The Long Beach Marathon Runs Past Our House Twice. So Naturally, We Throw a Party
The Long Beach Marathon is coming back Sunday, October 11, and in our house, that means one thing: it's almost time for one of my favorite days of the year.
We happen to live directly on the marathon route. And not just in a "the runners go somewhere near our neighborhood" kind of way. They run directly past our house. Twice.
So naturally, we throw a party.
People start showing up at our house around 6:30 or 7AM. Yes, in the morning. We have a taco guy. We have donuts and coffee and drinks. Our neighbors, friends, and kids are outside. And for hours, our street basically turns into one giant cheering section for thousands of people doing something most people have absolutely no intention of ever doing myself: running 26.2 miles.
But the real reason we throw this party is the runners.
Every year, we hand out small bottles of water as they pass our house, and we go through an insane amount of it. We're talking roughly 50 cases of water.
That has become part of the tradition, too.
Friends and neighbors start sending water to the house ahead of race day. Some people drop it off. Some Instacart it over. Cases start accumulating, and eventually my house looks like I'm preparing for either a marathon or a natural disaster. LOL
This year, we're doing it again, and we're collecting small water bottles now through October 10. If you're coming to the party or just want to help us keep thousands of runners hydrated, we'll happily take them.
The official 2026 Long Beach Marathon is expected to be the largest yet, with more than 28,000 runners participating across the weekend's events. The full marathon starts at 5:30 Sunday morning and takes runners from Downtown past the Queen Mary and Shoreline Village, along the beach, through Belmont Shore and Marine Stadium, out toward Cal State Long Beach, and eventually back Downtown.
You can find all of the official race information, course details and race-weekend schedule on the Long Beach Marathon website.
But what I love about marathon weekend has very little to do with running.
It's one of those days when Long Beach feels incredibly small in the best possible way.
People drag chairs onto sidewalks. Kids make signs. Neighbors who may normally just wave at each other from their cars suddenly spend the morning together. Complete strangers scream encouragement at runners whose names they only know because they're printed on their bibs.
And at our house, somehow all of that has turned into a tradition.
There are people who come every year now. There are always new people who have never experienced it. The taco guy shows up. Kids are running everywhere. Everyone is cheering. And every few minutes somebody realizes we're almost out of water again.
I talk a lot about Long Beach real estate, but this is the part of living here that doesn't fit neatly into a listing description.
You can write "great neighborhood." You can write "strong sense of community." You can talk about walkability and parks and restaurants and schools.
But those phrases don't really explain what it feels like when your entire street wakes up before sunrise to cheer for strangers.
That's community.
And honestly, it's one of the reasons I love living here.
So if you're running the Long Beach Marathon this year, there's a very good chance you'll hear us before you see us.
And if you're one of our friends or neighbors joining us at the house, you know the assignment.
Come hungry. Come ready to cheer. And please bring water. Preferably a lot of it.
Official Long Beach Marathon information:
https://www.runlongbeach.com/
2026 Race Weekend Schedule:
https://www.runlongbeach.com/event-schedule
