Carlsbad Marathon - RunMarathon

We started off and ran along in the dark for the first few miles. It started to get light as we headed south out of Carlsbad. I ran with the 3:00 pace group until about mile 6. Right around there, a friend of mine, Randy, from the running group caught up to me and we ran together for about a mile before he went on ahead. It was much colder inland, surprisingly. I was still feeling pretty good until about mile 14 or 15 - about the same place I started to hurt last year. This time, I had sunglasses for when we hit the turnaround on Avenida Encinas. Things didn't start to get really bad until about 5 miles to go. I pretty much shut it down and tried to cruise on in. I had to catch myself a few times as I was coasting a bit too much. I guess I just didn't want to make it hurt too bad. I was nervous about the lack of endurance training and didn't want to completely blow up. I really wanted to run the whole thing and didn't want to add a lot of time by walking. I was very glad to finish!

One thing I did differently this time was carry two hand-held bottles. I've been using one bottle for HIM runs and I just figured I'd see how carrying all of my nutrition worked out. Usually, I just carry Shot Bloks and salt tabs in a plastic baggie in my pocket and carry my car key in my hand, taking water at the aid stations. I loaded 2 20 oz. bottles with my Powerade Zero / Carbo-Pro mix and put the Shot Blok / salt tab baggie in the pocket of one bottle and clipped my key in the pocket of the other. I think it worked out pretty well, although I never ate any Bloks or took any salt. I didn't take any aid from any station, either, so maybe I saved some time / inconvenience there.

Do more long runs. Not carry my HRM for the whole race. Not sure if I would carry 2 bottles again. I'll have to think about that. I really wanted to have a good showing, but the holidays and travel kind of took their toll on me. I'll keep this race on the schedule since it did help me stay somewhat focused through the holidays.

Hung out in the finishing corral, waiting for Monica to finish the half (she hit her goal of sub-1:50 with a 1:49 finish).


Lack of long runs, poor nutrition in the month lead-up to the race.


I like this race.