Per the usual for this race, I got into work a bit earlier, so that I could leave earlier and get the race packet pick-up out of the way. I arrived at the Huntington Beach parking lot at about 3:30 pm. After parking my car, I walked over to the expo tent. At the entrance they had mile markers 8 and 24 in Lakers purple and gold in tribute to the late Kobe Bryant.
Expo
Kobe tribute at entrance
After being assigned a bib number, I picked up my long sleeve race shirt and a sturdy tote bag. Next was going through the rest of the expo to see what the vendors had to offer. Right before hitting the vendor booths, I visited the Longboard Legacy Club area to pick up my legacy item before I forget. The legacy item was the usual cotton long sleeve shirt.
Race shirt
Tote bag
Longboard legacy club
Longboard legacy club shirt
Near the southern end of the tent, they had banners with all of the participants' names. I took a moment to find my name before continuing on with the rest of the expo. Before leaving the expo, I registered for next year's half marathon. As a member of the Longboard Legacy Club, they knocked off another $5 which made the total out to $77.03 which included a processing fee. I came out of the expo with a few giveaways: a small Surf City cape, a Power Crunch bar, and a bottle of QURE alkaline water. The drive home took nearly an hour and a half.
Participant name banner
Found my name
Registration for next year
Expo giveaways
Saturday 2/1
Normally I'm only up very early on weekends to in order to run a race or to watch Premier League football matches. However I stayed up late into the wee hours of the night in order to catch the Australian Open Women's Championship match between Sofia (Sonya) Kenin and Garbiñe Muguruza. Before I got into marathon running, tennis was my passion. I didn't think Kenin would pull out the win as I thought she was a bit lucky in beating Ashleigh Barty in her semi-finals match. Congrats to her on winning her first grand slam title!
Kenin vs Muguruza
Kenin wins her first grand slam!
Before going to bed, I laid out my flat runner. Even though the weather for tomorrow's race wasn't cold enough to warrant a long sleeve shirt, I decided to just wear the long sleeve shirt from the Carlsbad race a couple of weeks ago.
Flat runner
Sunday 2/2
As I was getting ready, I caught the 5th set of the Australian Open Men's Final between Djokovic and Thiem. Djokovic was able to hold off Thiem and win his 8th Australian Open title. I left the house a little after 5 am. I arrived near the Pacific View Ave and Beach Blvd intersection at about 5:40 am. I thought that that was plenty of time for me to park the car and meet up at the bridge for the Marathon Maniacs pre-race meetup at 6 am. Unfortunately it took about 30 min from that spot to finally make it into the parking lot. From what I could tell, while I was in the middle lane, cars from the right turn and the left turn lanes were cutting in. They need to do a better job of controlling the traffic.
Since I had missed the meetup, I went inside the Hyatt Regency to wait in the lobby. It's a great spot to get out of the cold morning air. The restrooms in the lobby were also nice to use. The hotel staff also brings out bananas and water, free for all to take regardless if you're staying with them or not. While waiting, I bumped into my friends from San Diego. They were headed up to their room to change as they felt that the weather was starting to get a bit warm.
Bananas and water
As the start of the race approached, I started heading over to the starting corral. Along the way, I was spotted by a friend from Temecula. She was waiting with her friend near the Grand Ballroom. I used to also wait around that area until a few years back they had closed that section to deter runners from going there. I'm glad that she spotted me as I have not seen her in a while.
Stephanie!
I met up with my friends, Latino Heat and Karen inside the corrals. Karen was ready to give me crap if I had shown up with a Kobe Bryant jersey. She should know me better than that! While I've grown up being a Laker fan, I stopped being a Kobe fan when he had his rape incident in Colorado. The way the media portrayed him as if he was a martyr for having to fly back and forth to attend his court trial while playing basketball was absolutely disgusting. While the manner of his death was quite tragic, there are much better role models to follow out there.
While waiting for the start of the race, there were a lot of people hopping the barricade that was right next to where we were standing. Not sure why they were because there was a big opening just a few yards up front as well as behind us! The last thing anyone wants to do right before a race is to injure yourself unnecessarily while climbing over a barricade!
Start corral
Latino Heat and Karen
Although there was still some lingering symptoms from my cold, it was definitely much easier to breathe now. I felt so much better that I ran that first mile a bit too hard. Although I pulled back on the pace, I was not feeling 100%. I kept having to pull over and take walk breaks as I felt like I was overheating which might have been more due to my unwise choice of wearing a long sleeve shirt. It was a bit crowded coming down Seapoint Street, so I went up on the curb and ended up running on the dirt. After a right turn onto the Pacific Coast Highway, it would be an out-and-back for a couple of miles before the final long straight road to the finish line. As I approached mile 6, I was passed by WeRock coach Andrea pacing a couple of her runners.
WeRock coach Andrea
The turnaround point was just a little past mile 8. As with long out-and-backs, it was nice to see my friends out on the course. I was hoping to be able to finish in under 2 hrs today, but my lungs and legs weren't quite ready yet. I lost so much time in those last 5 miles. Once I reached mile marker 12, I tried to run the rest of the way in, but my calves were cramping up. I briefly stopped after reaching the Main St intersection before jogging it in.
Finish line
Finish: 2:02:50
Click here for my Garmin data.
After crossing the finishing line, I received my iconic wooden surfboard finisher medal. While walking through the finisher chute, I bumped into my friend, Julie. Volunteers were passing out a lot of post race goodies as well as QURE alkaline water.
Finisher medal
Close-up of medal
Julie at finish line
Post race goodies
Near the exit, there were some spectators lined along the barricades waiting with their dogs. There was one sleepy dog sleeping in a basket that put a smile on my face. :)
Sleepy dog
I then met up and waited with Latino Heat near the end of the finisher chute to welcome a fellow Marathon Maniac that was finishing his 400th marathon today! With the completion of the Walt Disney World Marathon, I'm only at 215. I'm just trying to complete enough (333) to get inducted into the Marathon Maniacs hall of fame. They had invited me to join them at their hotel room for some post race celebration, but I had to pass.
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