Temecula Valley Inaugural Half Marathon 2012

Pre-race
As if one "Goofy" wasn't enough, I somehow found myself with the Temecula Valley half marathon and the Carlsbad marathon on the same weekend. It would've been good to rest the weekend between Goofys, but I had the Houston marathon last weekend.

And so I drove out Saturday morning for Temecula Valley. The drive took about 1.5 hours. There was some rain along the way, but it had not reached Temecula yet. I got to the race site, Monte de Oro Winery, a little before 6am. I was among the first few cars to park. I picked up my race packet and a nice bag. I was also supposed to get a hat, but I don't think the volunteers knew where they were kept. The volunteer helping me out took my name and number. She said they would mail it out to me.

As I waited in my car while taking a nap, the rain started coming down harder and harder. The original start time was 7:30am. At around 7am, I got out with my umbrella to use the portapotty. As I was getting ready my gear before heading to the start area, the announcer tells us that the race start is delayed because there was a lot of cars that still needed to park.

Rainy day

Nice bag

Race
The rain was going down pretty good and would be off and on for the duration of the race. The race finally started at 7:45am with the faster runners taking off in the first wave. They were releasing about 200 people at a time because the first mile was very narrow. The road was not closed off to traffic. I started in the second wave. In the early miles, the legs felt like they were filled with lead. When I got to my first scheduled walk break, I took an extended break. The legs started to feel better, but I kept with walking after reaching each mile marker because I wanted to be okay for the Carlsbad Marathon the next day. Most of the race was on fire roads and I was somewhat worried about the ankle. Luckily it held up pretty well. My nice white calf sleeves got very dirty. I only wear them these days to stay warm. It felt like a trail race. I ran pretty well on the uphill sections and had to take it easy on the downhills. I kind of ran out of gas during the last mile but was able to muster up a good push up to the finish line.
1: 9:36

2-3: 19:00 (9:30)
4: 11:29

5-6: 22:03 (11:01)

7: 10:54

8: 10:50

9: 11:12

10: 11:28

11: 12:09

12: 11:48

13.1: 14:21

Finish: 2:24:52

Post-race
Seeing how I had just completed the Goofy's race and a half Challenge and the Houston marathon in the past two weekends, I wanted to be smart about this race. My goal was to finish around 2:20 and save enough to make the 6 hr cutoff at the Carlsbad Marathon. I was fine with my time since I was very tempted to stay dry and warm in my car. The race was pretty well organized, but I thought the race course needs to be revamped. Not closing off the road was a bad idea. I'm sure they'll get that changed next year. I love the bag they gave out. I'm going to be using it as my race bag.

After eating a bagel and a banana, I stuck around the finish line to wait for my friends. But they were having way too much fun. I saw them from my car on their final mile as I was leaving for the Carlsbad expo. I might consider coming back to this race next year, but I'm not too keen on running back to back races. Completing one Goofy's race and a half Challenge in one year is enough for me. :)

Finish line

Medal