Whew, what to say about the Long Beach Half Marathon?
The short answer: It wasn’t my day. My stomach didn’t feel great, and I’m not quite sure why. I had pasta…nothing crazy or out of the ordinary.
But hey, new fear unlocked: getting locked inside a public bathroom mid race.
Before the Long Beach Half Marathon
I ran the Pacific of the Aquarium 5k the day before. The plan was to run that as fast as possible and use the Long Beach Half Marathon as a long marathon training run. Ideally, I wanted to hit 20 miles that day, but spoiler alert…that definitely didn’t happen. I did a half-mile warm-up and zero cooldown. The 5k went well, though, and I spent the rest of the day relaxing.
On race morning, I wasn’t feeling amazing and ended up running late. I woke up around 4:30 but had a bunch of issues and didn’t leave the hotel until 6:10—well after the official start time of 5:30. I jogged the half-mile to the start line, not quite the two-mile warm-up I wanted, but good enough. And with that, it was time to get the race underway.
Long Beach Half Marathon Race
As soon as we started, I knew my legs weren’t feeling great, but I figured I could make it work. I clocked the first mile at 7:20, thinking it wouldn’t be bad if I could hold that pace. My stomach still didn’t feel right, but I hoped it would settle.
During miles 2 and 3, I started looking for a bathroom. We went over the bridge, which wasn’t too bad—much easier at half-marathon pace than at 5k pace.
Around mile 5, I found restrooms, but they were packed with marathon runners, so I kept going. Just past the restrooms, I noticed some beach bathrooms with no line. Jackpot! Or so I thought.
These concrete bathrooms have single stalls with doors that open to the outside. When I closed the door, the pull handle fell off, and I realized I was stuck. I couldn’t open the heavy door from the inside. Panicking, I yelled, “I’m effing stuck!” Thankfully, someone outside heard me and karate-kicked the door open. If I’d been stuck longer than 30 seconds, I probably would’ve been traumatized.
After that, I struggled to get back into race mode. Mentally, I was checked out, and my stomach wasn’t improving. I knew I’d need to stop at least one more time.
Miles 5–9 flew by along the beach path, which offers beautiful water views. I love that part of the course, but it felt much more crowded than last year—either more marathoners or just more runners overall. I don’t remember having to weave around so many people. I made another porta-potty stop at mile 7, which gave me my slowest mile of the day (8:17).
After leaving the beach path and hitting the roads, I was excited to have more room to run. Just before the mile 11 hill, the marathoners split off, and things got less crowded. I knew there was a hill coming, but I forgot how long it was. Every time I thought I’d reached the top, it kept going! Still, I felt decent and passed a lot of runners, clocking a 7:39 for mile 12.
At the top of the hill, I made one final bathroom stop. After that, I told myself: “Just run as hard as you can to the finish and see what happens.” My stomach wasn’t happy, but I gave it everything I had. My final mile was 7:07, and I crossed the finish line in 1:40:40. Honestly, I thought I’d run closer to 1:45, so I’ll take it.
Long Beach Half Marathon Thoughts
Of course, I’m a little sad it wasn’t my day, and I’m confused about what upset my stomach…pesto pasta is my favorite pre-race meal, and there was nothing unusual about it. But I’m still happy with a 1:40, considering everything that went wrong. I had zero fueling during the race since my stomach couldn’t handle it (I’d normally aim for about 500 calories). My legs recovered quickly afterward, so not every race has to go well and that’s okay.
If you’re considering running the Long Beach Half Marathon, it’s a fun race. Just be prepared for some chaos since you’ll be sharing much of the course with marathoners. But overall, it’s a great experience and a lot of fun.
You can see more race recaps here and Strava here.
Questions for you:
Have you done the Long Beach Half Marathon?
What is your favorite half marathon?