If you are considering running Long Beach Marathon or have signed up for a Fall Marathon, you need to make sure you are getting in a number of long, slow runs. Laura and I have found that one of the best runs to do is to start at Khoury’s (the parking lot short of the Wednesday turnaround), run along the Seal Beach shoreline to Seal Beach Boulevard, turn left, then turn right onto PCH. Stay on PCH until you get to Warner in Sunset Beach, and then get onto the Huntington Beach bike/run path, and continue on until you hit the Huntington Beach Pier. Stop, have some water, and return to your car. Total distance: 20 miles. A variation on this run is to start at Warner and PCH and run into Newport Beach (which is a little short of 20 miles).
There’s 3 good rules to remember when you run slow and long: 1) Start early. 6:30 or 7:00 a.m. seems early, but most marathons start by 8am, so this helps to condition your body to running at that time. Also, there are fewer bicycles and fewer runners to annoy you. 2) Settle into a comfortable pace, and then cut back to what feels to be a slow pace. When you run the actual marathon, you will invariably go out too fast, and you will pay for it earlier than you expect. If you run a comfortably slow pace, you can always pick it up at the end. Practicing even slower at your race pace can provide you with the ability to know what is the right pace. 3) Hydrate yourself at every possible chance. I often carry a Gatorade bottle with me so that I don’t have to depend on water fountains or lack thereof. Also, if you practice using Gu, you probably aren’t getting enough liquid. Gu will remove all the lactic acid from your legs, plus any extra liquid. Make sure that you get a full 8 ounces of liquid each time you take a Gu, on top of whatever amount you consume along the way. Dehydration will slow you down more than anything. So, remember, follow these three steps, and simulate the race as best you can, and you will have a great race!