Carlsbad Marathon (26.TUTU)

This probably seems like my third blog post about the Carlsbad Marathon .. but its not! Okay, well it is. My first post was about the expo though (more here) and the second was about a rogue pacer who ran a 4:22 while holding a 4:30 sign (more here).  This one is all about the race! But I'll be brief in case you're sick of reading about Carlsbad. I just can't let go! 

Carlsbad Marathon Schwag

After completing the California International Marathon in December and PR'ing and finally breaking 4 hours (3:57 thank you!) (race recap here) I was torn between feelings of never wanting to run another marathon again, and running another one soon after to get in another sub-4 finish. I was settling into the idea of not running another full until the San Francisco Marathon when they asked me if I was running Carlsbad and if I could work the expo again. I actually wasn't running Carlsbad, but then I started thinking about how running Carlsbad would be my 3rd full marathon in  <90 days, qualifying me for the Marathon Maniacs club. 

Carlsbad Marathon Outfit

I checked the Carlsbad site to look into registering and was sad to see that it was sold out. Next I went over to the Tri Club's Classified section thinking I wouldn't see a race bib for sale there ... but guess what? I did! I emailed the poster (thinking maybe it had already been sold and it was a sign to take a break from racing), and a few days later the bib was transferred into my name. Whoo hoo!

Pre-Race With Tara & Ben

I was fresh off the CIM race though and wasn't ready to race hard, and since Tara and I had been doing our long runs together we decided to run this race together and attempt to get Tara to a PR of 4:20. I felt pretty confident that I could pace her to a 4:20, and our training runs up until the race indicated that we had a good chance of doing so.

Starting the Race in the Dark

The full marathon started at 6am up in Carlsbad which is a 45 minute drive from my house. I met Tara and Ben at her office which is halfway up to Carlsbad at 5am. Meeting them at 5am meant I got up at 3:30am. Awesome. Since the race started at the mall we easily found parking, made a pit stop at one of the zillions of portapotties, and then we were off!

Running Along the Beach in January

We cruised pretty easily through the first few miles and I kept a close eye on my Garmin to make sure we weren't running too fast. Thanks to my nervous bladder we had to take a quick stop around mile 8 (I think?). Luckily there was no line and I was as quick as I could be, but as I walked out of the portapottie I noticed my watch had auto-paused. D'oh! CRAP. Now my watch was going to be off from chip time. I asked Tara what her watch said and it looked like we had lost about 2 minutes. 

Cruising Along the Ocean

We passed the halfway mark of the race right around 2:10. Perfect! We were moving along pretty well until mile 16 or 18 where Tara suddenly said something like "I can't do this".  I thought we were doing great and knew we had trained properly so I looked at her like she was crazy and brushed her off and told her that she was crazy, we were doing it. 

Carlsbad Marathon Elevation Profile

I'm not sure if she suddenly got exhausted or started stressing out about our finish time, but her breathing became heavier and gaspy at times. I (probably annoyingly) kept telling her to hold herself up straighter to get more air into her lungs, and slowed us down to a pace that I thought would be more comfortable. Around mile 20 (when we were still on track for our 4:20ish finish) the 4:30 pacer passed us and things seemed to go a bit further downhill. With walk breaks and maintaining a slower pace though, we managed to run through the last few miles, speed up in the last 0.2, and come across the finish line with big smiles. 

Finish Line Smiles

When we were in the last mile I knew we weren't going to make 4:20, but I was confident that we were going to break 4:30 since my watch said 4:28. Garmin fail #2 - I had set my virtual trainer for a marathon distance. Since we didn't run perfect tangents in the course we ran closer to 26.4, meaning my Garmin STOPPED at 26.2. AHH. 

Carlsbad Marathon - We Did It!

 Race Splits Not Counting My One Break

I still thought we had broken 4:30 and when I finally got my phone and called David and had him look up our times, I was disappointed to hear that we came in at 4:30:18. Darnit! If I had known we were that closed I would have pushed us more! 18 seconds over 26.2 miles? So frustrating! This race was still a PR for Tara by about 6 minutes though so while she was a little disappointed, she was still happy. 

Talking to David Post-Race
(I look at this picture and the song She's a Laaaady runs through my head)

I had a lot of fun running together and would totally do it again. I've learned over the past year that running a marathon isn't always about a PR. Sometimes its fun to cheer on a friend, sometimes its fun to run with the person you love, and sometimes you just gotta do those twenty six point two miles with your friend in a matching tutu. Go twenty-six-point-tutus!

Carlsbad Marathon Medal

My Updated Medal & Race Bib Collection

To read Tara's race recap click here.

To check out Glam Runner tutus click here.