2015 California International Marathon

Date: December 6th, 2015
Time: 3:36:54 (8:16 pace)

Some two months after running Chicago Marathon, it was time to pin on another marathon bib, and make my way to the starting line of California International Marathon (CIM) in Sacramento. I mainly signed up for this race because it seems to be popular with George, and many CARs were signed up to run. Since we were now living in California (moved to Los Angeles in September), it was also a "local" race for us. We left our apartment around 4am Saturday morning and were at the expo picking up my bib by 11. Originally, Sandra, Karen, Marjorie, and Vica were all supposed to run. However, they all had to defer because of injuries. Since they already had booked their plane tickets, they ended up coming, and we thus had a nice cheer squad. Before the race, we all met in an overpriced Italian restaurant, where the tiny portions didn't quite satisfy the pre-marathon carbloading goals. Oh well.

Route and the elevation profile. Notice the many rolling hills. It actually looks even more squiggly in the detailed elevation map!

The race started under a light drizzle, which I found quite amusing. My first rainy marathon ended up being one in the drought-stricken California. CIM is a net downhill course, which I took to mean that it will be easy. Boy was I wrong. There are so many small rolling hills that by the time the course started to flatten out around mile 16, my legs were pretty much done. I had to even walk for a bit to recover. I also lost time stopping to use a porta potty. Regardless, I still managed to get a slight PR from Chicago but it was not pretty. I felt so beat up at the end, which was so different from how I felt after Chicago. I ended up 7 minutes shy of my goal of breaking 3:30. Next time!

The fast CAR runners, with Greg M. on his way to a 2:26 finish!

Marjorie and Karen cheering me and Kristin on

Nice fall colors. This was taken through the car windshield on the way home.

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