long beach city manager's 10 mile trophy run: race report

the long beach city manager's 10 mile trophy run was a late addition to my race plans (together with the jim fixx 5 miler the next day). i had never run this race - but i suspected it would include a stretch of running along the boardwalk (it did). emmy and i car pooled down to long beach. the mapquest directions had almost a page of twists and turns after we left the cross island expressway. that portion of the drive was probably more stressful than the race itself!

i had a 1:15 time goal in mind - a 7:30 pace. it was a 30 second per mile faster pace than i had for the brooklyn half marathon the weekend before (where i managed an 8:03 pace). the next day, for the 5 miler, i drop the target to 7:00 minute miles (which i missed, with a 7:13 average pace). the progressively faster race paces were an effort to jump start the summer speed work effort.

we parked about a quarter mile from the staging area. but, as it turned out, it was just across the street from the starting line. there were plenty of familiar team singlets in the crowd, but no familiar faces. it wasn't until the walk back to the car after the race that i commented to emmy that we hadn't met up with any friends, that we practically bumped into my friend rina!

as for the race itself, i ran even splits for both halves: 37:45 for the first five miles and 37:45 for the second (chip splits for the two halves were 37:42 and 37:48)! i missed a sub-1:15 finish by 30 seconds. while the i ran even splits, the individual miles were pretty varied. the fastest mile was the first, at 7:11 - and the slowest were miles 4 and 5 at 15:22 (i missed the mile 4 marker).

the course itself was mainly on the roads. the first mile stretched past blocks named after the u.s. states (and we made our left off the main drag on connecticut avenue). from roughly 2.5 miles until mile 4 the course ran on the boardwalk. the rest of the miles were back on the roads. during mile 9, as we retraced the path on a divided street, i caught sight of emmy - who was about a half mile behind me at that point.

the final half mile stretch was along the waterfront - more great views. after emmy finished (she took second in her age group) we jogged back to the car for dry clothes and the camera. back at the finish line i had a few hot dogs (3) for breakfast :D we didn't stick around for the awards ceremony (the organizers would mail emmy her trophy). the twists and turns back to the cross island expressway didn't seem as onerous on the way home :D

here are my race photos.