Carlsbad Marathon, Half Marathon & Kids Mile 2010

Louise, Dave & little Speedy make their way through legoland!





















Marathon Madison rocks the keebler kids mile at legoland!

















Here's a group shot of the under 4 year old heat of the mile race!

When people ask me to recommend a marathon in San Diego and they've already done' the Rock n Roll race, I always recommend the Carlsbad marathon. It is by far one of the prettiest ocean view courses I've ever run! The last time I ran this half marathon was 2 years ago right after my little one was born and I remember it being one tough welcome back half! I remembered it being pretty hilly and quite challenging. Christy assured me that it would all be different this time since we have been training and in fairly decent half marathon shape. I agreed with her that it definitely would be better this go-round.

We were just coming down from a few back to back high mileage weeks (we had run an 18 miler in the hills of rancho santa fe on sunday) and have been running decent hill runs during our 10 mile wednesday group runs too, so we were pretty confident that the race would go fairly smoothly.

As the gun went off, we took off gunning for our goal paces and charged up the first mile which is mostly uphill. Normally it takes a few miles to get everything warmed up and get into the groove, only this time....that never seemed to happen. By mile three, I knew it was going to be a tough race. The legs felt like stumps. I wasn't really winded or breathing hard, and I felt pretty relaxed and all, but my legs....oh boy were they heavy. I chugged along and slowly counted down the miles: 6:40, 6:22, 6:46, 6:36, 6:48 (uh-oh), 6:45, 6:54 (uh-uh-oh), 6:48, 6:51, 6:56, 7:28 (family stop), 7:04, 6:47! I was hoping to have my splits closer to the 6:30s, but as you can see the hills and my heavy legs just didn't get me at that pace.

One of my favorite boosts (especially during a tough race) is seeing my family on the sidelines. I new the hubby and little guy were out there somewhere and I was looking for them. I missed them the first time around mile 4 or so - but here's a few shots they got. I did hear some great shout outs along the course and spotted the cheering squad from 10 mile wednesdays! Thanks guys! Shortly after I made the turnaround, I spotted Christy and started screaming go go go. She heard me and met my gaze with a blatant thumbs down gesture while sticking out her tongue. I recognized this expression as "don't expect me to be making any PR's today and don't be waiting for me!" (we twins do that you know - read each others minds) Oh no - she was having a bad race too!



















At mile 10 on the way back in, I finally spotted the hubby and my little cheerleader. I gratefully met their open arms and scooped up my little grinning & cheering cherub. I gave the hubby a hug and kiss and he pulled me away and looked me in the eye and said "What the heck is wrong with you?!" While he enjoyed the affection, he recognized this as very odd behavior coming from his normal competitive spouse. I told him in as many words "I'm dyin out here!", set down my little man and off I went hoping the little pitstop gave me a little breather and a little more wind in my sails. The wind never came and I found myself walking a few steps through the next few aid stations and wanting to sit down on the curb and rest my sobbing head in my hands paula-style. Honestly, I can say I've never wanted to quit a race until this moment. I was depleted and the roctane gus just weren't working today. While I felt like my pace was slowing by the minute, I counted down the last 2 miles.



















With one mile to go and headed up yet another hill, a kind girl came up beside me and said "come on let's go!" I remember thinking to myself...."Hey- those are my lines! I'm normally doing the pep talking and now the pep-ee. I mustered up just enough energy to tuck in behind her and chug my way over the last overpass around the bend and in the final stretch. As we rounded the corner to the finish, I picked up the pace and tried to finish strong. WHEW - thanking God the whole time for getting me there at last!

I waited at the finish line and met Christy and a fellow 10 mile wednesday member "Jimbo" at the finish (Jimbo ran a smoking fast 3 hour-something marathon - superstah!). I put the medal around Christy's neck and we pretty much commiserated about our lousy races all the way to the sidelines. She relayed an almost identical recount of her crappy race and told me how she stopped and picked up my baby and mile 10 and asked my hubby for a ride back to the finish. He looked at her and said "Your sister just said the exact same thing...what's wrong with you guys today?!".

After discussing our race and our training leading up to the half marathon, we concluded that the moderate 18 miles of horse trails in Rancho Sante Fe the week prior probably wasn't exactly condusive to our race plans today. Oh well, live and learn. We've got Surf City Marathon in 2 weeks to hopefully seek a little redemption. Hope to see you there!