I was taking part in the the 5k which was sponsored by Bubba Gump Shrimp hence it was called the Run Forrest Run 5k.
I went online once I got home to scope out what I should be doing and where I should be for the race. Looked up alternate exits from the freeway as I read traffic was a pain in the ass! I sorted out my stuff for the day Shorts, Shirt, Socks, Shoes, Nike+, RoadID and warm gear just in case. Headed to bed for an early night as I need to get up at 5am so I could be out the door by 6am.
On Sunday morning I got up and had some brekkie, went with a whole wheat muffin with peanut butter, a cliff bar and some good old H2O. After that I grabbed a shower and got all my gear together. Then jumped in the car and made my way down to Long Beach. The roads were quiet so was able to get down there in great time until i hit the 710 at Long Beach, jumped off the exit before getting stuck and found my way to my prepaid parking spot (Great idea from the City!). Three things I learned from billboards on the way to Long Beach.
1. Circus Circus is apparantly the "best value in vegas", i doubt it, i prefer to call this place Cesspool Cesspool.
2. Bud Light is the "starter and closer" for the LA Dodgers. I wont be buying that beer ever again! (I'm an Angels fan)
3. There was also an adult con last weekend in LA.
I got down to the race site at about 7:15am so I dropped by stuff off at the bag drop then watched the marathon and half marathon runners starting off. It was pretty cloudy down in Long Beach but pretty mild. I walked around a bit to warm up and did some mild stretching and took in some water. At about 8am they called everybody forward for the 5k so I headed over to the starting line.
They had a guy doing a great Forrest Gump on hand to help give all the runners some advice about running and how it affects beard growth.
At 8:30 they fired the gun and we were off! I tried to turn on my Nike+ sensor but for some reason it was not working so just left it off. I decided for this 5k that my main aim was to run as much of it as possible and not worry about pace. I moved through the pack to get past the slower paced runners and felt pretty good. I hadn't done much road running as it's been too hot for me to run outside recently but felt pretty comfortable. The about a quarter of a mile into my run i was passing someone and stepped on some cracked tarmac and my ankle buckled! Thankfully I was able to keep balance and happily didn't damage my ankle.
I reached the one mile mark after about 10 minutes and was felling good so picked up a little bit of pace. They had bands playing along the route which was great as i did not bother to bring my shuffle to listen to. Instead I took in the sights of Long Beach. At the half way point the course looped back towards the starting area and i passed the second mile marker. I decided to pick up the pace some more for the last mile and once I saw the finish line i'd crank it up a notch.
I saw the finish line and ran toward a waiting Forrest Gump and a giant shrimp that were high fiving people at the finish line! I passed the line and my time was 28:19. I was really pleased with myself for that as 1. I did it without walking and 2. I did it under 30 minutes. I collected my medal and then headed into the finisher's area were they had food from Bubba Gump's on hand.
After that I wandered around the finish line festival. Grabbed some Cliff Quench water (yuck) and some granola. I even managed to avoid the free beer tent! Once I had cooled down some I headed back to the car and for home! All in all it was a fun day and I'm already looking forward to doing the Half Marathon at Long Beach in 2010 so I can work toward the California series medal.
