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.
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.Relive 'Great Race Pacific Half Marathon'
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
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