Long Beach Marathon - Run

Felt some pain (which I learned after the race was a blister) on my left big toe at miles 2-5 and adapted to it being there and forgot about it. The 4:30 pacer was going for a positive split so it's a good thing I ran with them at the start. It felt humid the early miles! >.< RPE was 7/8 but HR was in the high 140s which is around 90% LTHR O_O. Since RPE felt in the 7/8 range breathing-wise I decided to stick with it.

I also had some minor chest pain that shot through front and back which I never felt before so I eased my effort and focused on breathing well until it went away. This occurred about 4 times before mile 20.

The hill climb from mile 13 to 17.5 sapped all the power I had in my legs and I hit the wall at 21 forcing me to run until both quads seized on up me and walk.

I had a plan but threw it out when I got to that hill at 17.5 - 18. Plan B was to make it to the finish and finish sub-5:00 no matter what.

Get more run training volume, more ST for quads, more hill work. Forget pace since and go by HR and really easy RPE early and stick with that the first half to two-thirds the next few marathons I race in. Perhaps bring some salt pills for the later miles.

Walked around for about 15 minutes and stretched. Ate some post race food provided by the race. Drank Endurox R4.


Maybe the humidity the first 4 miles which made my HR spike up 10bpm higher than desired @ RPE 7/8. I guess I went out too hard the first half despite my Jeff Galloway Magic Mile pacing strategy at a conservative 4:20 finish.

In other words, spent way too much time in Zone 4 during the entire race (check mile spits in my log). I may also consider bringing salt pills for the last miles of my next marathon to minimize the cramps in my quads that late in the race.


I'll race this event again to get a new PR and be smarter about my pacing early on.