Ken's Oct. 14 Long Beach Marathon: 3:30:19

Exactly one month after my first marathon in Maui (which I finished in a relaxing 3:48) I ran closer to home in the Oct. 14 Long Beach Marathon. Dr. Fine joined me on this adventure: me on foot, Essie snapping pictures and cracking encouraging jokes from her bicycle the whole way (example: "Don't hold back, Ken! Remember, I know CPR!!!")

Blogging provides a nice look back at the journey. Way back in March I posted pictures from my first training runs in San Francisco, and using Gmap-Pedometer I quickly established the routes that would become the core of my training (Costa Mesa to Newport Pier, Costa Mesa to Huntington Pier, Costa Mesa to chocolate bananas on Balboa ... ) 

Kudos to the organizers of the Long Beach Marathon: it was a super well-planned and well-executed event, a beautiful course, and a whole lot of fun. I thought it was especially great how they thawed Elvis from his cryogenic storage to cheer us on (pictured below).  I will be back for more running fun at Long Beach next year.

The stats for the first printing of my trading cards...

Pace: 8:02 per mile / 3:30:19 total chip time
Place overall: 171 out of 2343
Place among men: 152 out of 1462
Place in my age group (35-39): 29th out of 243

I'm still well off of a Boston qualifying time of 3:15:59, but I'm sure that with enough time and practice, I'll get to that pace and better. Most important: I'm very much enjoying these stabs at amateur athleticism. Try.