Overall, I really liked this race and had fun, although I struggled mentally and physically. The course was flat and shaded, and the weather cooperated beautifully. I started off maybe a little fast, but really wanted to beat my 2:13:48 PR, so I was trying to stay around a 10:00 to account for slowness in the water stops, etc. I saw my brother, SIL, and nephew cheering for me just before mile 1, which was fun. I was on track for about 10k when continued soreness in my hip creeped in a little and my HR continued to be high. I gave in to myself, and took a short walk break somewhere around 7 miles. Well, that was a slippery slope and one walk break lead to more longer ones after I realized I wasn't going to be able to hold the pace needed for a PR. I had GU gels around 5 miles and 10 miles, which helped with the energy. I probably should have had one sooner since I hadn't eaten breakfast. Either way, I did finish the last bit strong and was thrilled when at 13, jcnipper jumped back in the race and ran the last 0.1 with me. That always makes me happy. :-)

The night before the race I took my boyfriend, jcnipper, out for a nice dinner to celebrate his 30th birthday. I had a couple glasses of wine, which probably didn't help the hydration aspect and my HR, but as he said, he only turns 30 once. There will be more races, so I wouldn't actually change that at all. I probably would have eaten breakfast though, and maybe had a gel earlier since I hadn't had any caffeine either. Not sure what else I could have done to prevent the crash.

I wandered through the finish area getting drinks and snacks. We then headed to the beer tent, fortunately had our IDs and sat in the grass and nursed my beer. It was a great atmosphere and the weather was so nice.


Uh, maybe the wine, and probably the nagging hip/butt pain. Hopefully I can get rid of it before San Antonio.


I thought this was a nice showing by Elite. I've done all of their races this year except for San Diego, and they seemed to have it down pretty well here. The porta-potty lines were shorter than ever and there were staggered water stops on each side of the street, which helped congestion. As mentioned above, the kids could have used a little more training, but they did ok. I'd really like to do this race again, maybe with less wine first.