Rad Runner: Pasadena Marathon 2012 Review!

Pasadena Marathon 2012 Review!

We survived! Marathon #8 for me and #4 for little Rad, and it was awesome!

This was an interesting race for little Rad, because it was her first non L.A. Marathon, this meant a lot of changes! New course, thousands of less people, smaller cheer crowds-(but the neighbors that did cheer moved mountains!) less water stops, etc.. this was a whole new beast for her to conquer!

We trained well for this race, with distance and hills but nothing could have prepared us for the warm weather, that hit so early in the day!

Major points that I loved about the race:

*The insane number of marathon maniacs! OMG! There were tons and tons of them out on the course! I wore my jersey to remind myself of the efforts I put forth last year to gain this very jersey! I ran the 2011 Pasadena Marathon as my 2nd and final race to gain my MM status! It was so much fun cheering all the MM's on, it was so inspiring that little Rad said she wants to be one to! So we are on the look out for some upcoming marathons :)

*Sense of community support was awesome! For such a young race the community is really involved, like I said it was so hot out there, but they were on it! They sprayed runners with the hose, and water guns, and passed out lots and lots of fruit, it made us smile with the last inch of strength we had!

*Drop off/pick up was so easy! Mr. Rad, being the amazing man he is, drove us over to Pasadena at 4:45am, and waited for us to finish, all while snapping all these awesome pictures of us on the run, and at the finish line!

*The addition to the bridge on the course, we ran over a famous bridge in Pasadena, I kinda LOVED that part! It added magic to the morning and to the course itself!

As for room for improvement, it was really just the little things, goodie bags, and shirt design, those are items that are so little but sometimes make a big difference to runners.. I will love this race forever knowing that its what got me to Marathon Maniac stardom (well that and my will :)

Little Rad's goal was to finish in the 4:30's then while running, she asked to finish under 4:33, her last PR, we came in at 4:35.. so close yet so far. In the end, considering the heat at 80 something degrees at 10 in the morning, and some minor hip issues she has, I'd still say we did pretty darn good! It only leaves opportunity in the future!

We had enough energy to make our way to a local farmers market near home after the race, and of course... we wore those medals for the rest of the day!