I left the house at about a quarter to 6. It was pretty much like driving out to LAX to catch a flight. I arrived at just before 6:30 am. I first drove over to the small parking lot on Mariposa Ave between Main St and Marketplace, but it was already full. My backup parking was on Richmond St next to El Segundo Public Library and Library Park, but that road was blocked off. Eventually, I made my way over to Oak Ave and found street parking just north of the El Segundo High School Football Field. From there, I walked over to the start line over at Main St and Palm Ave to pick up my race packet. The registration tables were set up in front of the El Segundo Performing Arts Center. While I was being assigned my bib number, Sergio, who is always volunteering called out my name. He told me that he wouldn't be running today since he's dealing with an injury. After picking up my race shirt and using a portapotty, I headed back to my car as the race wasn't scheduled to start until 8 am.
Race packet pick up
Race shirt
Back of race shirt
At about 7:30 am, I got ready and headed over to the starting area. I got in line to use a portapotty one last time. My goodness, I thought it was pretty early and those portapotties were already destroyed! People were peeing and pooping all over the seat! Thank goodness, I only had to do number 1. I felt bad for females. After taking care of that, I bumped into an older gentleman that I had originally met at the La Jolla Half Marathon a few years back. After chatting with him a bit, a couple of his friends showed up. One of his friends recommended that I should sign up for the Palisades Will Rogers 5k or 10k race that will be taking place on the 4th of July. As more and more runners showed up, I wished everyone a great race and positioned myself inside the corral area designated for general runners. Corral 1 was for elite runners.
The boy scouts were presenting the colors and the race organizers were making some last minute announcements, but most of them were not using the mics properly which resulted in most of it being inaudible. Unfortunately, that included the choir that was singing the national anthem. It was quite beautiful to hear when it eventually became quiet enough for us to hear them.
Finish: 1:00:19
Click here for my Garmin data.
Finish!
That was one hilly course! I was hoping to keep it under an hour, but fell a bit short of my goal. After crossing the finish line, I turned around to give a fellow runner a high 5. I had been leapfrogging with her for a better part of that second loop. I thought that I might have run out of real estate to catch her on that final stretch, but it turned out that I still had enough speed to overtake her at the end. I then received my finisher medal, a can of Liquid Death water, and a Big 5 drawstring bag with some flyers and coupons.
Finisher medal
Drawstring bag
I then ventured into that area with all of the vendor tents. I stopped at the Big 5 tent to spin the wheel as I wanted a nice looking cap. Even though my spin didn't land on it, the rep there was nice enough to let me have a cap. Eventually, I made my way over to the Kinecta ice cream truck. They were handing out free ice cream! The choices were Häagen-Dazs, Drumstick Sundae Cones, Otter Pops, Fruit Bar. or Fat Boy. When I got to the front of the line, I picked the Häagen-Dazs. It was that or the Fat Boy. I saw a bunch of people with coconuts, but I never saw where they were being passed out.
Post race goodies and stuff
In line for free ice cream!
I'm glad that I decided to run this race. I only found out about it through the USATF website. It was one of the races that was part of the 2023 USATF So Cal Grand Prix schedule. Also I'm all for supporting a good cause. I wouldn't mind running it again and hopefully next time, I'll be in better shape!
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