Long Beach ICB Half-Marathon 2012

EVENT: Long Beach ICB Half-Marathon
DATE: Sunday, October 7, 2012
LOCATION: Long Beach, CA
RACE BEGAN: 7:00 am
FINISH TIME: 02:06:09

Somehow, I feel as though I've done this race five times, but it was actually my fourth time (see here, here, and here for my past three recaps).  

I tend to drag and perform sub-optimally in this race because there is a section, miles 7-10 or so, that runs along the beach.  Although this is touted to be something good, to me, it's always boring, and always in the sun.  I guess another reason that I never really run well is because an October race means summer training, and that never really materializes very well.

I don't have a lot of additional commentary on the course itself.  Beyond the boring stretch, it's pretty well organized and had adequate aid stations.

I've only been running once a week or so for the past few months, since I've been doing Insanity and avoiding the summer heat as much as possible.  Considering that, I'm pretty impressed I am still able to pull through a half-marathon, period.  I was actually running at a decent pace in the first, hillier half, hitting the 10K at around 57 minutes.  I ran with my Polar heart-rate monitor rather than my Garmin again, so I don't really know my times again, but I did learn that a "comfortable-yet-not-too-slow," 9:20-9:40 pace is about 180-185 BPM on the heart-rate monitor.

Oh, and I wore my new Endomondo (David Andersen collection) shirt... beyond the fact that I totally sweat through it, I really liked it because it was a good (non-riding-up) length.

Wow, the color of the shirt seemingly changed in these photos, but I assure you...  it's the same one.

Finally, I definitely felt more motivated to run more after this race.  I wasn't actually doing too bad until the "boring miles," when I pretty much "gave up" and suffered the wrath of improper restroom timing pre-race.  Also, whereas I usually faded in the last couple of miles in the past, I felt strong and made up some lost time during the slight climbing end of this course.  I kind of credit Insanity for allowing me to tolerate inclines slightly better than I have in the past... just gotta work on the running endurance now.

I have another half-marathon in a few weeks, which is probably going to be the last of this fairly race-heavy year.  The plan is that after Insanity, the wedding, the honeymoon, and a small break, I think I will feel ready to begin training for next year's races in earnest.

HUGE series medal from Beach Cities (Surf City, OC, and this one)... you can see the size contrast to the bib... nice!