Race Report: Long Beach 5K

Back when we lived in the LBC, I had the opportunity to run the Long Beach Marathon and Half Marathon weekend events a few times, and I was lucky enough to have the chance to participate in them again in early October!

I am not in this picture,

but it's a great header for the blog entry.

Around the end of June, I was sitting at home, starting to get a bit antsy about my relative lack of fitness, needing some motivation to get off my rear, when I pondered the idea of signing up for yet another half marathon.  As I think I've mentioned before on the blog, I'm best when I'm following a workout schedule, and for me, training for a half marathon fits well into our lifestyle; to me, that distance feels like a tough but attainable goal, and I don't have to commit my entire life to it, like I would for a full marathon.  Since I figured I'd want to do roughly a 12-16 week training plan leading up to a race, that put my target run date somewhere in early October.  The Long Beach Half Marathon would be back as an in-person race for 2021, running on October 10th, and the timing seemed perfect - the weather should be nice (or at least, nicer than here in Phoenix), we'd have a chance to visit the old stomping grounds, and we could see Dad and Risa, who were finally living in their new house.  I also saw there was a cool combo medal for runners who completed either the full or half marathon on Sunday and also finished the Aquarium of the Pacific 5K the day before - I'd always wanted to do the 5K, so I signed up for that, too!  

I put together my training plan and I was off and running...until I wasn't.  My first week of training coincided with a trip to Knoxville, TN to see family and check out some land in the area; all of that unanticipated hill training coupled with it being my first week back led to some ankle soreness, which hung around for a few weeks.  I mentioned it to my massage therapist, who used to be a professional runner, and she trained me in some new stretching techniques, which worked like a charm!  

Listening to live music in Bristol, TN/VA

with Aunt Mary Alice and Uncle Bill

UB and AMA's cat, who likes to sit like a weirdo

I was off and running again...until I wasn't.  Again.  As I mentioned in the blogs about our recent trip to Puerto Vallarta, I came home with some sort of gnarly bug; it kept me in bed for a few days, and once that abated, I started feeling another weird aching in my chest.  Terrified it was another bout of pericarditis, I followed up with my health care providers; the days went on, the tests and scans didn't reveal any heart concerns, and I started feeling better.  As it turns out, it was instead some mild acid reflux, probably brought on by all of the eating and drinking you read about in the PV blogs.  My primary care doc let me know that as long as I wasn't in pain, I was allowed to exercise again, provided, "I didn't red line myself" (his words - it's like he's met me before).

Okay, let's try this one more time!  I was off and running again...and can you guess what happened next?  If you answered, "did you fall down and hurt yourself," you win the prize!  About a week and a half before the races, the weather was finally, finally nice enough for a short run during my lunch break (we'd been waking up at 5:30 for the past few months to run before work, the only time for outside running around here during the summer), and I was beyond stoked.  I put on my running clothes, sunscreen-d up, started my iPod shuffle (yes, I still own one of those), and headed out the door.  I made it about .8 miles on a route I've run approximately 5,000 times before when I wasn't paying enough attention and clipped the edge of the sidewalk with my left foot, turning my ankle and pitching myself straight down onto the pavement on my right knee.  I hobbled to a nearby curb in the shade and called Chris, asking him to come collect me; I could barely walk on the ankle, and everything hurt - there's no way I could have made it home in that shape.

The next day - the right ankle is the normal one,

for a point of comparison,

and the left ankle is the swollen, unhappy one.

Ooh, those are fun colors!

...and the knee, all shiny from antibacterial ointment.

I was so bummed - just really mad at myself for not being more careful and heartsick that I wouldn't get to run in the events.  In the next few days after my crash, however, things started looking up a bit; although I was limping, I could put pressure on the ankle, and walking on it wasn't an issue.  I've truly sprained my ankle in the past, and that was a completely different story - crutches, air cast, the whole nine yards - and I could tell this was not the same, which was encouraging.  Dutifully icing and NSAID-ing each day, the swelling went down before too long, although it still sported an interesting and varied array of colors each day.

The right knee around Day 4 - 

it kind of looks like a Halloween ghoul face to me.

Augs says hi.

See?  Not quite as swollen,

but oh so colorful.

My crash was on a Thursday, and by the next Tuesday, I was doing well enough that I went for a walk with Chris and the girls around the block in the morning and had a short, easy bike ride later that day (all of my bike rides all on our bike trainer in our garage, so it's super safe and easy to stop and hop off, whenever that's needed).  Wednesday saw a slightly longer, still easy, bike ride, and by Thursday (T-minus three days before the race), I was able to complete an easy, two-mile run.  I still didn't know if I would be okay to start the half marathon on Sunday, but I felt pretty confident I could do Saturday's 5K, if I took it easy and ran smart (having the shorter race be the bellwether for the half worked out nicely here - if I couldn't finish the 5K, there was no way I could do the half the next day, and the household could sleep in on Sunday).

Even if there was no chance of running the events, we still would have traveled out to CA, as we hadn't seen Dad and Risa since February and looked forward to catching up; on Friday morning, we checked the girls into doggie daycare and got on the road around 8:30; after a few quick stops (cheaper AZ gas at the state line, a few rest areas to eat lunch and use the facilities), we made it to Long Beach around 2:30.  When we initially planned to come for the races, Dad and Risa were going to be out of town for much of the weekend, so we booked a stay at one of the race hotels in downtown Long Beach, the Westin.  When their plans changed and we knew they'd be around, we edited our hotel reservation to cancel Saturday night, but we still checked in on Friday for one night; we figured it would be easy for me to walk to the start line of the 5K and attend the pre-race expo, required for picking up my race day items.  We were running early for check-in time, so we took the opportunity to drive past our old house (which still looked great - the new owners seem to be taking good care of it), cruise the streets of Bixby Knolls, and stop for a snack at the Long Beach Creamery, the best ice cream store in all of the world.

Check-in was easy and painless, and we even got upgraded to a harbor view room!

As you can see, our room faced west,

so taking pictures in the afternoon wasn't the best.

Chris took a better shot -

I see the cranes in the port!

A cute little window in the elevator alcove of the hotel

Chris finished unpacking the car, while I wandered over to the expo to get my race numbers (and t-shirts).  We relaxed in the room for a bit, changed, and then strolled a short distance to our dinner location, BO-beau (we've eaten here several times and brought many other folks, too, including Mom and Christina).  After dinner, we did another short wander to the Promenade area of downtown, stopping at Congregation Ale House for drinks (Chris) and dessert (both of us).  It was really nice to see that most of our favorite spots, both in downtown and in Bixby Knolls, survived the pandemic and were still in operation.  By then, it was time to head back to the Westin and get me off my feet and into bed!  I had a race to run in the morning (hopefully)!

But not before getting some nighttime views of the city!

Per my norm, I was already awake by the time my alarm went off the next morning, and I sequestered myself in the bathroom to get ready, make some chai, and eat a bagel.  I said goodbye (and good morning) to Chris, then walked the short .6 mile from the hotel to the Aquarium of the Pacific for the 5K.  I immediately got in line to use the bathroom, then found a quiet spot near the boardwalk to sit and rest my ankle before the race started.

Some shots of the harbor and Parker's Lighthouse

as the sun rose

Aquarium selfie!

The big blue section in the right of the photo

is a giant IMAX movie theater thing.

It's new since we lived here.

Knee check-in: looking better!

I was still getting some aching from the knee

at this point, but if I kept it moist

with ointment, it worked fine while I ran.

Looking toward the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co

and the start line for the 5K

My trusty Under Armour SportsMask - 

this is the featherweight version,

and it worked amazingly well.

Due to the crowds, many of whom

were kids of the ages that couldn't yet be vaccinated,

I kept this on the entire run,

and I could breathe without a problem.

The X2 can was the only drink they had at the start line,

and since I hadn't brought water with me,

I grabbed it to wash down my last nibble of my bagel.

Blah - that sh*t was gross.

Marina selfie!

Overall, the 5K went great - far better than I could have imagined just one week earlier.  I was able to finish the entire run, and had a fantastic time getting out and exercising in the crisp morning air.  The 5K normally runs through the aquarium itself (the aquarium being the title sponsor and all); due to lingering COVID concerns, however, we didn't go inside the aquarium this year.  Instead, we ran over the Queensway bridge and back, and at the very end, detoured through the aquarium's maintenance area (so many pipes!  It was really pretty cool) and past their outside exhibits (touch tanks, bird atrium, etc).  My official time was 32:13, which although it's not my fastest, is absolutely not my slowest either (19/120 in my age group, 154/1000 females, 434/1690 overall).  Not too shabby!

Chris met me at the finish line and grabbed this great shot of me with my race medal (albeit while I was staring straight into the sun):

The medal (and accompanying t-shirts were really cool, too).

Here's a close-up:

Shark!

After the race, Chris and I headed back to the Westin to drop off a few things (including my UA Sportsmask - that thing was DAMP), and then it was back down to street level and just around the corner to Creme De La Crepe for an amazing breakfast.  We each enjoyed some caffeinated delights and a crepe (with me saving the rest of mine for a snack - it was pretty big).

My cappuccino

Post-breakfast, it was back up to the hotel room to shower and change, and then we packed up and headed to Dad and Risa's house to hang out with them!  In the next blog, we do just that, and I might even run another race - stay tuned to find out!

Later!

Amy