Tis the season! The California International Marathon (CIM) season that is! Once again I toed the line because it is tradition. I am at the point where I no longer care about my finish time for this race. Maybe some day I will. I fully admit that the farthest I ran in training was 15 miles but I still had fun because this race is one of the most organized and well executed races I run. Like I said, it is tradition. 🙂
The 2024 CIM brought some new changes to the race start. The first of which was the bus shuttle situation. I think I am fan of the previous bus route only because it allowed me to sleep in a little longer and I had way less time waiting at the starting line. Before, I had to leave the house at 5:30 to catch the shuttle and had a little less than an hour of waiting time at the start. With all the uncertainties this year, I left the house at 4:50 and had 90 minutes of hanging out at the start. My friend Michele was gracious enough to offer me a ride and I am glad that I left earlier as I heard that a few of the later buses got lost on the way to the start. Yikes .
Lucky for me this year, my friend John was running the marathon too so I was able to connect with him at the start a little. With 90 minutes to kill, I was able to use the porta potties twice without issue (CIM is known for the bazillion porta potties at the start).
Finally it was time to line up at the starting line with 9,000 others and get this day started. The weather was predicted to be absolutely perfect for a marathon.
CIM starts in waves more or less but you can seat yourself wherever you want at the starting line (with some suggested areas based on finish times).
Once we started running I just settled in. This race starts off notoriously fast because it is a slight downhill and I inevitably get caught up in the speed. This year wasn’t much different but it felt good so I went with it.
Unlike last year I brought my headphones with me which in all my CIM’s I think I have only ever done once before (my second CIM I had a music playlist). I don’t normally like running to music but I will run to a podcast once in a while and I had spent the week saving up podcasts to listen to during this race just in case I needed to tune out.
I’ve run 15 CIMs, 21 marathons and a ton of ultra marathons but this is the first time I can recall having major gear issues during a race. Mind you, I trained wearing everything before so it wasn’t like I was trying something new on race day.
Mile 4 ish I had to stop to pee (that was new for me this year haha). Again, so grateful for all the porta potties on this race course.
Around mile 12, my sports bra started to burn. Like really burn. I knew instantly that I was having some chaffing issues and that come the end of the race, I was gonna be in some pain. I guess I could have stopped at one of the med tents along the way but it just never occurred to me. I also wore a waist belt (something I hate doing). After I crossed the finish line, I realized I had two big bruises on my lower back from the belt and my phone which was in the belt the whole time. Never again.
Mile 14 I had to stop again at the porta potties and then again around mile 21 I think? A new CIM record for me to have to stop so many times. Not ideal.
Mile 23 I was lucky enough to see my friend and coworker Stuart out there. I was just eager to be done so I stopped to chat with him much to his surprise. 🙂
The first half of my CIM was pretty speedy and the second half was a much slower effort. I decided to walk through some of the aid-stations just to soak in the energy and the signs. I high-fived some friends I saw along the course. Those two porta stops just had me lose any desire to keep a faster pace.
But I still ran with a smile the entire time. Ironically I was listening to a Dateline murder podcast in every photo. hahahaha
The finish line has changed at CIM over the years. I sort of miss the days when they had two separate shoots for male and female runners. Now we finish all under one finish arch. I can understand and appreciate the why but it I got stuck behind a group of people finishing hugging and holding hands kind of blocking the way.
Grateful for another CIM under my (non) belt. It truly is one of the most organized races out there and I love riding the bus to the start and meeting new people. I met a group of guys up from southern CA this year. The guy I sat with was doing his first marathon with his buddies. They were all new dads too and were super nice. He asked me how many of these I had done and was shocked when I told him this was my 15th. He asked for any inside tips. 🙂
For the first time since 2019 I had my entire family at the finish line waiting for me. The last few years I’ve had to bus back home alone because one of the kids had a game. It was so nice to have them with me this year especially since I decided it was wise to “sprint” to the finish the last mile or so and was hit with a wave of dizziness once I stopped walking and found them.
They were nice enough to sit with me while I ate something and then they walked me to the car and brought me home. The finish line weather was perfect, I just wanted to get home. One of these years I’ll hang out more at the finish line because it is one giant party. 🙂
Until next year CIM! Maybe I’ll train a little farther next time. 😉 Back to the dirt for me!
Happy Trails!
~Trailmomma
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