Date: February 19, 2012
Location: Pasadena, CA
Start: 7:30am (corral 2)
Finish: 1:51:49
Elevation:
I woke up super early this morning all on my own. I was nervous and could not sleep. I got to the Rose Bowl area around 6am. There was a long slow moving line of cars into the parking lot. It took 30 minutes to get from the off ramp to a parking space. That's just terrible. Since I got there so early, I had a lot of time on my hands. So I used that time to walk around and warm up.
There were A LOT of porta potties here! Me likey!
Nice running temperatures today. I got into my corral about 15 minutes prior to the start. I spotted
Emil in corral 1. He waved hello and shortly after, wave 1 took off. I was standing next to the 1:45 pacer because I always dream big. Unfortunately dreaming and actually doing are too very different things. I saw the very speedy Pam at some point, can't remember what mile that was but she was up there with the other speedy people. Hi Pam! Sorry I could not find you at the start. I also ran into
Sister J at around mile 4 or 5. I don't think she saw me. I was waving like a lunatic but got tired so I just continued to run.
It's been many years since I've ran in this area. I think the last time I was here was for the Rose Bowl Half Marathon in 2008. I remember that was a difficult course for me at the time but then again that was when I first started running and every course felt difficult in their own ways. Today's course was fun and challenging and pretty similar to the RnR LA Half except that I didn't do so well today. Nothing was to blame, I just didn't train hard enough. Rock N Roll had advertised that if you beat your RnR LA Half time at the RnR Pasadena Half that they would send you a Brooks hat. No Brooks hat for me today. I battled shin splits the first couple of miles, had some sweet miles in the middle, poor pacing and then crashed and burned.
Mile 1 - 8:11
Mile 2 - 9:42 <-- shin splits and a potty break
Mile 3 - 8:43 <-- shin splits
Mile 4 - 8:17 <-- trying to make up time
Mile 5 - 7:45 <-- I would like to hit this more often. :)
Mile 6 - 7:49
Mile 7 - 8:09
Mile 8 - 8:32 <-- I went out too fast and started to fade.
Mile 9 - 8:57 <-- It's like I totally gave up here.
Mile 10 - 8:08 <-- I must have wanted that hat really badly.
Mile 11 - 8:22 <-- Not badly enough...
Mile 12 - 8:55 <-- Can't.Hang.On.Much.Longer...
Mile 13 - 7:45 <-- Just wanted to finish so that I can stop running.
Of course I have to talk about food even in a running post. When I got home from the race, my mom had breakfast waiting for me. Yes this is breakfast where we come from.
Then half an hour later, she made me lunch! Yes I ate it all! You know...to make my mom happy. ;) Nom nom. I love you mommy!
Up next...LA Marathon!! Woohoo! Let's get it on!