2012 Ojai Marathon - Race Recap

Date: June 3, 2012
Location: Ojai to Ventura, CA
Start: 6:15am
Finish: 3:35:23

This is the second time I ran this race. It was a lot bigger this year. Both in terms of the expo size and the amount of runners. Last year, the bib pick-up was located in a very small room at the host hotel. This year it was held on a field at the Ventura High School. There were a couple of other booths along with the bib and shirt tables but I didn't really stick around to find out what they were.

I checked into the host hotel after picking up my bib and shirt. We had a nice view of the Ventura Pier. 

I unpacked a bit, watched some TV and then headed out to meet Sister J and A for dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant. After dinner, I spent some time putting together my playlist and then it was off to bed. The Crowne Plaza is just not a good place to try to get a good night's sleep. The walls are really thin and there is a train that comes by all times of night. On top of that, we were on the 10th floor with a night club about 2 stories up on a Saturday night. Yeah. Sounded like a good time, if I were there and not in my room trying to get some pre-race sleep.

I woke up at 4am the next morning. It was not easy since I didn't really fall asleep until a couple of hours before I had to get up. But I've gotten up way earlier before so I just sucked it up. I am not a morning person. I really should have picked a different hobby to get into that doesn't require me to get up at the a$$-crack of dawn.  So I was up and drank my Starbucks vanilla soy latte and ate my PB blueberry bagel. Then M drove me, Sister J and A to the start line at Nordoff High School in Ojai.

I don't really remember much about the race except that I was in the zone for most of it. I do want to give a humongous shout-out to the AWESOME 3:35 pacer. I wanted to give her a hug at the end but I forgot. Maybe she was glad that I forgot. She was such a strong runner and said all the things that I needed to hear! She is the best pacer ever! Thank you 3:35 pacer!

(edit: thanks to Emil tagging me in this photo on Facebook, I discovered that the pacer's name is Nadia and she knows Emil.) Apparently, it's a small world after all. Haha, you can see M on the left hand side of this photo pit-crewing for me. He's the best!

And thank you David Guetta/Sia for this power song!

I am TITANIUM! Official time of 3:35:23, a 15 minute PR! I did miss qualifying for Boston by 23 seconds (9/11 edit: found out after the fact that I did qualify for Boston). I am happy that I didn't give up when really I wanted to. Besides M wouldn't have let me give up. He came out to run me in at the end. Best bf ever.

And in case you ever wondered...this is what death looks like. This must be the part where I am thanking baby Jesus that I can stop running. 

And with that I have the summer off from racing. Well marathon racing. To be continue in the fall when I will train more and try to cut more minutes off my PR. So what am I going to do with my summer? Well maybe do some shorter races, learn to swim better, try to work on getting six-pack abs, crafting, focus on spinning or ?