Everything from parking to registration, to the race and the expo was perfectly organized. The only weak link in the whole experience was active.com. I will try to avoid those spammers in future. Now the event is over I can finally block their incessant emails. All I got from them was spam, not even a reminder that the event was close. There - I just flagged them as junk mail.
Being total paranoid and expecting a total zoo, I arrived at 6:30am for an 8:00 am start. Much to my surprise I snagged a parking spot right next to registration. I wandered over and registered instantly. Coincidentally my daughter's signature was right above mine on the waiver. She had got there a few minutes before me. The only queue of the morning was two minutes to use the bathroom.
Now we had over an hour to kill before the start of the run. Amber went back to her truck to nap - I was too nervous so I paced around trying to stay warm. Start time approached so we wandered over and joined the crowd. 5k runners on the left, half marathon on the right. Total runners was about 6000. They had target times marked with the slower runners to the back. I found the 2h30 marker and struck up a conversation with someone wearing a Surf City half marathon shirt. Amber moved forward to the 2h mark.
I think one reason running events have so much participation is that local schools' running programs encourage their students to enter them. Possibly half the runners were kids wearing one of two tee-shirts. "In for the long run" was the one I remember seeing most of. I noticed the vast majority of volunteers seemed to be about high-school age too. In a country with rampant obesity, surely this is a good thing.
We moved up towards the start line at 7:59 and started at precisely 8:00am. I started my stopwatch as I crossed the start line and ran forward trying not to step on heels. There were clocks at every mile and I was pleased to see I completed my first mile in 10m20 which is pretty good for me. I had committed myself to running the first 5 miles and then walking long enough to get some calories in me. I smashed my personal best 5 mile time with 54m20. I ate some electrolyte beans and started running again.
I had committed to running continuously for the next 5 miles but started running out of energy around mile 8 so I ate half an Odwalla bar and the ate the second half at the 10 mile mark which I reached in slightly under two hours. I can't eat while I'm running so I had to walk for a minute or so while eating.
I started flagging again around mile 12 but this time eating didn't help. I was bone tired, plus my calf was starting to twinge with warnings of cramps. I haven't cramped in years and I had no expectation of cramping in such cool weather (70F, dry and calm - perfect). I didn't have any electrolytes on me and the beans were long gone. There was a chap by the road handing out Chex mix so I grabbed a handful and they seemed to help a bit. The last two miles were very hard.
I finished with a 2h45 time which was slower than I had hoped for but I was happy just to finish. My feet were sore, my back sore, and my quads were screaming. Amber finished with a 1h58 time (amazing). We went for a walk to stretch out the muscles, then ate lightly and went for another walk.
I'm still in serious pain. It reminds me of a 26 mile hike we did once up to the top of San Gorgonio and back. It's crawling up the stairs pain. If you want to know what it feels like to be 70 just run a half marathon when you're 50.
Here's a quick shout-out for Kaiser Permanente who underwrote a large part of the event. The more I hear about them, the more I respect that company.
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| Start of the 2014 Southern California Half Marathon |
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