Long Beach Half Marathon 2013

The "Shack Mama" crosses the finish line again!

Long Beach Half Marathon 2013

Finish Time: 2:38

PR by 13 minutes!

My traditional post race victory pose!

On October 13th I competed in my second half marathon this year.  This time I raced in Long Beach and it was a beautiful day for a nice long run!  It was hands down the most scenic race I've ever done. It was incredible to run next to the Queen Mary, around a lighthouse, over the bay bridge while the fire boat did a water spout salute, run next to the ocean while the waves were crashing, and then down Ocean Blvd past historic buildings and palm tree lined streets.  It was a very well run race too!

An areal view of the start line.  You can see the Queen Mary in the background.

The Long Beach fire boat doing their water cannon salute.

 This time I raced with Team Mike who all run in honor of my sister in law's father who was a fire fighter who passed away two years ago from pancreatic cancer.  Several friends and members of my boot camp were there to run as well.  It was fun to see some familiar faces as I made my way through the 13.1 mile race.

Some of the Team Mike crew!

I decided to run this race just six weeks before race day so I didn't have much training time.  In fact I only ran twice to get ready for this race and mostly focused on putting on muscle through my boot camp workouts.  I wasn't sure how my body would handle such a long distance without adequate training but everything went surprisingly well!  The first six miles I ran a 9:30-10:30 pace which is pretty fast for me.  I felt really good and didn't hurt like I did in my last half marathon.  After mile 8 I began to get really hungry and lose steam.  That is where my lack of training caught up with me. I had the strength but not the endurance.  I came across several inspiring runners that kept me motivated and helped me push through to the end and my last mile I finished really strong.  I ended up finishing 13 minutes faster than my last half marathon and my body felt MUCH better than last time too.

Going strong at mile 7!

Crossing the finish line!

It was fun to have lots of cheerleaders in the race.  Dan also loaded my phone with lots of great songs to run to and I always run faster with good music in my ears.

My brother Sam who completed the LB Full Marathon in 2012

My sister in law Kristen who completed the LB Half Marathon in 2012 while 7.5 months pregnant and the Full Marathon in 2011 to qualify for the Boston Marathon.

Dan my ever faithful supporter.  He had the hardest job taking care of Lena while I ran.

My littlest cheerleaders: Lena and cousin Riley

The Long Beach Half Marathon was such a great race and I had such a strong run that I am pretty sure my running days are far from over.  I can't wait to race again!

I think she would jump into the water if she could.

"FISH!!! FISH!!!"

We had such a fun weekend as a family.  On Saturday we took Lena to the Long Beach Aquarium for the first time and she LOVED it!  She ran around yelling "Fish! Fish!" for the first 30 minutes and kept calling all the seals and sea lions "dog dogs".  Then we ate a nice lunch on the boardwalk and checked into our race hotel so we could have a relaxing evening and morning before the race.  Can't wait till next year!

It was a great race day but by the end Lena was "toast"!!!