Pacific Shores Marathon Recap

It feels so great to set yourself a goal and then accomplish it! My goal for the Pacific Shores Half was to first of all improve my time from last year which was 2:05 at a 9:33min/mile pace. My second goal was to do it in under 2 hours. I did both of these! I came in at 1:58:17 which came out to a 9:02 min/mile pace. So I took 7 minutes off of my time from last year. I felt great, 9 min/mile pace for me is just out of my comfort zone. I can comfortably run at a 9:30-9:45 pace but bumping it up to 9 min/mile is tough for me but I just kept making myself stay in that just uncomfortable zone. I wasn't much for conversation the whole race, I had my ipod on and I just stayed focused on keeping my pace the whole race, watching my forerunner for the pace and heart rate. My average heart rate was 167 with the highest being 182 right at the last mile when I pushed into the finish.

As for my training partner, she did awesome! She beat her PR by 5 minutes! She came in at 1:33 and a 7:09 min/mile pace which put her 8th out of 747 people in her age group! That is amazing she placed in the top 10 at a running event while training for a triathlon and without tapering! She is such an amazing athlete and inspires me!

The reason we did this race was as a test to see how our training is working and since she took 5 minutes off of her PR and I took 7 minutes off of mine we must be on the right track! We didn't taper at all for this race either. We have 8 weeks to go until the California Half Ironman so we will keep working in the same direction we have been since it is working so well. The only difference will be that we will start getting more specific- do more Bricks, practice transitions, nutrition, etc.

I am excited for our race March 31st. With tapering(taking rest the week before to let our body recover and rebuild to be 100% for the race) we should both have a great race!

My mom and sister came down and raced too. It was my sister's first half marathon. She ran her first 5K a year ago at this exact same race. She has come a long way in a year- she completed her first triathlon in March of last year and competed in 5 more triathlons since. She is training to do the LA Marathon in 1 month. I am so proud of her. My mom completed the 5K, her third 5K race. She had a good time and I am proud of her too! Our whole team(My training partner, my mom, my sis and me!)did awesome and had a great day!

The Pacific Shores Marathon is a great race! I recommend it if you are looking for a half or full marathon in So Cal next year! I'll probably be there again!