Matthew’s ALC8 Blog

Today was the Inaugural Pasadena Marathon Redux, and here’s the reason for the Redux:  The original Inaugural Pasadena Marathon was supposed to be on November 16, 2008.  If you don’t remember, that also happens to be when the wildfires were happening in the Los Angeles area, so unfortunately they had to cancel the Marathon at the last minute for air quality reasons.  Therefore this was the Redux of the Marathon.

This marathon has not had much luck.  While the event itself was well run, especially for a first time marathon, the problem is that mother nature decided it was time to make it rain, mostly on the marathon.  For at least two weeks before and after the marathon, there was no rain.  Then the morning of the marathon, it rain, hard, mostly on the marathon…

I arrived in Pasadena before 6am for the ride out, and when I arrive the ground is wet, but it’s not actually raining, so not a big deal.  Of course the drizzle starts about 10 minutes before we take off.  Then just a few miles into the ride, it starts pouring, very heavily to the point that I had trouble seeing, and I was soaked.  It did taper off for a good portion of the ride, but I did have at least one other soaking, and was wet (especially my socks, which really sucked) for basically the entire marathon/bike tour, but I completed it regardless, although never again without different socks.

Fortunately it wasn’t raining at the end point when I reached it, so I was able to enjoy the end festival (and get the free stuff) before heading back to the car, where the rain stayed off long enough for me to get into the car and leave.  Most of my bike got a nice wash from the ride, and the parts that did were cleaned as a left in the rain, so I had a nice clean bike once I was home…

Despite the hassles, I enjoyed the Inaugural Pasadena Marathon Bike Tour, and hope to do it again, without the rain, so that I can enjoy the scenery instead of paying so much attention to being soaked…  It was also fun because I passed very close to the houses of a few people that I know from work.

Inaugural Pasadena Marathon Redux (click to view detail)