A long time ago, in a drunken haze far, far away, I decided that I wanted to run another marathon. The Carlsbad marathon to be specific, which is in mid-January each year. It's a beautiful course and draws a great crowd and should I ever decide to do a marathon again, I still don't know if I would pick this one. You know why? Because it's in January.
My logic behind this was, "I'll have an excuse for all the food I eat during the holidays!" and "I'll stay fit during the holidays!" and "I miss training for a marathon!" and "It'll keep me in shape for our vacation to Mexico in February!". All very notable goals. Unfortunately, with my current work/life/school schedule, they're just not very realistic ones. I have to be at work at 7am which means in order to complete my training runs, shower and drive the 20 minutes to Del Mar, I'd have to be up at like 4:30am every morning. Let's just not kid ourselves.
And by the time I got home each night this past fall and winter, it was dark outside. I would never consider my neighborhood dangerous, but it's definitely not a place I want to run alone in the dark. So I tried taking Banjo for a while, but then family came to visit, and after that the holidays took over. It was almost impossible to schedule in runs at a time that was safe and not pull-my-hair-out stressful. Something had to give. Last spring, it was my personal life. This time around, it was running.
I digress. Because this story has a happy ending, I swear! As the running gods would have it, after spending the past two months silently freaking out about my lack of training and realizing that I couldn't just switch to the half because it was sold out, I received a miracle at the hand of Jen over at Marshmallows and Margaritas. She was supposed to be running the half but got called away on a last minute work trip and was kind enough to accompany me to the expo to pick up and give me her bib. At one point during the race yesterday, I cried just thinking about how grateful I was. I get really emotional during races, ok?
Anyway, Jen is a lifesaver (and if you don't read her blog already you really, really should). So yesterday, I sucked up my guilt for not being prepared for the full marathon, drove to Carlsbad and ran what I consider to be my best half marathon yet.
Carlsbad was just absolutely stunning. It's a mostly flat and fast course, through cute neighborhoods and along the water and had a huge, enthusiastic crowd to boot. The runners were all so smiley and in such great moods and the signs were the most hilarious ones I've seen yet. Plus, one of my coworkers came out to run a mile with me and another cheered me on at Mile 11. It was a GREAT race and in my mind, I PR'ed (though the gun time of 2:30:21 would disagree... but I had my best, most consistent pace and was only taken out by an unfortunately necessary porta-potty stop).
At the finish line I continued my tradition of being the most ungraceful, dramatic finisher you've ever seen. Heaving sighs and tears, moaning, stumbling, messy gulping of water, throwing myself on the pavement, writhing and crying and generally looking like I just found out I lost someone close to me in a horrific accident. This is how I finish races.
As I was laying there, avoiding the stares of all the happy, painfully energetic runners around me, I thought... this is enough. Halfs. Not full marathons. I don't want to train for another full, I don't want to run one, I don't even know if I can right now since I'm fairly certain I may have exacerbated a fractured bone in my left foot. So, I've got some thinking to do before LA in March. More immediately, I have some icing to do.
But that's not all!
For those of you who have stuck with me throughout this neurotic, fairly lame race recap, and whom happen to live in San Diego, I would encourage you to check out the fantastic event that San Diego Magazine is putting together this Friday, January 24th from 7-9pm. The "Get Fit San Diego" party is a great way to start your night in the Gaslamp with hosted bites and complimentary drinks and is being thrown in honor of their new monthly "Move" column. You can check out the full list of vendors and buy tickets at the event page, but lucky for you, I have a second pair of tickets to give away!
To win the tickets, all you have to do is tweet the following: "I want to go to #SDGetFit with @SanBriego and @SanDiegoMag this Friday!"
I will pick a winner Thursday, January 23rd at noon PST and I'll see the rest of you this Friday night at the Fit Athletic Club downtown.
But wait, there's more!
If you don't live here in San Diego, it's probably pretty miserable where you are. In fact, today is commonly referred to as Blue Monday, aka the most depressing day of the year. By this point, maybe your fitness resolutions are taking a backseat to Netflix marathons and eating your feelings. If that's the case, I want to help get you (and me!) motivated again! First, go check out MeetTheMoment.com for some fitness inspo. Then, tweet me (@SanBriego) a picture of your workout this week with the hashtag #MeetTheMoment and I will select 5 winners to receive a Clif Bar gift pack!
Now get out there and get sweaty!
