousand time over. I love to run and will do so until I can not longer put one foot in front of the other and then who knows maybe I will have to crawl.
There's nothing like crossing that finish line. It changes who you are.
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