Sunday, February 6, 2011

Race Recap: Surf City Half Marathon

Here it is, my first running race.  I've slowly been building up my mileage for 4 months, and it's finally here.  This is also a race I would file under "Unfortunate Timing." It is the day after a good friend's 40th birthday party. Who's got two thumbs and gets to be a designated driver?  m/ This Guy \m

On registration day, I took my daughters and dog with me.  It was a nice day, so I figured we'd walk around Huntington Beach a little while we were there.  One cool and unexpected thing about the race check-in process...dog-sitters.  The race organizers actually had volunteers there that would watch your dog for you while you completed your registration in the large circus tent at the expo area.

So, after a late night and an early morning, I drove to meet up with my carpool buddies Dave and Jill.  Dave was nice enough to drop Jill and I off near the starting corrals.  As with other popular races, parking and logistics is a separate adventure in itself, so it was nice to be dropped off.

The OC Tri Club had a canopy set up on PCH, so we had a place to meet and even leave our bags during the race.  I felt good, and was anxious to start.  I had a good idea about my pace, so I headed to the "1:50" corral.  As it got closer to starting, I had one GU pack, plus I had two more stashed in my race belt.  I hadn't tried the race gel, so I didn't want to risk trying something new during a race.

And, we're off.  Wow, it's crowded.  Triathlons are never this crowded running, maybe swimming, but not running.  Speaking of triathlons, since headphones aren't allowed, I opted not to use them on this race.  Ultimately, this race is preparation for Wildflower in April.

The race was pretty non-eventful.  I took small drinks of water at each aid station.  I had heard this was a faster course with only one true hill, but mostly flat.  The crowd support was great, and the creative signs always make me laugh.

The home stretch is a straight shot down PCH.  I was feeling good so I decided to up my pace a little.  Unfortunately, I forgot to set my Garmin to record 1 mile splits, so I don't know exactly how much faster I was at the end.  I do know one thing, the blisters were coming, and the last 3 miles, they made their presence known, with every step. 

I crossed the finish line at 1:48.12, with an average pace of 8:16/mile. This put me at 174 out of 766 (23%) in my age group and 1017 out of 4098 (21%) for men. Wow, there were 1016 men ahead of me.  That's more people than were in the last two triathlons I did, combined.

Overall, it was a good race.  Other than a couple blisters, I was feeling ok.  Now, off to a Super Bowl party.  What did you do on Super Bowl Sunday?

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