I got up early to catch the 4:30 am Everton v. Spurs match. It was great to see Richarlison score a brace against his old team. However, the match ended in a 2-2 draw with Everton managing to get a stoppage time goal. So Spursy!
Although Bayern Munich v. Mönchengladbach was on at 6:30 am and 3 EPL matches at 7:00 am, I opted to watch the US Olympic Marathon Team Trials that took place over in Orlando. The live coverage was on Peacock. While I was grateful that I already had a subscription, it was a terrible presentation of the race! While the actual coverage and commentary were good, there were so many interruptions with a screen saying that coverage will resume shortly. Why couldn't they just kept the camera on the action the entire time? Showing some commercials instead of that screen would have been a better option! For the winners, I only know of Conner Mantz and Emily Sisson. It's good to see a new crop of American runners in the marathon. I cannot wait to see them in action in Paris!
- Top 3 Men:
- Conner Mantz 2:09:05
- Clayton Young 2:09:06
- Leonard Korir 2:09:57
- Top 3 Women:
- Fiona O'Keefe 2:22:10
- Emily Sisson 2:22:42
- Dakotah Lindwurm 2:25:31
Poor coverage with too many interruptions!
Top 3 Men
Top 3 Women
After eating lunch, I hopped in the car to finally head to Huntington Beach for the race expo. I took the usual route, exiting at Beach Blvd off of the 22 freeway. Per the usual, I parked in the lot across the way from the Hyatt Regency Resort. Since most of my friends had already picked up their race packets, I wasn't expecting to bump into any of my friends. After I picked up my bib, a long sleeve race shirt, and a long sleeve Longboard Legacy Club shirt, I bumped into my friend, Tracy. She saw me while I was looking for my name on the participants name wall.
Race expo
Race shirt pick-up
Long sleeve race shirt
Long sleeve Longboard Legacy Club shirt
Back of Longboard Legacy Club shirt
Participants name wall
Found my name
Closer view
Ran into Tracy
After snapping a quick selfie, I then continued on with the rest of the expo. I came up to the registration table for next year's race. Unfortunately, after 18 consecutive years running at this event, I will not be able to attend next year. The Disneyland Half Marathon will be on the same date in 2025.
Registration prices for next year
Next I came across Nadia up on the small guest speaker stage. She was talking about how we can train our gut to fuel more efficiently for our endurance races. I also saw my friend Michael Schwartz sitting in the front row. On the way out, I got a $5 promo card for Dunkin'. Before heading back to my car, I decided to check out the VW buses.
Nadia
VW buses
Sunday 2/4
The most recent weather forecast looked very promising. If accurate, it looked like the storm would hit hours after the race. I got ready and left the house a little before 4:30 am. I arrived at the Beach Blvd/PCH intersection right at 5 am. Having run this race many times, I knew to stay on the left turn lane and head straight. The center lane that's actually designated for heading straight was mostly for people wanting to park in the paid parking lot. As I got near the gate, I noticed that it was closed so I queued up in the line of cars. After sitting there for about 10 minutes, a Huntington State Beach park ranger drove by and told me that I needed to head down to the Magnolia St entrance as the Beach Blvd entrance would not be open until 6 am. I inquired about the Newland St entrance. He said that that one was closed as well. As someone that has no problem following instructions, I started heading down to Magnolia. As I drove by, I noticed that the Newland St entrance was indeed closed. However when I came up to the Magnolia entrance, the line was much shorter, but the gate was still down. It was a short wait before they opened. I confirmed with the gate attendant that we could head north to park closer to the Beach Blvd entrance.
Eventually, I met up with my friend, Albert. We ended up parking pretty close to each other. He was one of those cars waiting at the Newland St entrance. We walked over to the Hyatt Regency to wait for the start of the marathon. At about 6 am, we started heading over to the start line as my friend needed to check in his jacket at gear check. Along the way, we ran into a marathoner that was having trouble figuring out how to get down to the street. We had him follow us. I ran into my friend Ted at the gear check area. I also ran into the usual suspects as I waited for the marathon to start at 6:30 am.
Albert
Beautiful sunrise
Joe!
Marathon Maniacs, Michael Rhodes and Jesse Qiao
Pic from Robert
Big time Kobe fan, Mitch
After sending off the marathoners, I headed back to the Hyatt Regency to wait as the half marathon was scheduled to start at 7:45 am. This hotel always puts out bananas and bottles of water in the lobby for runners to take. Even if we weren't staying there, the employees would insist that we take a banana. Eventually, I bumped into my friend while waiting there. After using the restroom one last time, we headed over to the starting corral. While we were waiting in the corral for the start of our race, we noticed that there was a never ending line of 5k stragglers that had yet to start their race! I'm going to guess that they all had a hard time with parking.
Pre-race banana
Starting corral
The race started on time at 7:45 am. My friend and I didn't start very close to the front, so it was a bit congested during that first mile. My plan was to go out at a 8:15 min/mile pace and to hold that for as long as I could. The first mile was a tad too quick at 8 flat. I followed the next 2 miles with 8:10 and 8:08. Once I got to that climb up Garfield Ave, I took my one and only walk break as I was ahead of schedule. With that walk break, I reached mile 4 in 8:48. That was followed by 8:02 and 8:07 taking me back onto PCH. My next 2 miles were 8:33 and 8:42 which took me out to mile 8 and the turnaround. My pace slowed, but the effort felt the same. I was hoping to make up some of that time, but now I was running into a headwind with some uphill miles just up ahead. I was quickly passed by the 1:50 pace group shortly after making the turnaround. As to be expected, my pace continued to slow with each mile (8:48, 8:51, 9:08) until getting through the bulk of the climb at mile 11. Although I didn't take any walk breaks, my right hip was feeling quite weak while covering those miles. I didn't have much left during the last 2.1 miles (9:12, 9:00, 1:16), but once I had gotten to that final stretch, I emptied my tank with whatever I had left.
Finish: 1:52:41
Click here for my Garmin data.
Right after crossing the finish line, I was mostly disappointed with how much I had faded after the turnaround at mile 8. I was hoping to finish this race in under 1:50, but came up short by a few minutes. A combination of hip issues, a stiff headwind, and suboptimal pacing, I came up short of my goal. Instead of focusing too much on the negatives, I had to remind myself that I had run fast enough to set a new course PR.
Finish line
After receiving my finisher medal, I continued along the finisher chute. I received a bottle of water, a banana, a bunch of various snacks, and a small colorful towel. Near the exit of the finisher chute, I picked up 2 small cartons of TruMoo before heading over to the Hyatt Regency. It was my usual routine to head over there to drink the chocolate milk and clean up my face a bit in their restroom before hitting the road. My friend was a bit late showing up to the race, so she missed me crossing the finish line. However, she had a gift for me. We met up at one of the Hyatt Regency fountains. She gave me a fantuan. It was one of the best things to eat after running a race. All that was missing was some hot soy milk.
Finisher medal and post race goodies
Ichi
Fantuan
As I had mentioned earlier, this was my 18th consecutive year running at this event. For the first 2 years, I ran the half marathon. In 2007, it was still called the Pacific Shoreline Marathon! Then I switched over to the marathon for the next 10 years from 2009-2018. Then in 2019, I made the switch back to the half marathon. Counting this year, I've completed the half marathon a total of 8 times. Although my streak will come to an end, I'm not too bummed about it. All good things come to an end. I've run hundreds of races and it would be good to run something new from time to time.
2024: 1:52:41
2023: 2:14:28
2022: 1:59:08
2021: 2:12:53
2020: 2:02:50
2019: 1:56:22
2018: 4:52:31
2017: 5:00:16
2016: 5:30:27
2015: 4:34:01
2014: 5:06:44
2013: 4:49:58
2012: 5:17:04
2011: 5:20:44
2010: 4:57:12
2009: 4:37:59
2008: 2:17:30
2007: 2:05:54
Name change to Surf City for 2008
Early evening, I was supposed to join my friends to celebrate a friend's 50th birthday at BLK Earth Sea Spirits. Unfortunately, plans got changed for me outside of my control, so I had to stay home with my special needs younger brother. On top of that, Governor Newsom had declared a State emergency and all of the local officials highly suggested that people to stay home, if at all possible to not be out driving when the storm hits.
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