Notes:
What can I say, I'm proud I finished it and just 5 minutes off my normal pace. This is considering that I haven't run in like, 3 weeks. LOL. I think I like to torture myself — don't train but sign up for a run and go run cold. >_< The reality is, the race was rather warm, people were all over the place (and I mean, crazy runners weaving through!) and the course was poorly lit — yes, THIS WAS IN THE FREAKIN' EVENING.) I guess I could have pretended that I was in Kona, HI doing the marathon stage of an Ironman…. but this one had the fear of getting shot at (we were in East/Downtown LA) and with loads of people running about.

On top of all that, the bag check pickup was horrid! There was no organization at all — there was just this one huge-arse line and dozens of Nike volunteers running about like chickens with their heads cut off looking for someone's bag, whilst trying to remind themselves of their runner's bib number over and over again… Did I mention our bib numbers were 6-digits long?

All in all, it was an OK event but it reminded me why I never do short races again. Then again, if Fall Out Boy or the All American Rejects were on stage, instead of Kanye West, maybe I would've not been so cross whilst waiting for my bag…

Notes:
It's Monday; I slept around 8:30PM last night and got up around 7:30AM this morning. Legs still sore, upper back still sore but my spirits were high because I had a french dip sarnie with chips this morning! LMAO. I was really hungry; what can I say. It didn't last, though as after brekkers, I checked the computer for my official marathon results. As you can see, I finished a dismal 7 hours, 1 minute and 6 seconds. Pah.

I think I need to have a permanent section for "What Went Wrong" — here are my thoughts:

1. I didn't train; How bad was it this year? Well, if you look back at my running logs, you'll only find 5 entries prior to this San Diego marathon. That's 5 days that I actually went outside to run some sort of distance. That's quite pitiful and sad.

2. …

That's pretty much it. I didn't train. I didn't take my preparation seriously this year and rightly suffered for it. LOL during the run, I was texting people (and tweeting) that I needed a slap across my face if I decide to run a marathon *without training*.

If you want to see my pathetic finish in video, check it out:
http://video.nbcsandiego.com/player/?id=257881

After the advert plays, and after the video fully loads, forward until you see the marathon clock count up to 7:13:28, you'll see me, in my bright "celery" shirt, white hat, and black shorts, pitifully crossing the line and then having enough strength to lift my arms; thanking the Lord that it wasn't a DNF ("Did Not Finish") LOL!

Notes:
It's Tuesday and the bulk of my muscle soreness is semi-gone. If you click on my category "Running Records" you'll see only two entries for my "training". I actually trained for this half-marathon 4 times in July and twice in August… and uh, that's about it. LOL. It's not a surprise that I did terribly during the race. I barely ran. My average pace was 15:23 minutes/mile and my shoulders were sore again. I really think I have bad posture when running…

Anyway, I'm not discouraged from running just yet. I still want to do more marathons and definitely am working my way to doing triathlons. This is my third half-marathon, and having "failed" my 3rd marathon in June, the most common denominator is: lack of training! LOL. So… I'm really going to train for my next one. Iono which one it'll be but it'll definitely be a race next year…