Long Beach Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

Felt good at the start. Was able to hit the splits I wanted - maybe a little fast for a few of them. Goal was sub-1:25, so was shooting for an even 6:20-6:25 (after a 6:30 first mile). By the time I came back around to the starting area to head out on the out-and-back, I started laboring and I was having trouble keeping 6:30s. After the turn to head back, just after mile 9, I started to feel better, but it was still tough. With 2 miles to go, I could see the aquarium off in the distance, but I was slowing down and it hurt. Passing through the 10 mile in just over 1:04, I knew that if I could run something close to a 20 minute 5k to close, I would go under 1:25. 20 minutes of suffering - just trying to focus on keeping the cadence up and leaning forward. I opened up the stride with a mile to go and got it back to the 6:20ish range. It felt good - maybe something I should try more often? I looked back a few times in the last two miles, but there was no one behind me. Down the home stretch, there were two runners in sight and I was making up ground, but when they heard me running, they both picked it up and beat me in by a couple of seconds. As always, I was glad to be finished!

Not sure. Maybe carry a bottle (or a few Bloks). The aid stations were a bit of a pain. I only took in water and maybe that's why I started to fall off a bit at the end. Or maybe I went out a bit too fast. I have to be happy with the effort as it's about a 4 minute PR for the half - although the 1:28 was on a much tougher course.

Walked through the chute and then hung out and waited for Conrad to finish. Saw Mike (Triheado) from BT and we chatted for a bit. Walked back to the hotel, changed and headed out to the marathon course to cheer.


I was a little sick last week and my training runs were terrible. I can't complain though as I raced ok. More track / interval work would help and probably less racing and more specific run training? But where's the fun in that? Might have wanted to take in some Bloks or carry a bottle w/Carbo-Pro. First half marathon with only water and maybe I could have kept the pace with a bit of a lift along the way?


I wasn't absolutely crazy about the course, but I've definitely run worse. The first 5 miles, looping through the streets and freeways was weird and the out-and-back stretch was pretty barren. It's a fast track with only a couple of moderate bridges. If you can deal with the 6 or so miles of concrete, you can run a good time.