Surf City USA Marathon and Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

good and steady was the pace for the day...

nothing..

get on my sweats as quickly as I could and get hoem for a nice warm shower..that was followed by a 2-1/2 hour nap with the electric blanket on 3!


the weather..


The race was just like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride...Cold, horizontal rain, and about 8,000 13.1 runners.. What else could you ask for?? First time the course was backwards in the layout and it was good.. I liked the small hills in the beginning with the straight shot to the finish.. The course was well marked and the volunteers were real troopers to be that helpful and still cheering on the runners.. I thanked them when I could for being there for us..

I started out with set time goals for 4 key points along the course and figured if I could hit them up to the 10 mile mark, I would stay with the pace. This was a practice race to kick off my training for Vineman 70.3 in July.. I was pleased with myself to be able to put the elements out of my mind and focus on those time goals.. I had this bizarre idea that I might break 2:15:23, which the time goals were set for... 2:17:23 had been my fastest to date and that was like 2 years ago.... Running this same race last year under completely different conditions, I could only muster around 2:18:25, so I knew I had my work cut out for me.. After mile 10 I never looked at my Garmin 305 again until I hit the stop button after crossing the finish line. I was so zoned into my Gate Crasher tranze music, that I let IT carry me to a PR of 2:14:58..

I would recommend this race to anyone wanting to push beyond the 10K level and dabble with a 13.1 race.. The course is mainly flat with the few hills short in duration and not above about a 6% grade... Thumbs up for this race... PS: For those not in-the-know, there are (2) porta-potties at the very back of the parking lot in Harriet Weider Park on Seapointe. That was the small park on the right that we passed as we headed back towards PCH.. Info for next year!