After work, I drove out to Huntington Beach for the race packet pick-up. The process was pretty much the same as years prior. The expo information on the website stated that parking in the beach lot would be $15 on all days including Friday and Saturday. I messaged their Facebook account to confirm, so I know to bring cash or look to park elsewhere. Thankfully their response was that parking for the expo would be free.
In the weeks leading up to the race, I checked on the website to confirm my legacy status and qualifications for bonus medals. It would turn out that once again, they were not showing my 2017 results. After I emailed them, they manually added me to the legacy list. I've been returning to this event for over a decade. I first ran the half marathon in 2007 - 2008 and then the full marathon from 2009 - 2018. This year I switched back over to the half marathon.
Once I arrived, I picked up my bib at one of the Beach Cities Challenge & Longboard Legacy tables. Instead of a pre-assigned bib number, they assigned me a bib number at the expo. Once again, I like this current trend. It definitely helps with the wasted bibs due to no-shows. That was followed by picking up the long sleeve race shirt and a sturdy reusable tote bag.
Bib pick-up
After getting the race shirt, I started heading through the expo. Eventually I got to the Longboard Legacy Club area located at the back of the expo tent to pick up my legacy shirt.
Expo
Legacy area
Legacy table
After getting my long sleeve legacy shirt, I started going through the rest of the expo. I'm starting to notice that more vendors are giving out samples of their products at expos. There used to be a time when we would get absolutely nothing. I stopped at the Running Universal booth to check out the medal for the new upcoming Minions 5k. I kind of wished that I was running it, but it fell on the same day as the Santa Barbara Wine Country half marathon. I asked the reps there if they were planning to have races longer than a 5k. Their response was that it was definitely being looked into and considered. That's a good sign. Hopefully they'll put on a half marathon.
Expo haul
Before leaving the expo, I ended up signing up for next year's race. Once again I elected for the half marathon. The early pricing was $75, but with my legacy status, they knocked off another $5. With the extra registration fees it came out to $77.03 which was still a great price for a half marathon.
Sign up for next year
Saturday 2/2
It was rainy day, but I took advantage of the day off and stopped by Reef Tropical Fish to buy some new fish for my tank at work. Originally I was going to buy a Buttikoferi, but they were already sold out since my last visit. As my back-up, I was going to buy a couple of Frontosa Cichlids, but then I noticed that they had Duboisi Cichlids in the same tank. All I remember of them from back in the day was that they were pretty rare. I ended up getting one of each.
Duboisi Cichlid
Frontosa Cichlid
After dropping them off in the tank at work, I then headed over to the AMC movie theater at The District to catch an afternoon showing of They Shall Not Grow Old. Since I didn't have lunch yet, I used my AMC rewards for a large bucket of popcorn. Just let me tell you that this wasn't a popcorn type of movie. Some scenes will make most people lose their appetite. They did an awesome job restoring old footage of World War I. I would recommend this movie to any history buff.
Here was my flat runner for tomorrow's race. I also planned to wear my arm warmers as the weather forecast said that it was going to be a chilly day.
Flat runner
Sunday 2/3
I got ready, filled up the gas tank, and started my drive out to Huntington Beach at about a quarter to 6. It felt a little weird to be heading out a couple of hours later than I normally would if I were running the full marathon. There was so much traffic on Beach Blvd for free beach parking. I drove all the way down to about Newland St before there were empty spots. Thankfully there were volunteers directing traffic so the process was slow, but done in an organized fashion.
Shortly after getting parked, I got my stuff in order and started jogging to the starting area. I didn't realize that I had forgotten my mylar blanket until I was almost there. To get out of the chill, I ducked into the Hyatt Regency hotel. I waited in the lobby until it got closer to the start of the race.
Half marathon corral
It didn't take me long to find a familiar face in the starting corral. I even bumped into an old friend who happened to be a co-pacer for the 1:50 pace group.
CharliePro pacing 1:50
The race started at 7:45 am. I wanted to give myself a chance at running a sub 1:50, so I stayed ahead of the 1:50 pace group. Unfortunately my pace dropped off after mile 7. They caught and overtook me at about mile 8, right before the u-turn on PCH. Once again I was having issues with the shoes. The upper part of the left shoe was just digging into my ankle. I keep trying to squeeze more miles out of these pairs, but I should really retire them or just use them for short mileage training runs.
Finish line
Finish: 1:56:21
Click here for my Garmin data.
After crossing the finish line, I got my medal and hung out with my friend for a bit. Eventually we moved along in the finisher chute where we picked up some drinks and a bag of post race snacks.Relive 'Surf City Half Marathon'
Medal and post-race food
Karen
I waited for my friend just after the finisher photos area. I knew he wasn't too far behind. We just had to get a pic together since we were wearing the same INKnBURN shirt.
Latino Heat
While I had a huge fade in about the last 4 miles, I still ran better than the 2 previous times that I've run the half marathon here. I'm thinking that for the foreseeable future, I'll just stick to running the half marathon.
2019: 1:56:21
2008: 2:17:30
2007: 2:05:54
I didn't have any bonus medals to pick up, so I headed back to my car for the drive home.
Later that evening, I watched the first half of the Super Bowl. The game was predicted to be a very high scoring game, but it turned out being a big defensive struggle. To top it off, the commercials were all pretty mediocre. We went out for dinner and caught most of the second half at Ninja Sushi. There was a big group of what appeared to be friends of the restaurant owner having their own Superbowl party. There was one loud guy cheering for the Patriots. He appeared to be drunk as there wasn't really anything worth cheering. :)
Dinner special at Ninja Sushi
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