We ran the Long Beach Half Marathon yesterday. It’s quite the local event: the course starts down at The Pike at Shoreline Village and runs all around the port area by the Queen Mary, then down the bike path to the Flip Flop Shack then up to Ocean Blvd. and back to Shoreline Village. It’s also pretty flat; there’s one hill in the first couple of miles, then another steady incline at 11 miles. We had a good race, all in all – I wish I could say I was knocking back 8 minute miles, but our pace was closer to 11 minutes a mile. So it goes. We carpooled to the race with some friends, and managed to loseWeight Exercise one of them at the finish. She went to the car to meet us; the rest of us wandered around the finish for an hour looking for her. We all made it home safely in the end and went out to lunch, then had drinks and watched football in the afternoon.

We woke up this morning pretty stiff, but a few minutes of The Stick had us up and walking (relatively) pain-free. We have about six weeks to get ready for the next one: the inaugural City of Angels Half Marathon. Meanwhile my nikeplus goal of 80 miles in four weeks is well in hand – I am currently 9.6 miles ahead of my goal!!

I went to physical therapy this afternoon for my flabby ass syndrome, and they very kindly did not make me do lunges today. But by the end when I get to lay on a heating pad to relax my back, I was out like a light 30 seconds after lying down.

So there you go, 49 and still running. Now with napping included.