Surf City Half Marathon

This weekend, I traded in windy, sub 20 degree weather of suburban Kansas City for 70 degrees and beaches of LA and Huntington Beach.  To say it was needed is an understatement for sure!!  I headed out to LAX after working Friday morning (thankfully on a direct flight) and was met by a friend of the family.  We went to pick up some dinner (we were going to try the Lobsta Truck but couldn’t find parking).  We made our way over to a little local cafe and picked up some sandwiches, ate and then picked up my parents at the airport.

Saturday, we made our way to Huntington Beach to the expo to pick up our race gear.  First time ever I’ve been to an expo under tents!!  I did love being greeted by some surf boards, that’s for sure

 

We picked up our gear and wondered the expo.  I found myself a poster for $20, a new pair of sunglasses and tried some pre race stuff which wasn’t for sale (who does that?!?!).  We headed for a walk on the beach and stopped for some lunch before heading over to the DoubleTree hotel to check in.  We watched some good basketball and headed out for dinner at Baci’s.

Around 550 AM Sunday, we were up and at it.  Luckily, I was still on CST so it felt like closer to 8 for me.  Since my stuff was laid out from the night before, I changed, brushed my hair and had some of the free breakfast downstairs.  We hopped the 6:45 shuttle to the start and arrived at 7:20.  After hijacking the Hilton’s bathrooms (which were much better then porta potties), we walked to the start and parted ways to get into our corrals.  We were delayed in getting out, so much so, that 1/2 mile in, the Johnny Rockets restaurant was nice enough to let me use the bathroom again.  I was keeping a good pace up until right before mile 3.  I saw a guy seizing and stopped to see if there was anything I could do.  There was an RN there already and police were trying to get paramedics over.  All we knew was his name and because he didn’t fill out the back of his bib, we didn’t know if he had any health problems

This is where I’ll make my plea…runners, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE fill out the back of your bib with your info and medical stuff on it.  That’s where we look first to see if you have problems if something happens to you!!!

After race officials took over, I kept going along with the 2 others who stopped to help.  Half Marathon Bib #7737, I hope you’re ok!!!  We headed into a little neighborhood that had a hill to it. Nothing bad at all (yet people were complaining about it.  I have worse hills in my hometown of Ohio!).  After we got out of the neighborhood, we were back on the highway.  It was nice to have the smell of the ocean with you the entire time and good weather.  At this point I was kicking myself because it was chilly when we left the hotel so I wore a long sleeved shirt.  By the start of the race, I wanted to take it off, but it wasn’t one I was willing to part with so pushed the sleeves up.  i at least had a nice view of the beach

Surf City Beach

Somewhere after mile 8, we turned and headed back towards the finish.  We chugged along for some miles and began seeing marathoners running on the beach portion of their course (this particular day, I was glad it wasn’t me).  The marathoners started over an hour before us so bless them for that.  I realized how much I still hate running over parts of road that act as overpasses and their gradual inclines as well!  I was confused as to where I was at time wise since I had stopped to help the guy seizing but I was so confused with seeing pacers of the 2:15 group in front of 2:10 pacers.  I couldn’t even gage where I was at!  I was pretty glad to see the finish and take off my long sleeved shirt.  By far, one of my favorite medals I’ve ever gotten (who doesn’t like a surf board medal???).  I finished officially in 2:17 even.  Based on my garmin time, I finished in about 2:12:20 which I’ll take either one.

Surf City Medal

The nice thing about staying at a hotel close to the race is the shower I got afterwards.  I didn’t have to sit in a car smelling for an hour!!  We made our way back to LA and had some lunch in the Venice Beach area before I had to head back to the midwest (at least it’s in the 40s now).  My parents?  I’m apparently not the favorite child because they went to Hawaii this morning with out me 😦 (Just kidding!!!)