Long Beach Marathon and a PR! Finally!

This year’s Long Beach Marathon was very special because it marked my 10 year anniversary running the Long Beach events.  I joined AREC in March of 2003 when I decided to run my first marathon.  Since then, I’ve run every year—whether it be the 5k, the half or the full.  I trained hard for this full.  This was my 16^th marathon and some fulls I haven’t trained as hard or felt as strong.  I wanted to feel strong—goal #1.  I wanted to beat my time that I ran this past March at LA (6:06:13)—goal #2.  I wanted to make it to the Shock Top beer garden for Beach Bums in time, before they ran out of beer—goal #3.  

 I was really hoping to come in between 5:45-5:30.  Last year at Long Beach, I ran my personal worst marathon.  This year, I ran my personal best time at 5:19:05!  My last PR was in 2005!  It’s been a while since I’ve PRed in any distance and it felt great!  Hard work pays off.  I worked hard to lose 30 lbs. (since January.)  I trained hard and got in the miles.  I tease my running buddy, June, for not letting me take walk breaks during training. (She can be so mean!  Tee hee!)  Thank you, June, for pushing me and helping me be a stronger runner!  During the race, I didn’t walk until Mile 14 and after that just took a few short walking break.  I never hit the wall.  I felt really good and kept pushing myself.   

It was so great to see so many friends on the course!  Thank you to Colleen, Amy and Tom for running with me!  Thank you to Rosie for waiting at Livingston to cheer me on and give me water!  I’m so thankful to Kristen, for running the first 20 miles with me!  The marathon is a journey that culminates months of training, icing, stretching and pain.   It is such a challenge and I’m so grateful to share it with awesome running buddies who trained with me for months and met with me at 5 am, 5:30 am, 6:00 am…because my schedule was so crazy in the summer.   

Thank you to Tina, Stephanie, June, Kristen and James for being amazing friends and running buddies!  Thank you to all AREC friends…you are what makes this club so great.  You all mean so much to me and I am a better person because of the friends I have made here and for all of the inspiration you’ve given to me.

Thank you, AREC!

Proudly holding my Female Runner of the Year certificate and my 

Century Club certificate with a total of 351.7 miles for the 

AREC year (September 2012-August 2013.)

Thank you to my running club, AREC, for naming me 2013 Female Runner of the Year!  It is such an honor to be selected by my fellow runners and just to be mentioned with the other nominees is very humbling.  All of my friends in my club are an inspiration to me.  We have runners who are super fast and some who are slower but go the distance, like me!  We have runners of all shapes and sizes.  We have runners who are new and runners who have been running for a long time.  We have people of all ethnic backgrounds, religions, political views, occupations and sexual orientations and doesn't matter...we pound the pavement and we are a running community.  I love that running brings us together.  Thank you, AREC, for an amazing 10 years!  Here's to many more!

Runner of the Year trophy presentation at my club's 

Jingle Bell Run and Christmas Party night!