My Long Beach Half Race Report

I received an entry into the Long Beach Half Marathon as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review, find, and write race reviews! All opinions are my own.

Six days ago, I ran the Long Beach half and boy, I had all of the feels.

Expo

Parking for bib pick up is tricky as the expo is held at the Long Beach Convention Center and so parking is a little difficult to find. We parked a few blocks away and walked over to avoid spending $10+ to park at the center itself. Once parked, bib pick up was easy peasy. They do have metal detectors so don’t be carrying any knives with you when you enter. 🙂 I picked up my bib, shirt, some last minute supplies, found my name on their banner and out I went.

Can you spot my name?

They also sell parking passes for the following day if needed.

Race Day

The half marathon started at 7:30 so I was dropped off around 7 and made my way to the starting area. The full started at 6 and both the half/full courses circle back towards the start around mile 6 so we all got to cheer on the marathoners as they passed us by.

The start for the half was smooth sailing. I found myself near a 1:55 pacer and ran with them knowing full well that I haven’t been able to run that fast in a few years or so. LOL. I knew it was too fast a pace to keep with my training for this race, but I was being stubborn as usual and held on for as long as I could. Apparently that was 7 miles and honestly, it was a glorious 7 miles. I am a crazy person and love rolling hills and turns and for the first 7 or so miles, there are a lot of it. I had a blast running along the course and seeing all the sights for those first set of miles.

Then, at mile 7, it straightens out and you’re just along the beach for 3 miles before you make your way back towards the finish. That part was brutal. Since the race started at 7:30 am, by the time I got to mile 7, it was around 8:30 and the sun was out beating down on us with no shade. Luckily, I brought shades and a visor, but yeahhhh, I was pretty drained from the sun. For miles 10-12, I was on the struggle bus. I started run/walking and beating myself up for not being faster. I also forgot my flip belt and body glide, which meant that I was holding my phone the entire race AND got some unwanted chafing. No bueno. 😦 Luckily, my friend was stationed at mile 12 and once I saw her, I quickened my pace and headed to the finish. HOORAY!

I didn’t get to enjoy much of the post-race festivities as I was super duper tired and couldn’t reach anyone due to low cell reception. I did enjoy the coconut water, which I chugged down in a minute. LOL.

Pro tips

Bring a hat/shades for that stretch along the beach. If it’s not overcast, the sun will take a toll on your body (unless you train in a hot climate).

If you are planning on meeting anyone, make sure to have a plan before you race. That way, they know where to meet you. Due to the congestion of all the runners, cell reception is extremely poor and I didn’t get reception until I left the area.

If you are planning on getting picked up, walk a few blocks out of the convention center. Your driver will 100% appreciate it as there is quite a bit of traffic due to the road closures.

Enjoy the course! When I wasn’t beating myself up about being faster, I had a lovely time! LOL.

The Long Beach half was my 29th half marathon and in all honesty, it hasn’t felt like that many. 🙂 Every half I’ve participated in has brought up the same feelings – pre-race anxiety, pre-race excitement, on course awe, on course pain, on course “OMG I can see the finish line”, and post-race joy that I finished. And although I’ve experienced these feelings before, it’s still surprising to me that I haven’t gotten bored of them. LOL. I guess, that means that I’m in the right sport, yeah?

Dopey Challenge Part 1

Happy new year everyone! I apologize for disappearing for almost 2 weeks. It’s been a bit hectic. If you follow me on social media, you’ll know that I have been off traveling and running my little legs off. If you’re just tuning in now, well, I did the impossible. I completed the Dopey Challenge! That’s right! I started 2018 off with a bang! Hooray Let’s recap, shall we?

Flight: My biggest fear when traveling is having my flight delayed or cancelled. And can you guess what happened the day of my flight?

Yep. My flight got cancelled. It was first delayed an hour, then two hours, then two and a half, and then straight up cancelled with no explanation. Thanks Frontier Airlines. Thanks a lot.

They offered to rebook me on their next available flight, but that meant I would have missed picking up my packet at the Walt Disney World Expo and I wouldn’t have been able to complete the Dopey Challenge. So I just took the refund they offered me. I frantically looked for another flight that night and was fortunately able to book with United, but it cost me $400 more than my original flight. Grrr. Frontier did send me a $200 voucher on top of the refund, but I was more peeved than anything because they gave me no explanation as to why the flight was cancelled nor did they apologize for the huge inconvenience they caused me.

Packet Pick-Up: Anyway, I arrived in Orlando Wednesday morning and got checked into my hotel with little delay.

I have arrived!

Since I stayed at one of their resorts, they had shuttles taking people to the expo. Hooray for convenience! Then came the crazy crowds. I’m used to lines at expos, but this was a whole other beast.

I had forgotten to bring my printed waiver to the expo and so I had to wait in an extremely long line (maybe 30 minutes) to just print out my waiver. Once it was printed, I went to the actual bib-pick up, which consisted of another super long line that snaked outside the building. Holy moly. I think the whole ordeal took me 2 hours. Whew. I swung by the Disney merchandise area afterwards and scored myself a nice Dopey Challenge pullover. 🙂 By that time, I was done spending money and skipped the expo altogether. I probably missed out on some sweet stuff, but I was just done with overpaying for things. LOL.

I spent the rest of Wednesday resting up for the 5k distance. I set up my flatrunner and went to bed at 8 pm ET. That’s 5 pm PT, where I’m from. That’s when I usually get off work. LOL. Talk about being totally unprepared.

My Flatrunner Russell costume

If you’ve every run a Disney race, you’ll know that the start times are extremely early. For a race that started at 5:30 am, we all had to leave our Disney resorts by 3:30 am. That meant standing in the cold for about 1.5 to 2 hours before starting. Oh and it was soooo very cold! The day of the 5k, it was 32F. I was super unprepared for the weather and I’m pretty sure the day of the 5k, I almost got frost bite from the lack of layers I should have been wearing. LOL. Luckily, they had Disney characters near the start line so everyone lined up to to get their photos taken. There was also a tent that everyone escaped too and huddled together to stay warm. LOL

Fellow BibRave Pro Justin and I with Dopey!

Walt Disney World 5k: Enough with the complaining, let’s get to the race! Like all Disney races, they started each wave by sending fireworks into the air.

 

The first mile and a half, we were running through the streets surrounding Epcot. There were three character stops from what I remember – Chip and Dale, Lightning McQueen and Mater from Cars, and the Genie from Aladdin. Chip and Dale came within the first mile, but because I was still very cold, I bypassed them and hoped that they’d be at another race. Spoiler: They weren’t. 😦 I did get a photo with the genie though so I was a happy camper. Even before entering Epcot, I took a nasty fall. I was adjusting my brownie sash for my Russell costume and missed a step and fell forward and ripped up my gloves and scraped my elbow. Luckily, I was wearing tights or my legs would have been scraped up too. Yikes!

 

Once I got into the park, it was magical. Disney knows how to do their races right. Since the race was so early, it felt like we were experiencing the park at night. Everything was wonderfully lit and there were so many photo worthy opportunities. The only downside is that the lighting may not be super great for taking photos with characters. After finishing the race, I grabbed a Mylar blanket and headed back to the shuttle to get ready for a day at the park. 🙂

Too long, didn’t read? Here’s the short version. I had a rocky start, but it panned out in the end. 🙂 I’ll continue with my 10k and half marathon in the next post! 🙂

Question for you: Have you ever had a flight cancelled? What did you do?