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Whoops, totally forgot to post my Pasadena Half Marathon race recap!

I already posted about how good the expo was, but look what else I found in there!

I didn’t buy it, but how awesome is that!!!!

The night before, I laid out all my stuff for my early morning wake up call. It’s so weird getting ready for a race in my own house. Maybe I’ve been spoiled, but nearly all of my other races have been in other cities. I kind of felt like a chicken with my head cut off, it didn’t feel real that I was running in the morning. I couldn’t focus. Look at that above picture, anything missing?

I didn’t realize until I was half-way to the start line that I had forgot the most important thing! My GARMIN! My heart just sank. Chely and I rode the Metro there (I love public transportation!). It was too late to turn around and go back for it. Not having my watch really messed me up mentally during Nike last year. But I wasn’t going to let this ruin another race. I decided to just stick with my teammates and enjoy the scenery instead of focusing on my “pace” or “milage”.

I met with my Los Angeles Racers team and we did some stretching together. It started to drizzle but then ended up drying up. The weather was PERFECT for running!
Hint: I am the cool kid in the lime green socks. HAHA

I knew I had to stick friends to keep me on pace (even though I wasn’t obsessing over it). I did my usual 5:5 intervals with Peter. After a few miles, other people started asking us questions about why we ran/walked. They looked exhausted and I think they were totally jealous of our style. HAHAHA I am still in awe I can maintain a 12 minute pace walking 50% of the time.

I was just taking it easy and powering through. There were a LOT of hills! Everytime we went up, Peter and I visualized Heartbreak Hill. 🙂

Somewhere around Mile 9, I was totally in the zone. I didn’t really feel like I was running, I just got into a methodical rhythm that was driving me forwards. Then I glanced over and saw a woman on the side of the road cheering. She struck a remarkable resemblance to the mother of my friend, Rebecca, who passed away from cancer im 2002. This lady was wildly cheering and I started to get choked up. Rebecca and I were both treated at Dana-Farber at the same time. We became good friends. A flood of memories came back to me and I said out loud to myself: “This is why I run… ”

And with that, I willed myself to go faster.

A mile later, I started realizing that my Personal Record (2:47) was actually within reach! But since Peter had forged ahead, going for it would mean leaving my other friends (and their trusty watches!) behind. I decided it was a mental game, and as long as I ran as much as I walked, I could still beat my time!

It was totally worth sprinting it in! I beat my time!!! I didn’t know it until later…. but I actually beat it by over 7 minutes!!

Some of my teammates: Rhoda, Sharon, Peter, Me and Autumn!

I am so proud of this medal!

My official time:

And check this out… I PR’d on the 10K too!

I really loved the shirt they gave out too! Gotta love those loose fitting dri-fits!

So the moral of the story is that running really IS “mind over matter”. I definitely won’t be running Boston without my Garmin, but it is a really nice feeling knowing I dont HAVE to depend on it. It really was a great race. Next stop: BOSTON!