You Don't Have To Go Fast. You Just Have To Go.

My First Half Marathon...(for real this time)
Woohoo!!! The long awaited half marathon is finally complete. I have been training for the 33rd American’s Finest City Half Marathon in San Diego for 12 weeks. I think I stayed with the training schedule for a good part with an exception of a few lazy days and injured days. Prior to this I trained for the Pasadena Marathon in 2008 but the event was canceled. I was really disappointed then because I trained so well and was ready to go with gusto. I even specially ordered a race shirt that says "My First Half Marathon". After that my running was not as enthused and lulled to a point where I was enjoying food too much rather than burning it off. I figured I needed to set a goal in order to achieve what I set to do in the first place. Knowing very well of myself, setting a goal is much more motivating to keep going. And besides, running in a race is much more fun than trying to beat your own self. So with a hesitant agreement from my honey, we began our training for the AFC half. He said “why do we have to pay money so that we can run 13 miles when we can run on our own for free?” Sounds like a valid pondering but eventually he'd realize the fun of it. All in all, we trained pretty well and we headed to San Diego.

For our carb-loading dinner the night before, we went to an Italian restaurant in Hillcrest—Ristorante Arrivederci. Oh my, the food was just amazing! (And you thought I was just gonna talk about running. Oh no, I must include our culinary exploration, as always). We started with Melanzane Sorrentina (grilled eggplant, baked with mozzarella cheese and tomato sauce). This was just heaven. The eggplant was literally smothered in cheese and sauce. It was oh so yummy. We gobbled that dish in very short minutes. People next to us probably thought we haven’t eaten for days. For the main course I had the risotto with mushroom and truffle oil. Not to mention the huge portion, this was THE risotto! The texture was perfect, mushrooms were flavorful and the truffle oil was not overpowering but just right to add to the flavor. It was a simple risotto but powerful. Of course I finished the whole thing. Normally I wouldn’t but I gotta load up glycogen before the big day. My honey had one of the specials, gemelli with chicken in pesto sauce. Yummy also. Chicken was a bit tough but great sauce. He obviously liked my risotto better because he helped me finish it. Now we were ready to battle!



The race day began by waking up at 3:30am to arrive at the race site by 5:30am. Everything worked out great. The event people knew what they’re doing. Things were very organized. We caught the shuttle bus to take us to the starting line. While on the bus, I was quite nervous but ready to get this done! My calf injury was still acting up slightly so I diligently massaged it and stretched lots. After using the port-a-potty twice we began the race.

The first 8 miles were not too hard for me. Amazingly no pain and I felt great. Lots of cheers from the crowds. It was awesome to see people come out to cheer us on. What a spirit! And it’s so encouraging. After about 9 miles into it I started telling myself “I can do this. Only four miles to go. Easy!” The last mile and half was the killer I tell ya. It was all steep uphill. You know when you’re trying to run in a dream and you feel like you’re not going anywhere? That’s exactly how I felt going up the hill. This is when the phrase “You don’t have to go fast, you just have to go” on my cap needed to be repeated in my head. After it finally flatted out entering Balboa Park it felt like it was the longest stretch ever to the finish line. But alas we finished and received our medals. We came in at 2 hours, 18 minutes which was 12 minutes short of what we hoped for. Actually I was just hoping that I will finish within the time limit of 3 hours because the latter part of my training was challenging because of my calf pain. But this was a definite success and still no pain!

It was an exhilaration that I’ve been longing for since I’ve started running for a few years now. I am proud of myself and my honey for doing this. It’s even better that we did it together. He encouraged me and motivated me throughout the training and during the race which I am more than grateful for. I was unsure that this is what I can do but now I am certain that I can. Now we are even more inspired and we are aiming for the Triple Crown (three half marathons in San Diego area) next year…and maybe a marathon someday…maybe, we’ll see.