Long Beach Marathon with Team Prevention

Any race with palm trees lining the route, is a good race. In Long Beach last weekend with a team of readers from Prevention magazine. the weather ended up being perfect - slightly cool and overcast. Long Beach may not be the most scenic of California towns but the race organizers have brilliantly captured the best of the city. The route visits the highlights of Long Beach including the Queen Mary which is permanently docked in LB and at least 3 miles walking along a cycle path beside the ocean. The full marathon goes through the University of California at Long Beach where the students treat each participant like an elite athlete.

It's a huge treat for me to meet readers from the magazine after months of training on their own and getting to know them on the magazine’s online forum.

http://www.prevention.com/community/forums/index.jsp?plckForumPage=ForumDiscussion&plckDiscussionId=Cat%3aTeam+Prevention+Walk+It!Forum%3a8501091424Discussion%3a5481097795&plckCurrentPage=3

The day before the race, I got a chance to walk with several of the readers during a “welcome walk”. We walked out to the start area for a little orientation – a helpful thing since it is dark when we arrive before the race. On race morning I rode a bicycle through the course dispensing encouragement, food, and fuel to Team Prevention walkers dressed in highly visible pink shirts. This worked exceptionally well because the roads were closed entirely to traffic. At each traffic light there were always at least four police officers stopping traffic. This made it easy to ride and I’m sure it makes it an A+ course for participants as well. And it shows organizer commitment to making the race an enjoyable experience right down to the very last finisher (although we’d like to see them be prepared for all their participants with medals – they ran out toward the end for half marathoners).

And at the end of the day, all the Team Pink Prevention – many of who are first-time marathoners – finished with a smile, faded memories of any early morning nerves, and, hopefully, plans for their next race!

** In LB there is no walking division, there was an early start for walkers entered in the full marathon. These participants did receive a race chip time but the results were not considered “official” times for qualification purposes.