Half Marathon 4 months post baby with only Long Beach Boot Camp as my training.

I rocked Surf City Half Marathon !!! Without training! Four months after my baby was born! That's right, I never did a single long run to prepare as I did not plan to do this race ... thought it was too soon ... but the day before the race I got a complimentary official race entry from one of my friends who worked her media contacts with race officials and I knew I had to do it, crazy or not.

The ONLY thing that I did to exercise at all was four weeks of Long Beach Boot Camp, 5x a week, in January. I signed up for Shannon's class at 9 am and attended most of her classes, and when I missed I made up at Caroline's 5:30 pm class or the Saturday class. I did complete all the classes and met my fitness goals to get back in shape and lose the rest of the baby weight - about 5 or 6 pounds - after having my baby by c-section on October 1, 2009. I also signed up for Shawdee's running class but found myself incapable of getting up to exercise at 5 am when I had been up all night with my baby, so I missed most of the running boot camp and did no running at all except for what we did at LB Boot Camp!

I ran Surf City Half Marathon and finished in a respectable 2 hours, 38 minutes (12 minute mile average pace) -- about 30 minutes off my personal best time of 2:10 but only about 18 minutes off my typical half marathon finish time around 2:20 or so. I ran the first 7 miles easily at a 10 minute per mile pace, then switched to a run/walk (3 minutes run, 2 minutes walk) for the last 6.2 miles averaging a 14 minute mile pace. Since I had done no running at all and certainly no long training runs to prepare, I felt that I should bring it down in the second half of the race to avoid injury and be able to walk the next day.

I felt fantastic during the entire race and really enjoyed the run. I felt strong and powerful and fast! The attached photo was taken at the race start and I must say it captured my mood perfectly. It was a beautiful morning in Huntington Beach and that only enhanced the race experience. I just wanted to say that I must give LBBC credit due. Boot camp really helped me get into fantastic shape in only four weeks and I know that this training carried me through the first seven miles of this race; for the rest I relied on my years of training and running marathons and half marathons to dial back the effort and finish smart and strong.

Thank you so much, it meant so much to me to run a big race so soon after my baby was born and to feel like I am 'back'!