Santa Barbara Wine Country Half Marathon 2024

Friday 5/10
Since Solvang wasn't too far away compared to my recent road trip up to Monterey, I didn't start my drive until after putting in a couple of hours of work from home. I arrived at Buellton at just before 12:30 pm. I pulled into the McDonald's parking lot as I had planned to get something cheap for lunch. There was not one good deal on the mobile app! For me, McDonald's just was not worth it if I'm having to pay full price. Instead I decided to drive over to the nearby Starbucks to get a bite to eat. On the mobile app, I ordered a grande vanilla sweet cream nitro cold brew and a turkey, provolone, pesto on ciabatta sandwich.

Grande vanilla sweet cream nitro cold brew and turkey, provolone, pesto on ciabatta

After finishing my lunch, I hopped back in the car and drove into Solvang. I found street parking on Oak St near 1st St and walked over to Solvang Park to pick up my race packet. After getting my bib, race shirt, and some free samples, I took a picture with Hans Christian Andersen and used the park restroom before heading back to my car.

Race shirt

Race swag

Hans Christian Andersen

I then drove over to WorldMark Solvang to see if my unit was ready for me to check in a few hours early. Fortunately, it was. I was assigned to unit #1206 and given a parking pass to display in my car. This was only my second time staying at this property and I very much liked that both times, they did not pester me to attend an owner update. I seriously hope that they keep it that way.

WorldMark Solvang

View from balcony

I vegged out in my room until about 4:30 pm before I went out to get dinner. I decided to check out Ramen Kotori. Sure it was kind of weird to eat Japanese food in a Danish town in California, but I gave it a shot. I placed my order at the restaurant window/door and paid for my food before finding an open table outside. Once my food was ready, an employee brought it out to me. My order was for the shoyu ramen with pork shoulder and gyoza. It was a surprisingly good bowl of ramen! Even the gyoza wasn't bad. I was definitely glad that I decided to come here! Here's their story on their website.

Solvang Windmill

Ramen Kotori

Shoyu ramen with pork shoulder and gyoza

On the walk back to my room, I did a little bit of window shopping and came across my favorite Disney character, Stitch! Back at my room, it was the usual routine. I laid out my flat runner, took a shower, and then watched some WWE Friday Night SmackDown before calling it a night.

Romero Britto Disney's Stitch Figurine

Flat runner

Saturday 5/11
I got ready and left my room at just a little after 6 am. The morning air wasn't too chilly, but I decided to warm up a bit and jog over to the starting line next to Solvang Elementary School. Once I had reached the corner of Atterdag Rd and Mission Dr, I slowed to a walk. While waiting for the 7 am start, I ended up chatting with Bob Morris of A Snail's Pace. I met him at the Rose Bowl Half Marathon earlier this year to pick up my age-group award for the SoCal USTAF Grand Prix Series. My friend Almi was pacing the 2 hour group for them in this race.

Almi

Start line

Having run this race once before, I was better prepared for this particular race course. About 2/3 of a mile into the race, there was a short steep climb. I tried to stay out of the way for faster runners to run on by. For the next 5 or so miles, it would be a steady climb up to Los Olivos. I kept those miles at just under 9 minutes per mile. I ignored with other runners were doing as I knew to save my legs for the upcoming Corkscrew Hill at just after the 10k mark. It was slow going up that winding hill, but I was able to get over it without having to take a walk break. I tried to make up some time in the next 4 miles as most of that stretch was downhill. I had to make sure not to overdo it as my lower back and hips were still having a hard time handling downhills. I was very close to running on empty as I covered the incline during mile 12. Then those tiny rollers along Chalk Hill Rd really zapped whatever little remaining pep out of legs. I did what could to keep grinding, but runners that I had passed earlier were able to return the favor leading up to the turn for the final stretch.

Finish line video

Finish: 1:53:07
Click here for my Garmin data.

This year, I was ready for the Corkscrew Hill at around the halfway point. However, I had totally forgotten about those late rollers in the last 2 miles. While I never did take any walk breaks, my pace slowed way down during those last few climbs. For a rather hilly course, I was quite pleased with how my legs handled those tough climbs. I had beaten my only other previous time (2:00:19) by 7 minutes and 12 seconds.

After receiving my finisher medal, a bag of post race goodies, and a flower, I waited at the final stretch at just before the finish line to get a pic of my friend. Unfortunately, I had been sweating so much that my phone was too wet and temporarily unusable! Somehow all of the sweat had turned down the brightness of the screen to the lowest possible setting! On the way back to my room, I took a medal picture with the iconic windmill in the background.

Finisher medal

Post race goodies

Finisher medal at Windmill

Eventually, I made my way back to my room. I got cleaned up and vegged out for a couple of hours. At about 11:45 am, I went out to get lunch. I made my way over to the Copenhagen Sausage Garden. I got in line and placed my order for the 3 sausage sampler and some German potato salad. My choices for the sausages were bockwurst, currywurst, and bratwurst. I guess I went down the German route for lunch. It was picnic style seating where everyone was trying to get a table underneath some shade. Since I was by myself, I decided to just stand off to the side until my food was brought out before finding a table. While I waited, I got some mustard, curry ketchup, and sauerkraut for my sausages. Fortunately, I was able to find a spot underneath some shade. For a Danish restaurant, they had some pretty solid German food!

Sauerkraut

Sauces

3 sausage sampler (bockwurst, currywurst, bratwurst) and German potato salad

Later that evening for dinner, I drove over to The Hitching Post II, to reward myself with a nice delicious steak. Last time, they were able to accommodate me without having a reservation. For this trip, I had made a reservation for 5 pm just in case. After being seated, I ordered a 10 oz New York steak, medium rare, with a baked potato. I got the accompaniment salad with blue cheese.

Salad with blue cheese

10 oz New York steak and baked potato

Sunday 5/12
Sleeping on a lumpy Murphy bed started taking its toll as my lower back was feeling pretty sore. I'm sure running a half marathon didn't help. I got ready and checked out at about 7:45 am. After dropping off the card keys at the front desk, I hopped in the car for the drive home. Per the onboard navigation, I headed east on Mission Dr (highway 246) which turned into San Marcos Pass Rd (highway 154). About 3/4th of the way to Santa Barbara, the fog that had rolled inland was quite thick. I pulled into the Five Points Shopping Center at about 8:30 am to charge the car at the Tesla Supercharger. Per the usual, I walked over to the Starbucks to get some coffee while I waited for the car to finish charging. I noticed that the lower back had really tightened up on the drive over. Thankfully, I did not come across another homeless person looking for a handout. On the mobile app, I ordered a grande blonde vanilla latte. After finishing my drink, I used their restroom before heading back to the car. The remainder of the drive took about 2 hours to cover.

Tesla Supercharger Five Points, Santa Barbara, CA

Grande blonde vanilla latte

OC Half Marathon 2024

Saturday 5/4
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.