After work, I drove down to Huntington Beach to pick up my race packet at the Surf City Marathon expo. Traffic and parking wasn't too bad. I was able to pretty much get in and get out. I wasn't too impressed with the Longboard Legacy Club. I'm considering ending my current streak at this race. I've run the half marathon in 2007 and 2008, and I've run the marathon every year since 2009. This was my 9th consecutive year at this event. After picking up my race packet and shirts, I zipped through the expo. However I did end up registering for the Long Beach Marathon and the City of Laguna Hills Memorial Day Half Marathon. I also bought some packs of Margarita Clif Shot Bloks before heading home.
01/31/15 Saturday
Well, it turned out that what I had thought were just allergies was a nasty cold that I had caught from my friend. I had been coughing and hacking up a lot of phlegm throughout the week. I thought about bagging the race and taking a DNS. I decided that it would be a race day decision, so I laid out the flat runner and went to sleep.
Flat runner
02/01/15 Sunday
After taking a hot shower and clearing my throat of phlegm, I actually felt pretty good. So I decided to give it a go. I drove out to Huntington Beach and parked for free on Beach Blvd just South of Atlanta Ave. I think it's easier post race to park here versus the parking lot down by the beach. I then grabbed my gear and walked over to the Hyatt Regency where I usually wait. Apparently this year, they've shut the doors along Pacific View Ave. I had to go all the way around to the other side to get inside.
When it got closer to 6 am, I crossed over on the bridge to meet up with the Marathon Maniacs for a pre-race photo. Too bad it was still very dark and only two cameras were used. One camera did not have a working flash and the other was a point and shoot camera. So all we got out of it was one super dark and blurry photo. I then used a nearby portapotty one last time before jumping into the corral to wait for the 6:30 am start.
Starting line
The race started off rather well. I stuck to the usual 8 min per miles through about the first 10k. For some reason, I didn't really back off on the pace. I should've never ignored the little warning sign from last weekend's marathon. I ended up straining my right calf by mile 8. I think I did back off in time to not cause severe damage. There was a little bit of bruising the next day. I jogged to the mile 9 marker and had to start taking extended walk breaks. On the out and back on PCH, I tried to move as fast as I could. I distracted myself by scanning the other side of the road for my faster friends.
Charlie pacing 3:10
1: 7:53
2: 7:49
3: 8:05
4: 8:15
5: 7:40
6: 7:57
7: 8:14
8: 8:23
9: 9:31
10: 10:08
11: 11:24
12: 11:31
13: 10:22
Halfway: 1:58:14
As I got closer to mile 16, I took a right turn onto the beach bike path for a 10 mile out and back section which is my least favorite part of the course. On top of race participants, there's so much foot traffic as well as bike traffic during this stretch which gets narrow at times. However some good folks have set up an unofficial bacon and beer station which is pretty amusing. They've been there for several years. They even have a banner. The turnaround was at about mile 20.5 and it was starting to get pretty warm. I picked up the pace a tad for the last two miles as I wanted to keep the time under 4:40.
Only 3 more miles for crappy beer! :)
14: 11:25
15: 11:01
16: 11:17
17: 11:36
18: 11:40
19: 10:41
20: 13:44
21: 14:53
22: 11:22
23: 12:24
24: 12:34
25: 11:16
26: 11:11
26.2: 1:43
Finish: 4:34:01
After crossing the finish line, I picked up my surfboard finisher medal. I don't usually care about medals, but it's one of my favorites and a big reason why I keep coming back to this race. I grabbed a bag of snacks and went to the expo tent to pick up the extra Double Dog Dare dog tag bottle opener. I I then headed on over to the beer garden to meet up with my friends. It's always fun to enjoy a few beers with friends after running a marathon. We were able to score some extra beers as they were starting to shut down and didn't want to pour out the remaining beers. We shut that beer garden down as we were the last ones to leave. :)
Shutting down the beer garden with my beer buddies!
After making the what seemed like a long walk back to my car, it was time to go consume some recovery protein! I decided to take a break from the usual post race burger and eat some Korean BBQ. I drove up to Korea House Barbecue Buffet in Garden Grove. It was about a quarter to 3pm, so it cost $21.99 for the all-you-can-eat meal. It was so much quicker to fill up when I have the entire grill all to myself. I even threw some shrimp on the barbie for a little surf and turf.
Meat!
Throwing some shrimp on the barbie
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