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Surf City USA Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon


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Huntington Beach, California
United States
Kinane Events
Total Time = 2h 38m 31s
Overall Rank = 8447/11783
Age Group = M50-54
Age Group Rank = 347/412
Pre-race routine:

Got up at 5:15, had peanut butter & banana for breakfast, coffee & Clif bar on the drive down and Gatorade in the parking lot. Got to the race site a little after 6 and there was still a little bit of space left in the furthest beach parking lot.

Used the bathroom in the lot and decided to skip the shuttle bus and just walk to the start since I had plenty of time. I also decided that it wasn't too cool and I could wait in jut my running clothes without a jacket, so I decided to leave all of my other gear in the car and skip the bag drop. Turned out to be a good decision, there were lots of people around the start area and bag drop looked like a real zoo.
Event warmup:

Fairly long walk from the car to the start. Did a light warmup & a little stretching prior to getting into the corral, then stood around for about half an hour waiting to start--so much for warmup. I wasn't sure what kind of time I was likely to get, figured 2:45 would be pretty good so I seeded myself probably 50 yards or so behind the 2:45 pacers. Too many people to make it worth trying to get much closer. I think they wound up starting in the wave before me.
Run
  • 2h 38m 31s
  • 13.1 miles
  • 12m 06s  min/mile
Comments:

Finally got to start running. Looked at my first split and it was 11 and change. I did all of my long training runs at a slow pace so was pleasantly surprised to do that without feeling like I was pushing. I skipped first fluid station but hit next one--still wasn't feeling really thirsty but wanted to stay hydrated. I also popped a Shot Blok every 2 miles.

I passed 2:45 pacers going up the hill around mile 3, and figured they'd started about 5 minutes ahead of me. Still feeling good, HR in 150s. I kept hitting most fluid stations, skipping a couple when I was not really thirsty. Stuck mostly to water, only a little Vitalyte at one station. Shot Bloks were fine for me so I didn't eat any of the stuff offered on course. But the cool, wet cloths at aroud the 9 mile point were very welcome.

Kept hitting sub-12 mile splits through about mile 10, but then I started slowing down a bit and having more trouble keeping HR down.

Shortly below the mile 12 marker I had a little bit of a calf cramp. I had that happen once on a training run last summer, tried to run through it and it pulled about a minute later (causing me to miss a 10K I'd already paid for), so I stopped to stretch it out a little bit. While I was doing that the 2:45 pacers caught up. I passed them again right at the mile 12 marker, heard them call out their time and confirmed that I was actually almost exactly 5 minutes ahead of them on the clock.

I ran mile 13 hard, legs & feet were kind of sore but kept going strong to finish, especially once I could hear the finish line music and see the kite.
What would you do differently?:

Not much. Training took a hit in the early part of December when work got really busy, but I feel like I did a good job making it up and especially getting the long training runs in.
Post race
Warm down:

As with most everything else in this event, the finish area was really crowded. I got some food and beverages, ate my banana and drank some. The line for the beer garden was like a quarter mile long and didn't seem worth it for Michelob, so I skipped it. Went into the expo tent and checked results--they had a mat in there that read your chip and displayed your results from the timing system, which was a lot nicer than having results posted on paper especially with the crowds. Then made the long walk back to the car. Toes were pretty sore and I was kind of wishing I had some sandals to change into for the walk, but oh, well.

Event comments:

This was my first event in the 50-54 AG (birthday was Friday). My only previous HM was Disneyland in 2008 at 2:53, so this was a PR by almost 15 minutes.

Although crowded, the event was very well run. The course was very scenic, and I really enjoyed the day.




Last updated: 2010-02-07 12:00 AM
Running
02:38:31 | 13.1 miles | 12m 06s  min/mile
Age Group: 0/412
Overall: 0/11783
Performance:
Course:
Keeping cool Drinking
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall:
Mental exertion [1-5]
Physical exertion [1-5]
Good race?
Evaluation
Course challenge
Organized?
Events on-time?
Lots of volunteers?
Plenty of drinks?
Post race activities:
Race evaluation [1-5]

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2010-02-09 9:46 PM

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