Years ago my brother and I ran the Long Beach half marathon. I can’t recall why we did the half, whether it was before I felt like I could run a bunch of marathons a year or if we were using it as a training run. Part of me feels like I had to fly out to England that evening for work so wasn’t sure we’d have time to do the full. I recently read a book that dropped a statistic saying about 30% of our memories are false, and not even the Shazam/Kazam variety but straight up wrong. Though I can’t remember where I read that or what the source was … So maybe that is just a fraction of the 30% false memories I carry. But if that’s true, then I’m in an infinite feedback paradox loop and the world will probably end. Given the current state of the world maybe it already has.
I do know that Steve and I ran it so long ago that I still have a disposable camera we took with us on the day. It sits on my desk, four exposures remaining on the roll. I don’t even know where I could get that developer these days.
But I did buy a couple commemorative official running photos of that 2009 day:
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But today in 2018 I ran the full 26.2 mile Long Beach Marathon. Rather than write up or post even a ton of photos, here’s a brief text exchange with my brother after it was all said and run:
I’d actually run a few segments as part of the Charlie Alewine Races I’ve occasionally done. So those beach area bike paths I knew very, very well. Outside of that, it just was… meh. Anyway, here’s five photos from the day to play us out:
The start line.
I offered to take a photo for these guys; they were so happy that they insisted I get in one with them.
Sunrise on the bike path.
This is at the CalState Long Beach campus… but I just loved the notion of “Go Beach!”
Obligatory finish line photo.
