I Ran The Hilly, Difficult Pasadena Marathon!

If you happened to be standing around mile 25 of the 26.2 mile Pasadena Marathon course, I was the one running by belting out this:



I love some old school Morris Day and the Time on a long run!

Yes, good people, yours truly completed another marathon yesterday! How was it? Well, the Pasadena Star News called it a, "hilly, difficult route".

I 100% cosign on their description. It's a good thing I didn't study the race's elevation map too closely or do something really stupid like drive the entire route prior to running it. I would've been incredibly intimidated by those hills.

As it was, I trekked along cursing the name of the person that decided to throw all the insane hills in the second half. Even mile 22 was at the top of a huge hill and I was like, seriously? Do we really need another ginormous mountain to run up right now?

For those of you curious about how long it took me, I finished in 6:02. It's slower than I'd like but I don't feel so bad about that because the winning woman finished in 3:01. It was a tough route and at a certain point I decided to take it easy because I didn't want to completely wear my legs out.

Other than the hills, my favorite thing about the race was the old lady standing in front of her house in her full length mink coat and pearls looking at us like we were nuts. It was SO old money Pasadena.

Now I have another marathon medal to add to my collection. But you know what was really special? One of my dearest friends was volunteering at the race with her daughter and so she was at the finish line. She actually got to put my medal on me!

Post race I zoomed home, soaked in a tub of ice for about 10 minutes, took a hot shower, threw some clothes on... and drove 60 miles south to Dana Point. I went to the fabulous Orange County and Los Angeles Moms Blog event - wouldn't have missed it for the world!

Now my mind turns toward the upcoming Los Angeles Marathon on March 21st! LA knows how to do it right... no crazy uphills and the last few miles are a fast downhill to the Pacific Ocean.

I'm excitedly plotting my outfit. Yesterday for good luck I wore my exclusive Depeche Mode pin made by Mandy, an equally obsessed fan based in the UK. I'm going to wear it again, and some of my other DM pins. I'm also going to wear one of these super cute Team Sparkle Skirts in cherry red!

I'm doing cherry because, well, red is my favorite color and because the Cherry Marketing Institute is sponsoring me for the race! They have this cool "Powered by Red" campaign that talks about how eating red foods like cherries post-exercise helps your muscles recover more quickly. I'm down for anything all-natural and healthy that will help any lingering soreness go away.

Anyway, if you're wondering if I'll do the Pasadena Marathon again, right now I can't say I liked it enough to want to run it a second time... but I gotta admit, the medal IS cute!

Comments

Anne said…
Good for you Liz, you rock! What an accomplishment!!! Yaaaaayy!!!
Liz Dwyer said…
Anne,
Thank you! I'm so excited to get another marathon under my belt, but really excited about LA!
nick said…
Congratulations, you made it! I'd love to have seen you hollering along to the music! I hope you gave your voice a rest occasionally as well as your legs. And I see Depeche Mode sneaked in once again....
Liz Dwyer said…
Nick,
Thanks for the congratulations! Funny how I can work Depeche Mode into everything! :)
Dena said…
great job, liz!! you truly inspire me :)
Liz Dwyer said…
Dena,
Thanks, honey! You all inspire me to keep going! It's not like I can come back here and tell you I gave up at mile 23 because I was tired! ;)
Nerd Girl said…
You are awesome! Congratulations!!
Sally C said…
Congrats! Wonderful acheivement! And you're right, the medal is cute. You look so right with it in your hand!
Unknown said…
Congratulations chica! You are amazing. I have committed to running the Disney Princess Half marathon next year and hopefully I'll run the wine and dine half in November -actually I want to do a relay and run about 5 miles. Wanna do it?
Liz Dwyer said…
Nerd Girl,
Thank you for the congrats! Now just counting down the days till the next race!

Sally,
It's a great feeling to get the medal at the end! Makes all the hard work worth it! :)

Renee,
Oh how awesome you want to do the Disney Princess Half! That looks like a cute race! I'd be down but the date will probably fall too close to the LA marathon again for me to do it.
LihuaEmilyP said…
Congratulations. I like this blog, by the way.

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