California International Marathon - RunMarathon

The gun sounded and everyone began pushing forward. I later learned that a downed power line on the left side of the road caused a bit of a detour for those lined up over there. I was on the right so I didn't notice, which is good because I was already intimidated by the conditions. People were running in garbage bags, hats were flying off heads, and everyone would let out an audible "WHOA!" every time a gust would blow us around. It was a very surreal experience.

Once we got going, I just went to work. I had planned on using my HR monitor because I knew pacing would be off with such bad weather. I tried to keep my HR around 165 regardless of hills and wind. The first half of this course is billed as rolling hills, though for each uphill there is a longer downhill accompanying it. I would work my way up each small hill (they're really nothing compared to the hills I train on in Seattle), and let it go down each downhill. I figured I could use as much help as I could get from gravity today.

Around mile 5, the course takes a left due South, which made the mostly crosswind a dead-on headwind instead. This was a bit demoralizing. I tried to keep in packs or behind larger runners. Each time I found myself alone, I would kick it up a notch to try to catch a pack in front of me. Lots of energy wasted here. This is also when the sky opened up with a completely new level of downpour. I read afterwards that an inch of rain fell in the 4 hours after 6am. Brilliant. Body glide over my entire foot and compression socks did their job, however, because I remained blister-free.

Somewhere around mile 7, my HR monitor began reading ridiculously low HRs. 130 up a hill, 70 down, 100 into the wind... I realized I would no longer be able to use it to gauge pace, and started to run by effort. I kept it at "comfortably hard" for the most part after that. I glanced at my watch frequently, though, because that 3:30 was what I really wanted. I had lost the 3:30 pacers quickly after the start. I'm guessing the pace leaders were not holding their signs up as sails today.

The wind died down a bit somewhere around mile 16-17, and the rain followed suit. It was still a bit stormy, but nothing like we had started with. I still felt alright at this point, kept chugging away. Around mile 20, I saw my uncle, and this gave the needed boost. With the thought "it's no farther than a short training run left!", I picked up the pace a bit. This part of the course is flat all the way to the finish. I started feeling hungry, which is very unusual for me. I'm normally trying to hang on to my stomach contents the last 10k of a marathon, but I could tell today was different. I had totally trashed my legs the first half, so my cardio system was still 100%, but my quads were done. I knew if I could just pick up the pace by 10-15 seconds per mile sub-3:30 was mine, but my legs just wouldn't cooperate. So I kept a steady pace the last 5k, passing plenty of people into the capital. Those last miles were painful, but the only way to remedy that is to FINISH FASTER! I had been counting blocks from 58th street, and the turn on 8th came oh so slowly. Just as I rounded the last block, the sun came out. How fitting.

It would have been nice if the HR strap wouldn't have failed me. Though I'm not so sure how much that would have changed things. I really think the downhill course and my surging downhills and trying to find packs to run with wasted a lot more of my quad strength than necessary, but with a 4 second negative split, I can't be too picky. Next marathon I run, I want to have enough time to get a full 18 week training schedule in.

Chugged a chocolate milk as soon as I crossed the finish line. Found a guy we had been huddling under a building with at the start and commiserated. We had both felt we'd be right on the edge of BQing before the race and I was happy to discover we both had accomplished that goal. Weather be damned!

My mom ran a sub-4, which is a master's PR for her. This race is just under 6 minutes faster than my previous best, so it was an overall success.


Conditions, obviously. CIM places this year as the second worst weather they've experienced in 30 years. The worst being in 1987 when gusts of 70mph were recorded. The winner in that year said his singlet had been ripped by wind.

Training was incomplete. I only had about 9 good weeks of training after recovering from IM Canada.


This race was well organized despite the elements. There were a few aid stations that were not well staffed, but what can you expect with a big storm and an all-volunteer staff? I'd love to see this race during one of the good weather years, which I've heard is 90% of the time.