The Heart Mini Marathon
March 30, 2009 – 7:46 pmThis is the first year I’ve run the Heart Mini Marathon. A bunch of people from Team in Training run this every year instead of our weekly Saturday morning run.
It is 15 kilometers (or a little over 9.3 miles).
The weather was miserable. Temperatures near freezing. Rain and sleet and even a little snow. High winds.
But 13,206 people turned out for the race - the most since it started in 1977.
I saw Kristin at the start but couldn’t find any of the other TnT folk amongst the 13,000. Imagine. Note to self: We need to decide on a meeting place for the Flying Pig marathon.
With all the crowd and excitement at the beginning, I started out fast. I could tell it was faster than my usual marathon pace and I kept trying to slow down.
This is hard when people are passing you.
The course route is simple. Head east down Columbia Parkway. Go until you’re almost at Delta Ave. Turn around. On your way home run up Torrance and back down to Columbia Parkway.
The run out to Delta was straightforward. It was only a little disheartening to see people returning the other way at about 30 minutes though.
Heading back was tougher as there was more wind. And more uphills. The added run up and down Torrance was heartbreaking (apologies to the American Heart Association).
Despite the lousy weather, I ran a 1:16:50 (averaging 8:16 per mile). This was probably my fastest long run yet. Today, I’m paying for it a bit, but it was almost worth it to see that time.
Almost.
Afterwards, I went to the Children’s Museum with my sister and her family and promptly fell asleep during a showing of Dinosaurs.
