Pasadena Marathon Race Report

Today I ran the Pasadena Half Marathon. There was the good, the bad and well, nothing too ugly! With wedding hoopla and the run of the mill work stress, I admit I was kind of lax in my training the past two weeks. That factored into the bad, but more on that later. I got to the start roughly 10 minutes before they blew the horn. There was just enough time to visit a port-a-jon before the race began. Surprisingly, I was able to cross the start within 2 minutes of the front runners. The first segment of the half was incredible. We raced by Caltech, to old town, by city hall and then back out to a beautiful downhill on Colorado (to which The Pixes "Debaser" just added to that burst of speed!). The real gem was getting to run out and back on the Colorado Street bridge. Gorgeous views of the hills and greenery. From the bridge, we headed down Orange Grove through some neighborhoods to the Rose Bowl. It was about this time, round the seventh mile water station, that the warm weather AND the lull in training hit. While endurance wise, I felt ok, my knees and legs and right foot were al starting to bother. There was a general soreness that was just not going to let up. The final 6 miles were completed with an alternating walk and run. And may I add, each additional mile I began to linger just a little more at those water stations......

The Good:
Receiving water from a volunteer that was balanced on her head
The gummi bears and pretzels from the Pasadena Pacers station at mile 12
The bridge
Running Miles 1-7 in 1:10 minutes
Crossing the finish

The Bad:
Blisters
Bum Knee
Foot cramping during run (more bananas!!)
Crossing the finish line at 2:30

And PS...I am a total fan of these CX-W running tights. No back soreness as compared to the last half I ran. The tights have a pretty high and tight waistline that provide a considerable amount of support.