I ran in total solitude for the first half mile or so, before coming upon a lot of folks who were walking the course. Starting the course quite a bit after everybody else was interesting. I must have passed approximately 800 people (officially finishing 284 out of 1093, even with the late start) along the way, and was only passed by one person during the entire race, at around the 5 mile mark. It was very strange to have no one at all pass me for the last 8 miles of the race. I actually wound up catching the guy who had passed me around mile 12.

It was quite eye opening to compare a California based race with the races back home in the east. There were a few thing I noticed, right off the bat:

- The percentage of really good looking girls racing is a lot higher in California.

- Th events are a lot more diverse out here. Asians, Hispanics and blacks were all well represented in the race. Granted, the SoCal area has a much larger Asian and Hispanic population base, but both groups were well represented with heavy numbers. Even more surprising was the number of black runners, who were also very well represented. This is in stark contrast to the east, where marathons and half marathons are noted by their lack of diversity, devoid of any real representation of people of color. Enough on the social commentary.

-It seemed that anywhere from 25-33% of the racers were running with ipods. I remember catching up to a group of 6 or 7 runners, and I was the only one running without headphones.

-And did I mention the number of good looking females?

I ran this race at a comfortable pace, not pushing myself at all. My splits seem all over the place, but that is bascially a result of the rolling nature of the course, as well as maybe some misplaced mile markers. It's amazing, that when one is in marathon shape, running a half marathon is a piece of cake. I wasn't taxed at all.


Be on time and not forget my Garmin. I would love to see what the elevation gain and loss of the course is. They don't have a course map on the web site. From a pacing perspective, I would not do anything differently.

As I had left the rest of the family back at the hotel, I didn't hang around the race site. So, I picked up my medal, my t-shirt, a sports drink, and jogged back to my rental car half a mile away.


This was basically a training run. I didn't push it.


A nice race overall. If I lived out here, I would probably do it every year.