My Life, As Told Between (Baby Cakes') Naps

Ran the Pasadena Marathon yesterday!  There were only 5,600 participants (including the half marathon, 5k, etc.), about 1,000 of whom ran the full marathon (compared with the 25,000 expected to run the full LA Marathon next month).  It was a good run overall, although I hit the wall at mile 18 so the last 8.2 miles was a struggle.  I finished in 04:50:45, which is approximately an 11 minute/mile pace.  It’s a minute slower than my training runs and my goal pace for the LA Marathon, although it’s as fast as I’ve ever run a marathon.  (Hmm, may have to adjust goal pace…)

The course was hillier than I expected – with an especially brutal 300 foot incline stretching from miles 13-15 and a shorter 100 foot incline at mile 20.  On the other hand, the weather was perfect!  Not too hot nor too cold.  We were especially lucky in that we caught a break in the rain.  It rained the night before and the morning of the marathon, cleared up during the race, and only started raining again after the marathon ended.   

My favorite thing about the Pasadena Marathon may have been seeing T pop up frequently along the course however.  Given how small the marathon was, and how sparse the “crowd” was along the route, it was like an easy game of “Where is Waldo?”  =)  Since T and I had to pick up my race registration stuff and attend a housewarming party in Pasadena the night before, we decided to get a hotel room in Pasadena and luckily pricelined a hotel within the marathon loop, which made it even easier for him to meet up with me and cheer me on during the course.  Since he’s the world’s best husband, he also met me at the end of the race with a beautiful bouquet of roses.  =)

T surprised me with flowers yesterday and my favorite cupcake today (red velvet from Yummy Cupcakes) to celebrate the four year anniversary of our first date.  I was going to write a post about how absolutely amazing T is and how he makes each day better than the last, but he’s so much better at expressing things like that than I am, so instead, I’ll just direct you to this awesome post I stumbled across that sums it up perfectly.