San Diego Beach & Bay Half Marathon 2019

Saturday 4/13
I arrived at the Sun Runner dirt parking lot at a little before 5:30 am. It was almost pitch black and it was hard to see the people that were there to direct parking. If I hadn't run this race last year, I would've been lost and clueless as to where to park.

This was my second time running this 3 year old race. I missed the inaugural race back in 2017. While the course wasn't one of my favorites, I do love that it's a well thought out and well organized race. The organizers really do have the runner's interest in mind. One of those things was that they have race day packet pick-up without having to pay an extra fee. They were also one of the races that assigned you a bib number during pick-up rather than pre-assigned you a number. After getting my bib, the race shirt, and a goodie bag, I went back to my car to relax a bit before returning to the starting area.

Race day packet pick-up

Race shirt

Goodies in race packet

While waiting in the starting area, I noticed that instead of wave 1, 2, 3, etc, they went with descriptive words and pace ranges. Since it was a relatively small field, I only saw 2 signs, joggers and sprinters. I know that there are those that are offended by the word, joggers. I'm not one of them. I definitely know when I'm jogging. :) I was planning to start at a 8 min per mile pace, so I positioned myself in between the 2 signs. My good friends from San Diego came out to spectate as they had friends and family running in the race. They had trouble finding parking, but they were able to get to the starting area in time to take a picture of me right before the start of the race.

Joggers!

Sprinters?

Waiting in the corral

The course was pretty much unchanged from last year. The only thing that I noticed that was different was that the starting line was moved back a bit so that it was visible from the packet pick-up grassy area.

Course map

Other than the slightly faster first mile, I kept the effort pretty even. Everything was going okay until about mile 8 when my pace started dropping. I was having issues with cramping in the right foot. I was forced to alter my stride a bit, but thankfully the walk breaks that I took helped alleviate the foot cramps.

Slow-mo final stretch to the finish line

Finish line

Finish: 1:55:31
Click here for my Garmin data.

Relive 'San Diego Beach & Bay Half Marathon'

My only goal for this race was to finish faster than last year's time (1:59:17), so I was pretty pleased with my finishing time even though the second half of the race got a little bit rough. I ended posting a time identical to what I had posted at the Encinitas Half Marathon a couple weekends ago. I guess I'm pretty consistent. :)

Finisher medal

After getting my finisher medal, I was given a paper bag full of snacks and a bottle of water. I met up with my friends for a little bit before heading out.

Finisher medal and post race goodies

It took a while to get out of the dirt parking lot. Once I got out, it was a pretty open drive onto the 5 freeway. I thought it was going to be an uneventful drive home. However I had a little bit of car trouble.

Several weeks ago, my coworker and I had noticed that the sidewall of the right front tire didn't look to be in very good shape. I checked the tire sensors and it showed the tire had less air than the other 3 tires, but it was maintaining tire pressure. Since it wasn't losing air, I kind of shrugged it off and kept driving on it to my races and for my daily work commute.

Unfortunately when I was driving through the Camp Pendleton area approaching San Onofre, my car notified me that the air in the right front tire was getting low. Instead of maintaining the air pressure as it normally does, it was actually getting lower. I didn't think too much about it since they were run-flat tires. However when I was rolling through Mission Viejo, the tire went completely flat and became undriveable. The tire definitely did not keep its shape, so I had to pull off of the freeway at Oso Parkway. At this point it was easier to make a right turn, so I headed in that direction and eventually pulled into the Sunrise Senior Living parking lot. The tire was completely trashed.

Since I don't have a spare tire, I used the Mini Roadside Assistance app to summon a tow. The app works but continues to be horrible in providing an ETA. It originally said that it would take about 2 hrs, but in reality it only took about 15 - 20 mins for the guy to reach me. Also apparently I'm only allowed to have my car towed to a Mini dealership. The closest was the nearby Irvine dealership. It happened to be where I bought the car. However their service center was not open on weekends. Fortunately there was an employee there that helped me out and was able to get my car checked in and give me a loaner car. I don't think he was actually working, but was there just to watch the Manchester United vs West Ham match. He had the game on the big TV screen.

Tire blew out

Early preview?

Getting a tow

Run to Remember LA Half Marathon 2019

Sunday 4/7
For some odd reason, the left ankle felt weird and achy for the rest of the day when I got home from the race yesterday. I was also dreading the idea of waking up early again for another race. The thought of taking a DNS had crossed my mind. Still I managed to get up, get ready, and head on out to Century City for the race. The venue for this race had been at The Grove since it first started back in 2016. This year, they moved it to the Westfield Century City shopping mall. I exited the 10 freeway off of Overland Ave. I took that up to Olympic Blvd where I took a right turn. Then I turned left on Century Park with the entrance to the parking structure on the right hand side. The parking instructions said to set up Smart Parking on the Westfield app prior to arrival which I did. Once I pulled up to the gate, the cameras scanned my license plate and let me in. I found a spot that was located really close to the exit to Santa Monica Blvd. I was parked just a little past 4:30 am.

Parking

Packet pick-up wasn't scheduled to open until 5 am, so I waited a bit in my car while eating my usual Nature's Bakery fig bars. I then took a slow walk over to the packet pick-up tables located on Avenue of the Stars just across from Macy's. It was kind of nice to see these streets shut down and quiet, devoid of cars.

Packet pick-up

Once the volunteers had been instructed on their tasks and ready to distribute bibs, us group of early birds that had shown up were able to get into any available line as participants were not pre-assigned a bib number. Once again, I'm glad that more and more races have adopted this method of bib distribution. After getting my bib, I went to the next table to get my race shirt. I always love their race shirts as the design has always been nice and they're made out of cotton. I really dislike polyester race shirts.

Bib

Race shirt

After that I went over to the legacy runners tent to pick up my legacy items. However there was a bit of a wait as they were still waiting for a legacy list to be printed out. Once they had verified our legacy status, we were given a legacy bib and another shirt identical to the race shirt. The only difference with this shirt was that they had printed the legacy bib on the backside of the shirt.

Legacy runners tent

Legacy bib

The race was scheduled to start at 6:30 am, so I went back to my car to wait. Fortunately there was a restroom located right next to where I was parked so I didn't have to take care of my morning business in one of the portapotties.

Start line

The starting corral was much more spacious at this venue. There was plenty of elbow space. I had looked at the course map prior to the race, but I didn't find an elevation profile. Although it turned out to be a pretty hilly course, it was a pretty similar course to years prior over at The Grove. Still it was an easier course than yesterday's half marathon, so I was able to finish in just under 2 hrs.

Course map

Very crowded at the finish line!

Finish: 1:58:27
Click here for my Garmin data.

Relive 'Run to Remember LA Half Marathon'

The finish line area was a complete clusterf*ck. This really wasn't the fault of the cadets that were marching in very large groups for the 10k. They swamped the volunteers that were passing out finisher medals. I remembered this being an issue as well at the old venue. They really need to make room in the finisher chute to accommodate more finishers! They should also place the medal distribution farther back, so the finishers aren't backing up into the finish line. It was just terrible organization as the finishers in the half marathon barely had any room to cross the finish line.

After I got my finisher medal, the crowding was exacerbated by the distribution of the commemorative coins that would go inside the finisher medal. They were also completely swamped as not everyone was lining up to get their coins. It took a while to get through that mess, but when I worked my way up there, I got a County of Los Angeles Fire Department coin. In the other two years that they've given out coins, I had gotten the LAPD and LAFD coins. They probably should go back to giving these coins out during packet pick-up.

Sweet finisher medal!

Commemorative coin

After I got the usual post race banana and drinks, I was pretty keen on getting out of the crowded finisher area sooner rather than later. On the way out of the parking structure, there was a long line for the exits. It would seem that almost no one set up Smart Parking. The instructions said that parking would be free if you set up Smart Parking. However when I used the express exit, the gate arm was raised as soon as it scanned my license plate. However the screen displayed that $10 was charged to my account. There was an attendant helping the other line. I asked her why it charged me when the instructions said that it was supposed to be free. However I don't think she understood English very well as she appeared really confused and just keep telling me to go.

Oh well.

When I got home, I checked my credit card account. There was definitely a $10 charge. After messaging the 'Run to Remember LA' Facebook page, I was given an email to contact to have that corrected. A few days later I checked again and saw a $10 refund.

Dole Great Race Pacific Half Marathon 2019

Saturday 4/6
The last time that I ran a race in this event was the Chesebro Half Marathon back in 2008. I've been wanting to run the Pacific Half Marathon for a while, but I guess I had waited too long. It used to be a road race with the course starting from Paramount Ranch. Unfortunately that venue was destroyed by the Woolsley fire back in November of last year. The new course now shares portions with the Chesebro Half Marathon.

As with the usual routine, I woke up early, gassed up the car, and headed out to Agoura Hills. At dark o'clock, the drive took just under an hour. I exited the 101 Freeway at Chesebro Rd and made a right turn onto Palo Comado Canyon Rd which turned into Driver Ave. I pulled in to the first lot that I came up to at Agoura High School which was next to Easterly Rd. It was the staff parking lot. It would turn out that I could've parked a bit closer at the larger parking lot next to The Performing Arts Education Center.

After relaxing a bit in the car, I made the walk over to Chumash Park to pick up my race packet located near the corner of Argos St and Parkheath Dr. I was there a little before 6 am, but there was already a line of people waiting to get in. Once they had opened the gates, we saw that there were separate tents for the Chesebro and Pacific Half Marathons. The lines were much shorter for the Pacific Half Marathon.

Packet pick-up

After I got my bib, I waited to get my race shirt and a drawstring bag. Most of the volunteers were busy helping the participants in line for the other race. The bag turned out to be one of the nicer bags that I've gotten at a race. Out of the hundreds of races that I've run, this might be only the 3rd drawstring bag of quality and worth keeping. Most of the bags that I've received have been cheap and destined for the donation bin.

Drawstring bag with goodies

Race shirt

The start of the race was at 7 am, so I didn't have too much time to dilly-dally. I headed back to my car to drop off the race packet and get changed before heading up to the start line over on Carell Ave. Once I got up to Thousand Oaks Blvd, I finally saw something that was familiar from the last time that I ran this race. It was the long line of portapotties. I guess I was there early enough to find a vacant one without having to wait in line.

Long line of portapotties

As I had mentioned earlier with the Paramount Ranch being destroyed by the recent fires, the start line of the Pacific Half Marathon was now shared with the Chesebro Half Marathon. The two races would be starting at the same time heading in opposite directions. The two race announcers were probably part time comedians as they had plenty of jokes leading up to the starting horn going off.

Double start line

Race announcers

New course for the Pacific Half

While the field for the 2 half marathons weren't particularly large, it was a bit of a tight squeeze through the starting arch for two races. I'm hoping that this was only a temporary solution. There are plans for Paramount Ranch to be rebuilt, so I'm hoping that they'll eventually move the start line back to that venue for the Pacific Half Marathon.

I was hoping to have finished in under 2 hrs, but I had no idea how difficult the uphill sections would be. There were sections where the climbing was steep and went on forever followed by steep declines. The combination was exposing the weaknesses that I had developed from consecutive weekends of racing. I had to be careful not to overdo it on the downhills. I guess I should've looked at the course profile and terrain as I was not expecting to run sections of the race on dirt trails. I seriously dreaded going out for the second loop. At the end of that second loop, it was such a nice welcome relief to make that right turn into Chumash Park for the finish line on the soft grass.

Finish line

Finish: 2:04:24
Click here for my Garmin data.

Relive 'Great Race Pacific Half Marathon'

With this race, I broke a streak of 15 straight half marathons under 2 hrs. I was okay with that since I know that I had done the best that I could and had to make sure that I was good enough for another half marathon tomorrow.

After crossing the finishing line, I got my finisher medal, banana, bottle of water, and a small can of Dole pineapple juice.

Finisher medal

On my way to get my post race food, I walked past a few vendor/exhibitor tents, but didn't really see anything worth checking out. They were giving out pancakes this year. I cannot remember what they were serving the last time I was here. I had not started writing things down back then. The lines weren't too long and they moved fairly quickly so I received my pancakes after a short wait. They had a volunteer stationed at the end of the line scooping butter for the pancakes. They also had some jam. While eating the pancakes I was watching kids climb the rock pillar. I'm pretty sure none of the runners took part in the rock climbing. They also had a hula-hoop tournament.

Line for post race food

Pancakes!

Rock climbing after a half marathon?

After I was done with my pancakes, I started heading back to my car for the drive home. The aid station near the high school was already torn down, but the cones were still there. The drive out wasn't too bad as there weren't too many cars coming and going. There was some high volume traffic on some section of the freeways though. Saturdays seem to always be busier these days probably with more people working on weekends.

Time to go home

Encinitas Half Marathon 2019

Friday 3/29
The race expo for this year was at the Encinitas Community & Senior Center. Since work was almost halfway down to Encinitas, I decided to go after work on Friday. This way I won't have to make another separate trip on Saturday just to pick up my bib having to drive down yet again on Sunday for the race.

There was some work traffic for the trip down to Encinitas, but it wasn't too bad. Most of the crazy traffic was actually in the parking lot of the senior center. I think many people had the same idea and were there to get the packet pick-up out of the way before hurrying home for dinner.

The expo was pretty small. Everything was held in one room. After picking up my bib, I got my race shirt and a drawstring bag with some goodies. Part of the goodies was a mug where you can mark off the states where you've run. Nice idea, but the mug looked kind of cheap.

Graffiti wall

Race shirt and expo goodies

After I was done with the expo, I drove to the nearby McDonald's for a quick dinner before heading back home. I was planning to get in on the free 6 pc McNugget "when the Dodgers scores 6 runs" deal, but I was South enough that only the Padres promotion was showing up on the mobile app. They get free fries the next day when the Padres win. Unfortunately according to the app, this particular McDonald's was not participating on the deal. Bummer. I had to settle for the "buy 1 sandwich at regular price and get a 2nd sandwich at 25 cents" deal. I went with the usual Quarter pounder with cheese and a Big Mac.

McDonald's

Quarter pounder with cheese and Big Mac

I was kind of unhappy that the McDonald's in Encinitas wasn't participating in the local sports promotions, so instead of going straight home, I stopped at the one in Brea to get my McNuggets and fries. :)

Sunday 3/31
My tank was pretty empty, so I stopped by the gas station to get gas. Normally it's pretty quiet that early in the morning. However when I pulled in and was ready to pump my gas, some guy that I didn't recognize kept yelling, "where are you going?" I looked around to see if he was yelling at someone else. Stranger danger! Eventually I told him that I was headed down to San Diego. I'm sure I had a very confused look on my face, so he finally told me that he volunteered with me at the LA Big 5k race last weekend. That bit of info jogged my memory because I recalled him telling me that he also lived in Diamond Bar. What a small world.

I arrived in Encinitas a little before 5:30 am. The map that they provided for suggested parking was a bit vague and confusing as to where we should park. Last year I parked at the Encinitas Station, but it didn't seem like that was one of the lots shaded in on the map designated for parking. So this year, I opted for the city hall parking at the corner of D St and Vulcan Ave.

Since the race was scheduled to start at 7:30 am, I walked over to the starting area to check things out as the course was changed a bit to take out the short steep hill. I also took the time to use one of the portapotties which was sort of tucked away on the North side of the Moonlight Beach parking lot. Once I was done taking care of the usual pre-race business, I went back to my car to change and grab my handheld bottle.

Moonlight State Beach

This year's course started at the corner of 4th St and C St heading South on 4th St. The starting area was a bit chaotic as they've added a 5k.  The 5k had a later starting time with their corral along C St. The half marathon corral extended North from the end of C St into the Moonlight Beach parking lot. While sitting down at the curb wrapped in my mylar blanket, I bumped into the usual suspects that I would see at the races.

Start line

The usual suspects

Half Fanatics

I think I started the race off too fast. What else is new? :) The pace felt good and somewhat comfortable, so I went with it. After the weakness that I felt in my left hip last weekend at the LA Marathon, I was a bit cautious on the downhill sections. The first 4 and a quarter miles or so took me down to Solana Beach. After the turnaround on Plaza St, I retraced my steps back to D St. I was planning to take walk breaks every half hour. However after reaching mile 6, I had to take a walk break. It could've been the cotton t-shirt that I was wearing, but I was definitely starting to overheat. I ran up the short steep climb on K St, but I had to walk once I got up to the top. Once I reached D St, I turned right to head for the out and back on Coast Highway 101. The turnaround was at Avocado St at about 10 and 3 quarter miles. I was beginning to struggle during this stretch as the longer I was out there, the warmer it got. I was running primarily around a guy named George. It would seem that everyone in the race knew him, calling out his name. Eventually I told him that he was like Norm at Cheers! I think he told me that he owned or worked at a running store in Carlsbad.

Finish line

Finish: 1:55:31
Click here for my Garmin data.

Relive 'Encinitas Half Marathon'

After crossing the finish line, I received a pretty sweet looking finisher medal. While I was hoping to have finished closer to 1:50, I was okay with my finishing time. It felt good to move faster even for only the first 10k.

Finisher medal

We were given quite a bit of post race goodies and drinks which included a muffin, boxed water, TruMoo chocolate milk, and Harmless coconut water. I ended up getting a drawstring bag from the StateFarm booth just so I could free up my hands. I had to answer a few survey questions in order to get the bag. She also gave me one of the towels when I asked her for it even though we were only supposed to get 1 item.

Non-medicinal muffins :)

After I was done eating the muffin and using one of the portapotties, I started making my way back to my car. Along the way, I looked for the spectator that was asking for a beer ticket during the final stretch of the race. She was cheering on the side of the Coast Highway 101. When I gave her my beer ticket, she was so appreciative that she gave me a hug. De nada! The beer garden was just across the street. They had a rather large statue made of plastic junk that resembled a Buddha statue.

Beer Garden and plastic Buddha

I guess parking spaces in the area was in high demand as someone wanted my spot as soon as I got to my car. Along the way home, I once again stopped at the McDonald's in Brea to pick up lunch. I placed an order via the mobile phone app, but it gave me an error when I tried to check in. The app told me to speak to an employee to complete the order. Before doing so, I placed an order on their kiosk for a McChicken sandwich and a McDouble for $3 as part of their current limited time offer. I then spoke to an employee, but she was completely useless as she knew nothing about mobile ordering and was more fascinated with my McDonald's t-shirt. I went ahead and canceled the order on my app and tried again. Fortunately there were no errors with the second attempt.

Post race McDonald's