Upcoming Races

I finally registered for the upcoming OC half marathon on May 2 and the Seal Beach 10K on April 10.
The Seal Beach 10K was my first ever race a year ago so I wanted to do it again this year just as a way to celebrate my 1-year running anniversary.  Should be fun!

Brea 8K Recap

Last Sunday, I ran in the 19th annual Brea 8K with my wife and a bunch of friends.  My friend Mernie decided it would be fun to create a team and so Team Grease Lightning was born.   The team name came up because all the girls were going to wear pink and be like the The Pink Ladies from the musical Grease.  The guys would wear black and be like the T-Birds.

It was a perfect day to run. There were 3,000 registered participants for the race. The race started and ended at the Brea Mall. Started back in the 9min/mile group but I think people pretty much started wherever they wanted since I passed a lot of walkers and strollers right at the beginning. Beginning was slow going because of the crowd and pretty much stayed that way until after the "hilly" part around mile 2.5 and then it cleared up enough where I no longer had to weave in and out too much.

 

Team Grease Lightning

Started my a little after the starting horn sounded because I wasn't sure where the starting line was. First time I've been in a race without chip timing so wasn't sure how it worked.

• mile 1 - 10:07 

 The beginning was really slow going.  I started back in the 9min/mile section but I ended up passing A LOT of walkers and people with strollers.  It would have been nice if they had started in the back like they are supposed to but I guess there isn't really any good way to enforce it.  It was a little chaotic with race volunteers trying to keep the runners inside the cones.  The first little uphill portion came up on the way to Randolph and I felt good and was able to get up it with no problem (glad it was in the beginning of the race).

• mile 2 - 9:17 

The short uphill at the end of mile 1 helped thin out the crowd a little bit but there were still lot of people and the course was coned off to one lane.  Volunteers and Brea Police drove by couple times urging people to stay inside the cones as they were going to start opening the street to regular traffic soon.  It was kind of cool running and seeing the mass of people ahead of me as they turned on to Associated Rd.  about a half a mile ahead.   The first water station came up as we turned onto Associated Rd. but I ended up not stopping for it.  In fact, I just skipped the water altogether since I figure I would be finishing in less than 50 minutes.

• mile 3 - 9:36 

Mile 3 had the 2nd uphill portion of the course.  As you turn onto Kraemer it looks a lot steeper than it really is.  I was able to get through this part with no problem again and still felt pretty good.  I knew after that hill it would be pretty much flat or downhill the rest of the way so I was going to have no problem.

• mile 4 - 8:42
• mile 5 - 8:18

Going back down Associated Rd. back to Birch was pretty much downhill so I was able to gradually pick up some speed.  It was one lane still and had to slow down a couple times so I didn't get to pick up as much speed as I would have wanted.  Still felt strong this whole way.  By the time I got back onto Birch I knew it was only about one more mile until the finish.  I felt a little bit of a struggle at this point but I looked at my watch and was actually pacing around 8:30 which was surprising to me (I thought I was going closer to 9:00).  At one point, I heard a young girl behind me saying "excuse me" or "move over" (I can't remember now but it was something like that).  Anyway, I thought she was talking to me so I had to slow down and look over my shoulder to figure out where she was coming from.   I was close to the right side of the road and there weren't a lot of people around me at this point so I wasn't sure how I could be in the way.  Turns out she was actually talking to some other girl behind me.  That killed a little of my momentum but oh well...

The last turn onto St. College heading back into the mall where the finish line was was pretty cool and lot of people lined up cheering the runners on.  I gave one last burst and got into the finish line with a final time of 46:19 (9:18 pace).  On my watch, I had gone 5.03 miles and final time was 46:15 (9:12 pace). 

Time to Eat!!!

The food court at the finish line was nice. Had food from local restaurants (CPK, BJ's, Claim Jumper, Jamba Juice, Rubio's, etc.) along with the standard bananas, oranges, and water. But heck, it was so crowded so it took a while to get anything.  One suggestion I'd make for this event in the future would be to make food court area a little larger.  There's more than enough space in that huge mall parking lot that they could easily widen it by 20 feet or more.  Also, I didn't like the trash cans that were placed right smack dab in the middle of the food court.  I can understand why they were there but since it was so crowded, I kept running into the trash cans as I'd try to walk down to one end and have to try and cram myself back into the flow of people.

It was super crowded in the food court!

Left: fish taco from Rubio's and a danish (which I had picked up to give to my kids later).  

Right:  Kat with all her food (some pizza, pasta, breakfast burrito (which she gave to me), and a coffee cake

Me, Darryl, and Brian enjoying our post race food

All in all, it was a fun day and I'll probably do it again next year.  It's near my house, registration is reasonable, and food at the end isn't bad either!  See ya next year Brea!