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!

Next Up...Brea 8K

I officially registered for my next race which will be the Brea 8K on Feb. 27.  This was a race I was thinking about signing up for last year to possibly get ready for the Seal Beach 10K.  However, at the time, I had only barely started running and didn't feel that I was even close to being ready so I chickened out.  It's a year later now and it's amazing how much difference a year makes.  The distance is no longer intimidating like it was last year and I'll actually be going into it and treating it as more of a "fun" run.

One of the reasons I'll be treating it as a "fun" run is because some of my other running friends that will be running that day have decided to sign up under a team.  Our team is Team Grease Lightning.  Not sure how many people we will end up having on the team but it should be fun.

The one other thing that this race is known for is the awesome food that is provided at the end of the race sponsored by local restaurants in the area (such as Claim Jumper, CPK, BJ's, and Olive Garden to name a few).   I'm really looking forward to that!!!

So, as of today, there are about 16 days until this race.  I am going to be doing primarily shorter runs until then and just work on speed.  My training for the OC Half Marathon on May 2 will start the week right after the Brea 8K.  I am going to use the Smart Coach training plan from the Runner's World
site again.  This time it will be a 10-week training plan.

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.  

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 #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!

Surf City Half Marathon

The Surf City Half Marathon was yesterday and it was a blast!  The weather ended up being really nice and no rain whatsoever!  My final official time was 2:11:27.  I'm really happy with how I did and am looking forward to continued improvement in my next half marathons.   Next goal will be to run a sub-2 half.

I'll post my full race report later tonight.

4 Days Until Surf City!

I can't believe it's only 4 more days until Surf City!  I'll be running the half marathon and I feel like I'm ready.  I'm sure I'll be able to beat my only other half marathon time (which was 2:46) because this time I'll be healthier and not having to deal with the ITBS like at the Disneyland half last September.  My goal is to finish about 2:15 - 2:20 this time.  I'm going to do my best to take pictures and some video during the race because it should be a fun one.  Just hoping it doesn't rain!

Right now the forecast for Sunday is 10% chance of rain and temperature looking to be around the 50's at the start.  That's pretty promising.  I'll take it!

Unfortunately, two of my running buddies are probably not going to be able to run on Sunday (or perhaps maybe do a lot of walking?).  One has achilles tendonitis that has hampered his training and I don't think has gotten much better.   The other has a bulging disk in his neck that's causing pain when he attempts to run.  So, not sure what they can do about their registration fee.  It's a lot of money and it's unfortunate they're not going to be able to run.