Originally, I was going to attend the race expo on Friday after working a half day. However, I had forgotten that the expo didn't start until 4 pm! I was also getting worried in the days leading up to this race as my body was taking forever to recover. It wasn't until my routine walk this morning that my legs actually felt like they had finally recovered from the tough marathon last weekend! After eating lunch, I hopped in the car and drove down to Costa Mesa to pick up my race packet. Per the usual, I parked at TeWinkle Park across the street as I didn't want to pay for parking at the OC Fairground.
The packet pick-up process was well streamlined just as it has been in the years prior that I've run this race. After picking up my race bib, I stopped by the legacy table to get my gift. This year, it was a nice water bottle. We had a choice between white or blue. Both colors looked good, but eventually, I went with blue as it was my favorite color. As I was picking up my race shirt and chatting with my volunteer friend, Sergio, my other friend, Robert, spotted me. As we took our obligatory selfies, our mutual friends started showing up. We got selfies with Willie, Dennis, and Rudy. It was good to see Dennis again. We asked if he was going to return to the Disneyland races with his funny signs that reminded us just how much we had paid per mile.
Legacy gift
Robert
Robert, Willie, and Dennis
Robert and Rudy
Race shirt
Back of race shirt
Robert and I went through the rest of the expo. He got in line to prepay for parking at the OC Fairground, but I was going to opt for free parking near the starting area at Fashion Island. After going down every row to check out each of the vendor booths, we then went our separate ways.
Participants name wall
Found my name
Expo haul
Sunday 5/5
I got ready and left the house at about 3:45 am for the drive down to Newport Beach. It was actually drizzling a bit on the drive down. By the time that I had reached my destination and had parked the car next to Mariners Escrow at about 4:20 am, the rain had let up. I then walked over to the Starbucks inside Fashion Island to get some coffee to go with my CLIF protein bar. Per the usual, I placed an order for a grande blonde vanilla latte on the mobile app. After eating my breakfast and using their restroom, I walked over to the start line area to watch the start of the marathon.
Grande blonde vanilla latte
The marathon had 2 waves. The first wave started as advertised at 5:30 am. After getting a video of both waves and saying hi to my friend that was the sweeper aka the balloon lady, I used one of the portapotties and jogged back to my car to get ready for my half marathon. The half marathon was scheduled to start at 6:30 am.
Marathon wheelchair start
Marathon corral A start
Marathon corral B start
Sweeper
On my way to the start line, I bumped into the usual suspects at the portapotties. After exchanging pleasantries and getting some selfies, I headed over to the starting corral where I ran into some more familiar faces.
Karen
Ginny
Start line
Marcia
Dexter
Nadia and Karen
I started the race running right around the 1:50 pacers. With the big downhill on mile 2, I surged a little ahead of them. I made sure not to overdo it as running downhills seem to still aggravate either my lower back or my hips. Once the course had flattened out a bit, I had to ease off on the gas. Since I was racing one of my workers, I didn't want to blow up late in the race. The 1:50 pacers caught and overtook me as we turned onto PCH approaching mile 7. The climb up Dover Dr was steep, but I was able to grind through without taking a walk break. Normally, I tend to fade while I make my way through Castaways Park. This year with all of the daily hilly walks around my neighborhood, I was able to continue on without the usual fade. There were some short climbs here and there as I made my way over to the final big climb up Irvine Ave at around mile 11. Most years, I dreaded this section. However, this year it wasn't quite as daunting running up this hill. It still took a lot of the zip out of my legs. I didn't have much left in the tank for that final mile.
Finish: 1:51:47
Click here for my Garmin data.
Just as I crossed the finish line, I happened to walk right into a photo that the race photographer took of the 1:50 pacers and their group. My friend, a pacer extraordinaire, was one of those pacers. I kind of felt like a poser as I wasn't able to keep up with them. :)
Coming into this race, I was hoping to get closer to running a sub 1:50. Although I came up short by about 2 minutes, it was still good enough for a personal best for this particular half marathon course. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you want to look at it, my coworker that I was racing ended up pulling his hamstring. My time had easily beaten his time of 2:38:11.
Today's race brought my total number of OC finishes to 10:
Marathon (4): 2007, 2014, 2015, 2017
Half marathon (6): 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
1:50 pacers
Almi
After getting my finisher medal, I continued down the finisher chute where I received more post race drinks and snacks than I could carry! It was quite crowded once I exited the finisher chute. I wish that family and friends would back up and give runners some room to exit! I headed over to pick up my Beach Cities Challenge medal. I then headed back to the finisher chute to see if I could spot some of my friends. I was able to spot a few: Karen, Richard (Blingwhore), Nadia, and Nadia's dad, Jorge Sr. I met up with my friend, Stacy, over at the legacy lounge. I drank my 2 chocolate milks and took a selfie with her before I started heading out.
Finisher medal
Finisher medal and post race goodies
Beach Cities Challenge
Stacy
Along the way out, I tried to give away my beer tickets, but I couldn't find any takers. I actually then bumped into my other coworker that ran for Team WorldVision. He told me that the line was for picking up gear bags. No wonder I couldn't find any takers for my beer tickets! I thought it was the line to get into the post race beer area! Just further down the line, I found Luis and Charles. Now, they were more than happy to take my beer tickets!
Jim
Luis and Charles
I then headed over to the bus pick-up location next to The Pacific Amphitheatre to catch a ride back to my car. Unlike prior years, there wasn't a bus in sight for quite some time. The only buses nearby were for hotels. Several of my fellow runners eventually gave up and headed out to Fair Dr to catch an Uber ride. For those of us that were extra patient, 2 school buses eventually came by to pick us up. We could see them across the street that entire time, but they were just inching along.
After getting dropped off at Fashion Island, I headed over to my car. Originally, I had thought about getting brunch over at the Muldoon's Irish Pub. However I was feeling a bit tired and worn out, so I decided to just head home.
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