Cabo Half Marathon
-
No new posts
Cabo Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon
View Member's Race Log View other race reports
![]() Run
Comments: There is a pacer for a 1:35 pace and a 1:45 pace. I put myself between these groups which places me about 5 rows of people back. I’m standing next to a guy from Sacramento (he’s wearing his red River City Rebels tank) and I briefly chat with him about CIM before the music starts blaring and they have a fit looking guy and gal doing a little workout routine. I see another guy line up in front of me who is wearing an Ironman cap. Soon enough, the race starts. We start around town. There is standing water in parts of the streets from the rains overnight, so we have to wind our way around them. Still, it’s not very crowded. I don’t know where the pace leaders are, I’m not really sure what pace I’ll be able to run, and I just wanted to run my own race/pace anyway. I jockey back and forth for the first 5K with the Sacramento guy and by the end of it, he’s just a bit ahead of me. I’m thinking to myself, dang, this guy’s older than me and bigger than me and he’s moving faster than me. Oh well, I’ll just run my race. It takes me at least a couple miles before I feel warmed up. As we pass the 5k mark (the start/finish line), there is a group of high school age cheerleaders cheering us on as we go by. We start out on the longer stretch headed out of town. We’re running on the main street and then later on a side road that runs parallel to the highway. Two not so good things – one, the road is quite slanted down from left to right which isn’t so good for the pain I’ve been having on my outer right foot. Not bothering me yet though. Two, the exhaust from the cars on the freeway is nauseating. In my head, I’m wondering about the pollution standards are here and what this is doing to my lungs (I also have asthma). I soldier on. There is an older guy who runs my pace and speaks to me in Spanish and I try to acknowledge him as best I can. At the water/powerade stations (every 3K), we’re cheered on with words of “vamos vamos vamos” and “si puede” and things to that effect. Fun. As we continue on the uphill stretch, I start gaining on a few folks including Sacramento guy. By about mile 7, I finally pass him and I start thinking to myself, wow, I feel like an endurance athlete. We hit the turnaround point at an overpass and it’s a little downhill first and then up again. At this point, I’m thinking I feel like a tired endurance athlete. Around mile 9, a guy (who I would later talk to at the finish and find out was from Seattle) said “Buenos dias” to me and I said “hello” back to him. Mile markers are definitely off at this point as compared to what the garmin says. At mile 10, the 3:35 pacer passes me (?). I’m wondering a bit about the evenness of his pacing. At this point, I’m thinking I have a shot at a 1:40, but I can feel the fatigue setting in. With only 5K to go, I press on. Traffic is starting to bleed over onto the side road (as DW finished, she ended up having to weave through traffic…not fun) until we get back into town where the main road is closed for us to run on. I’m pushing myself and I’m passing a few along the way and feeling myself drawn towards the finish. I had passed a younger tall guy in the last half kilometer, but as we approach the finish line, he has a fierce sprint and edges past me at the finish. I can see the clock and it’s approaching 1:40 and I’m at as much of a sprint as I can muster. I cross as it passes 1:40, which hopefully means my chip time came in under 1:40. Time - 1:39:59 (chip time), 7:38 pace. 47:51 10K split. Rank: 55/244 OA, 31/82 M18-39 One odd thing about the race results is that there was a very high percentage of DNS. About 250 ended up finishing and there were about 150 DNS. I had all kinds of reasons/excuses to think that this race wouldn’t go well (underslept/jet lagged, low training volume due to foot problems, dehydrated, thought I was coming down sick, etc.), but in the end, it I did as well as I could have hoped for. Based on my CIM results in early December, this is pretty much exactly what I predicted I could do if things went well. No complaints here! ![]() Post race
Warm down: Cool down Had a couple banans, half a liter of lemon-lime powerade, and some biscuit type things they were giving away. I walked a little bit. Cheered on more finishers and stretched. Waited for DW to finish. I walked back along the course until I saw DW and then trotted along with her to get closer to the finish. Post Race This was the best part of all. First, we went back to the hotel and showered and then took a nap. Then we walked along the beach and ate at the Mango bar and grill. Had some awesome shrimp ceviche. DW had beef fajitas (pretty good) and I had some fish tacos (too greasy). Then we just laid out at the beach, relaxed, and enjoyed the sunny warm weather! Last updated: 2006-12-10 12:00 AM
|
|
{postbutton}
![]() |
|
![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() |
General Discussion-> Race Reports! |
{postbutton}
Mexico
Overcast
Overall Rank = 55/244
Age Group = M18-39
Age Group Rank = 31/82
DW and I flew out early Friday morning to get to Cabo. This was our first destination race and since I switched jobs fairly recently, I don’t have much vacation so this was just a 3 day weekend trip for us. This was also my first trip to Cabo. DW was interested in doing this race since it was advertised with an insert in my race packet at CIM and was billed as a sort of “CIM South.”
In the Cabo airport, the crowds of passengers were entirely gringo. On the way out of the airport, we were hit by the onslaught of taxi and hotel hawkers. We had arranged for a package flight/transport/hotel package so we just to make our way past all of that and find our transportation. Weather was overcast (as predicted) and not too hot. We loaded up in the van which already had passengers and we were the last to fill the van. The others in the van were a group all together and they were all from Texas. Here, it was definitely a case study of being able to take a group out of Texas, but not taking the Texas out of the group (no offense to Texans – I have relatives who live there).
We check into our hotel, the Pueblo Bonito Rose, which was nice. The hotel was right on the beach, the room had all the usual amenities (our room was even equipped with a kitchenette), and we were walking distance to the main part of town.
After getting settled, we walked to the mall where registration was set up. It was easy enough to find the mall, but once in the mall, we had difficulty finding where registration was located. There was a sign at the entrance of the mall for the race, but no one at the information booth and the random people we asked had no idea about what we were talking. We also didn’t spot anybody who looked like they were racers and had registration packets in hand. So, we wandered outside of the mall a bit and into town to see if we could find anything or see anyone else with race packets. It was sprinkling a bit outside. We walked out along the marina behind the mall. We even walked all the way over to Cabo Wabo where the post race party was to see if anyone knew anything over there (they didn’t). We came back to the mall and wandered around to the other end. We were going to back to the hotel and double check where the registration was supposed to be and we bumped into another couple looking for the registration as well. DW found an athletic shoe store and asked in there and they told us “upstairs.” The upstairs part of the mall isn’t really anything, but there was a section outside. Outside there are more shops and there was a section with massage tables and time share info. Then the other couple caught a sign (finally!) right near there that said “welcome runners” and we found the registration area.
As we registered, I noticed that the registration list only had about 200 names on it. I wasn’t sure how big this race was going to be, but it seemed like it was going to be smaller than I thought. In my registration packet, they give me the race instructions in Spanish (because of my name, it might be easy to think I am of Hispanic descent) which I can’t read, but DW’s instructions are in English, so no problem. By now, it was already 4:30 or so and we decided to just hang around the mall and wait for the pasta dinner which started at 6:00pm.
At 6:00pm, we went to the place with the pasta dinner and they were still just setting up. After another 15-20 minutes, we were able to go in to sit. We waited for others to arrive and spoke to others who sat at our table including two older couples (the women were doing the race) and a couple of younger women from Indiana who were both doing the race. While we were waiting, we were given Siera Azul bottled water (coca cola product who was sponsoring) and later fanta orange or sprite (more coca cola products. The race would have Siera Azul water and Powerade…yes, more coca cola product).
Before dinner was served, there were a lot of announcements (done bilingually) about the race organizers. They explained how important the race was and how they met racing standards by having a certified course (i.e. distance was certified) and their use of timing chips to guarantee the accuracy of the results. Then they introduced the pacers who were former Mexican race champions (2:09-2:10 marathoners). That was pretty cool having them as pacers.
It’s a bit past 7 by now and we’re starving and finally the pasta is served. Okay, I’ve never been to one of these pre-race pasta dinners, plus I’ll admit I’m a food snob and even somewhat of a pasta snob (we usually have fresh pasta that we either make ourselves or buy). Dinner was bread and two chafing dishes with either mac and cheese in one and some other white fat laden sauce with a few veggies (carrots and peas I think) in it. I ate a plateful of the mac and cheese, which was basically like watered down Kraft mac and cheese and a little bit of the white stuff and then ate a few extra helpings of bread. Oh well good enough.
Alarm goes off at 5:30, I slept well enough although I didn’t wake up 2-3 times in the middle of the night to urinate like I normally do, so this probably meant I was dehydrated. Had a glass of water. I had a zone bar (chocolate mint. The fake mint flavor makes me think of thin mint girl scout cookies) for breakfast with my coffee.
Had to decide what to wear. Big decision you know? First, stepped out on the balcony to check the weather. Not too cold, so that was good. Forecast had 30% chance of rain. I wanted to wear my new Louis Garneau tri stuff because, one, it looked pretty good and, two, I wanted to try running a half mary distance in tri clothing to see how it would feel since I’d have to do that in the upcoming long course races I have this year.
At about 6:30, we walk over to the mall where the race starts. It’s just starting to become more light. There are all the racers milling about and the music is blaring.
DW and I only did a couple quick strides and then we lined up to race.