Long Beach Half Marathon / Kona

First off, I have to give it to my good friend and loyal US Nationals room-mate, Doug Clark (of Morristown, NJ) who won the 40-44 age group in the IronMan World Championships in Kona, Hawaii, this past weekend. He did it in an impressive 9 hrs and 22 minutes. Nobody deserved this win more than Doug this year. He trained so hard, raced so well throughout the season by wining the US National Championships in Tuscaloosa, AL, the EagleMan in MD and by getting 2nd place (beat by merely 3 seconds on the finish line) at the World Age Grouper Championships in Australia. Doug is a class act all around. A dedicated husband and dad that inspire us all! I look forward to raining and racing with (and against!) Doug in 2010. Hopefully, we'll both be at Kona in 2011 to give Lance A. a good run for the money :)

Secondly, I ran the Long Beach Half Marathon this past weekend. It was a local race here in Southern California with more than 10,000 participants. I haven't done much run training but figured it was good to 'just do it' to get my clunker bicycle legs moving. I wanted to run a sub 1:23 on this relatively flat course. As it turns out, the organizers didn't measure the distance correctly (13.1 miles) and we ended up running closer to 13.5 miles (according to many friends who ran with GPS devices). At any rate, I felt pretty good although I started out slightly too fast, running a 5:44 first mile. I ended up averaging 6:09/mile pace and crossed the finish line (with female runner no. 1) in 1hr 20 mins 32 seconds. That result gave me 6th place in the 40-44 age group and 443 overall. Here's a photo that appeared in the local Long Beach newspaper today:

http://lang.presstelegram.com/photos/photos.html#id=861677&num=38

Given the slightly longer than expected distance, I should have broken 1:18 on this course. I guess I'll have to prove that ambition in a few more weeks when I'm planning to run another half here in CA. Perhaps I'll see some of you there!

In sports,
Espen