The idea, originally, was that I was going to run a marathon before I turned 50. And that was it. Eventually, though, I remembered how much I loved to run, and it became about much more than a simple, single accomplishment.
Around the time I realized that, my friend Buck said she was going to run the Pasadena half marathon, exactly one month before the LA Marathon. I liked the way the dates lined up: Feb 21 Pasadena Half. March 21 LA Marathon. April 21 my 50th birthday. I get excited in a sort of OCD way when numbers form patterns. It also seemed like a good idea to get a race in before the marathon. I wanted to feel the nervousness, get used to the crowds, wake up at 4:30 am to run a race, and just kinda test the process, in case there were any mental or maybe even physical adjustments I needed to make before Marathon day.
It was awesome. There was that glorious weather moment as we came round the Rose Bowl parking lot where the sun was shining through a light drizzle/mist; that’s beautiful weather to be running through at 8:30 on a mild February morning in Southern California.
My time? Nothing too exciting, really. A little over 2 hours. Not Kenyan material. It was, however, the first finish line I’d run across since some small town central Texas hill country 10K back around 1980, 30 years ago, when I was 19 or 20. I’ll call it a personal first.
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