40th Birthday Type 2 Fun - Sean O'Brien Trail Marathon Race Recap

The Eat for Endurance Podcast

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Welcome to Episode 44 of the Eat for Endurance Podcast, highlighting my 40th birthday trail running adventure down in Southern California with my husband, Eric. With all the major marathons happening so close together, I figured it was a perfect time to post our recent experience running 26.2 (well, technically 27+ miles, but hey, that’s a trail marathon for you!).
I don’t know how you guys like to travel, but for me the perfect trip includes is a bit of relaxation, plenty of active adventures, and of course, good food. So, when Eric asked me how I wanted to celebrate turning 40 years old (!!!!!) in September, I immediately started to look for trail races, hikes, and whatever else sounded like an epic way to get older.
Initially, I was determined to go to the Grand Canyon (never been!) and check the Rim to Rim off my bucket list, but unfortunately we weren’t able to make it happen with childcare. I went back to the drawing board and saw that Sean O’Brien, a classic race down in Malibu Creek State Park, was the day after my birthday, so we signed up for the marathon! They also had a 50k that day (and 50 and 100 milers in October ), but with our less-than-ideal training, and such a difficult course with tons of elevation gain, we knew the marathon would be hard enough.
This was my first marathon since running Big Sur back in April 2016, before having kids! I was super excited to get back to the long stuff, and to explore some new trails in my home state.
Much like with our Big Basin trail running podcast episode, Eric and I recorded our thoughts before the race while we chilled out in Cambria, a small beach town a couple hours south of Santa Cruz. Then we gave a detailed recap hours after finishing the race, from our Air BnB in Topanga, lying in bed! It was a very challenging but super fun day out, and I highly recommend the race. Very well organized and a beautiful course. I’m hoping it’s my first of many longer trail races in the months and years to come!
Thanks for listening, and if you’re interested, Eric made an awesome action camera video documenting the entire thing! I’ll post it on Instagram (@eatforendurance) soon.
Hope everyone is enjoying the Fall racing season, and best of luck to all my friends and clients running Chicago and Boston this weekend!
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