Surf City Half Marathon

Saturday - Active Lifestyle Expo
Went to Active Lifestyle Expo on Saturday around 10:30a.  Saw all the people and started getting pumped up!  Got into the expo tent and headed to the left to get my bib and my wife's bib.  Went pretty quick, no line and got our bib, shirt, and bag and then walked around the expo for a while checking things out.  

r

 #11075 (me) and #11077 (Kat) read to go!

Preparation
Spent time organizing my stuff for the race, pinned my bib to my shirt, attached the D-tag to my shoes, made sure my Garmin was charging, mad sure music was set on my iPhone. Went to bed around 10p and woke up at 3:15a.  Some friends said they got to the race last year around 5:30a and parking lot was already full which caused them to have to park at the Civic Center and take a shuttle and just barely made it to start of the race.  I figure there would be more people this year and lot may fill up even earlier so didn't want to worry or stress about parking so opted to try and get there early and just sleep/relax in the car. 

Sunday - Race Day
Kat and I arrived pretty early around 5:20am.  There was still had plenty of parking at that time.  We ended up parking just south of Beach Blvd in the beach parking lot (parking ended up being free instead of $10 like it said on the website).  We just stayed in the car, I finished the oatmeal I had packed, and then just relaxed and waited.

At about 6:15a, we headed to the marathon start line, stopped to listen to the singing of the national anthem,  and then saw my friend Justin there right before they had the wave 1 start.

After watching a couple of the marathon waves go by, we headed to the 5K start to see our friends Suzy, Mernie, Kristine, and Jonathan who were running in that race and wish them good luck.  Took a couple of pictures before they started and then went back towards the starting line for the half marathon.

 Suzy, Casie, and Mernie

I ended up going back to the car to drop off Kat's camera and to exchange my glasses with my prescription sunglasses and get my heart rate monitor.   Halfway down, I realized I didn't have my Kat's camera with me (doh!).  Had to go back and meet her back around the white tents and then proceeded back towards the car.  Waited in line at the porta potty.  Got to the car and put camera away and put on my heart rate monitor.

Headed back to start line.  It was around 7:20am.  Still had plenty of time but still kind of felt rushed since I knew I didn't get to really stretch yet at this point.  Wanted to get back to make sure I found my wife and also our friend Casie who was running the half as well.  Called my wife and found out she was by the 2:30-2:40 sign so I went over there and finally found her.  Checked my watch to see if heart monitor was on and it wasn't.  Tried to get it to synch but it was not working for some reason (I think it was getting confused with other devices nearby).  Anyway, trying to resynch about 10 times, it finally worked.  Tried to stretch some while we were waiting for all the waves to go but it was hard because we were packed pretty tight in the corrale.  We ended being in wave 11 and finally got going around 8:10am.

• mile 1 - 10:41
• mile 2 - 9:55
• mile 3 - 9:55

It was pretty slow going at the start.  I did a lot of weaving in and out and left and right.  I had planned on taking the first 3 miles or so at a relatively comfortable slower pace.  I also wanted to make sure and get water at just about every water station even if I didn't feel too thirsty so that I can make sure I kept myself well hydrated because I know in my last half marathon I started to cramp up towards the end and was probably because I didn't drink enough.

• mile 4 - 10:11

Beginning of mile 4 was right around the time the course turned into the neighborhood area and had a little bit of an incline which appeared to slow me down a little bit.  I was amazed to see all the people on the other side of the street heading back down towards PCH.  I remember seeing a funny sign around here that said "Run like the INS is chasing you".  Made me laugh a little bit.

• mile 5 - 9:41
• mile 6 - 9:29
• mile 7 - 9:50

Once  I started heading back down towards PCH, I got into a bit of a groove and felt pretty good.  I wasn't really pushing too hard but trying to enjoy the whole atmosphere of the race.  I caught up to my friend Casie around mile 7.5 and we talked a little bit.  I had one Gu with me and I took it around this time.

• mile 8 - 9:56
• mile 9 - 9:56

The course turned back around mile 8.2 and we started running into the sun.  I hadn't really felt too hot up to this point but as soon as that sun was in my face, I realized that I was getting pretty warm.  I had worn a long sleeve shirt thinking it may be cold or raining during the race and I had wished I had worn a short sleeve shirt instead.  At mile 9, our side of the road was flooded and everybody just went up on the island divider to get around it.  We all had to slow down a little bit during this part but once it past, I was back on my way.  I remember looking over at the beach and seeing the marathoners running through their course and thinking how great it would be to run a full marathon one day.  But at this point, I couldn't imagine having to run another 17 or so miles.

• mile 10 - 10:07
• mile 11 - 10:10

 At around mile 10, I was starting to feel my hamstring and right calf tighten up a little bit and was really hoping I wasn't going to cramp up.  I continued to make sure I drank at the water stations and slowed down a little bit.  I kept looking at the pier and it seemed like it was so far in the distance and was never getting any closer.  Eventually, I stopped looking at it and just tried to focus on my breathing and form.

• mile 12 - 9:58
• mile 13 - 9:52
• last 0.1 - 8:36

It was great seeing so many people cheering at the end and really helped on the last mile.  I was able to sprint the last bit toward the finish line.  I made sure not to look down to stop my watch right at the finish line so my finish line picture wouldn't be of me looking at my watch :)

Official finish time was 2:11:27.  This was 35 minutes faster than my first half marathon last September so I was super happy.  My goal was to come in at 2:15 or faster so I definitely achieved that.

After finishing, got my surf medal, a bottle of water, and food bag which contained a banana, apple, Fig Newtons, pretzels, and a Lara Bar).  I had this coconut cream pie flavored Lara Bar which I thought tasted pretty darn good.  They were also passing out a Clif sport drink.

I was going to go back to the car to get the camera but wasn't sure if I'd have time to get it and come back before Kat finished so I just waited.  Kat finished at 2:33:47 and I was so proud of her!  She was expecting to finish somewhere between 2:45 and 3:00 so she did awesome.

We didn't hang out too long afterwards because we had to go pick up the kids from Kat's parents house.  Unfortunately, this meant having to skip the beer garden because there was too long of a line to get in.

It was definitely a fun event, great people, well-organized, and I'm looking forward to coming back again next year!