It’s been close to two years since my last full marathon and that marathon was a bit of a disappointment.  But, I started getting the bug to give the marathon distance another try over the summer.  Training in the fall and early winter is perfect in Albuquerque since you avoid the hot summer days and our early winter is typically quite mild.  That left me looking for a new state to tackle in January.  The marathon choices are a little limited in the winter, but I stumbled across the Carlsbad Marathon in Carlsbad, CA.  A win on three fronts:  1. Right time of year, 2. Majority of the run is along the coast, 3. Legoland – a favorite spot of my kids.

I went to the expo the day before to pick up my packet.  The expo was easy and well run.  All marathoners get, in addition to a long sleeve tech-T, a really nice finishers jacket.  Definitely a bonus!  The saturday before the race, they hold a kids one mile run at Legoland.  The race fee gets the kid into the park for free and up to two adults in for 1/2 price.  Such a great deal that we made our 12 year old do the race even though running isn’t really her thing.

After the race, we spent the day at Legoland.  The kids loved it and I appreciated that it’s not a huge park and there were plenty of places to sit and rest while the kids went on rides – I did have a marathon to run the next day.

The marathon start was at 6:15 am.  Half marathon start was 7:45.  The majority of runners were completing the half with just over 1000 runners finishing the full marathon this year.  Because of the relatively small number of marathon runners, the morning was easy with no corrals and a quick and easy walk to the starting line from the heated tents.  It’s an out an back course with the majority along the coast and a short out and back run inland.  The views of crashing waves were beautiful.  Lots of volunteers, some spectators (many more when we rejoined the half marathon course).  The course was not crowded until around the 20 mile mark when the marathon rejoins the half course.  Unfortunately, because of the timing of the starts, that left those of us that were running a 4 hour marathon with the half marathoners who would finish at about 2 hrs 45 minutes which meant quite a bit of weaving in order to keep up the pace.

All told, I had a great race.  A 13 minute PR and a great family weekend in California.  We were all exhausted though by the afternoon.  Quick naps and then to the airport to get back to work on Monday.

2 states down, 48 to go.