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Comments: The course was simply an up and back on PCH. In normal weather, this would've been ideal. But I was cold, shivering, and grumpy, and my wet clothes were clinging to me, with rain gusting towards me. I started out by doing a few minutes of running followed by a minute of walking to catch my breath, and actually felt pretty good at mile 1. Maybe this wasn't so bad after all? Kept trotting along. Around mile 2, it hit. My legs started to burn, mostly in my quads, but also in my calves. This was a new kind of burn for me, and was almost certainly the result of my 33 mile bike ride the day before. I hadn't pushed it on the ride at all, but just the repetitive motion over 2+ hours clearly affected my legs more than I anticipated. By this point, it was all I could do to manage a minute of jogging followed by a minute of walking. Repeated this pattern to the finish line. What would you do differently?: You know, I'm not sure there's a lot I would have done differently, to be honest. Obviously not doing the bike ride the day before would've helped with my finish time, but I really enjoyed the ride. And actually, learning the lesson of how my body reacted to the extra exercise load was a valuable thing. In terms of the weather, there's not much I could've done to make it less miserable. I suppose I could've worn an actual rain-coat, but my guess is that I still would've ended up soaking wet -- if not directly from the rain, then from my own sweat. And running shoes are going to get squishy and gross in the rain, no matter what.  Post race
Warm down: LOL, there was no warming up for this race really, and no warming down. ;) At the finish line, I got my chip clipped off and made my way to the back of the crowd. Waited a couple minutes for Sherri to arrive (my friend Matt's wife). She looked every bit as miserable as me. We then tracked Matt down moments later, and headed for the beer tent. Oh yeah, about this "beer tent". Where the f*ck was it? The only tent we found was the normal expo tent, and that just had the product vendors in it. Well, and a coffee line practically out the door. And where was the post-race food and goodies area? After searching around for a good while, I finally found it. Turns out you had to go out BEHIND the regular entrance to the expo tent to get to the post-race area. I'm sorry, but that was a total clusterf*ck on the part of the race organizers. I'm quite certain tons of people must've missed that area completely. What limited your ability to perform faster: Only two things really. The bike ride the day before, and the weather. Event comments: I must say, though, that I was very impressed with the race volunteers along the course. They were plentiful and *very* encouraging. My hat is off to them big-time, for the dedication they showed by toughing it out in such horrible conditions. If you know of any volunteers who were there, please pass along my thanks to them. Last updated: 2007-12-03 12:00 AM
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United States
Kinane Events
50F / 10C
Precipitation
Overall Rank = 1671/2255
Age Group = 40-44
Age Group Rank = 96/109
Woke up grumpily at 5, strapped on my HRM and got dressed in a daze, took my morning meds, headed out the door. Raining. Oh, great. Guess I was too tired and unawake for it to sink in fully. Drove to Starbucks. Closed. Lovely. Got back in the car and headed to Huntington Beach. What kind of idiots get up at oh dark thirty on a SUNDAY, in frigid, rainy weather? Oh right, me.
Came into HB on Beach Blvd and craned my neck to find a Starbucks. No freakin way I was doing this race without my morning coffee. There was one! Drove over, ordered my usual half caf iced Americano. Iced, on a morning like this? I wasn't awake enough to notice the irony. Also snarfed down an apple fritter -- yeah I know you're not supposed to eat like that before a race, cut me some freakin slack people! ;)
Got back on Beach Blvd and on my way. Almost immediately hit the sea of red brake lights. 5:45 am, pitch black, rainy, traffic jam on a surface street. Surreal. Slowly made my way up to PCH, and after about 15 minutes, finally reached the parking lot. Only one car ahead of me. A guy materializes from nowhere and plunks down the LOT FULL sign. You've got to be f*cking kidding me! So I drove down to the next lot off Newland (?) and thankfully got in. Found a spot and parked. Cranked up the heater and tried to relax, listening to the rain pelting the windshield.
At 6:45 I realized I'd better start moving, since the first 5k wave was at 7:15. Started walking up the pedestrian path towards the expo, jogging a little here and there to get loose and warm. But with the cold rain gusting in off the ocean, warm just wasn't gonna happen. It didn't take very long and I was totally soaked and shivering. Time kept passing and it didn't seem like I was getting any closer -- definitely misjudged how far it was to walk. When I finally did reach the expo, I then remembered the 5k started even *further* north, at Main St. Ugh! So I trotted along even faster now. Crap, I didn't mean to do a 5k walk just to get to the start line! Finally reached the back of the 5k pack at about 7:25-ish, just minutes before the third wave started.