I worked a half day before driving out to Agua Dulce to pick up my race packet at Vasquez Rocks Park. The drive out took about 1.5 hours. Coming out here reminded me of that episode of The Big Bang Theory: The Bakersfield Expedition where Leonard, Sheldon, Howard and Raj stop here to take some Star Trek pictures while on their way to the Bakersfield Comic Con. They were left stranded here after their car was stolen. It was quite windy when I was here. Not looking forward to that for the race! We received a nice small bag as part of our race packet. Before heading out, I took some pictures of the rocks. Unfortunately, I did not run into Gorn! :)
Packet pick-up
Race shirt
Back of race shirt
Design on the other side of bag
Did not run into Gorn! :)
From there, I drove out to the Chick-fil-A in nearby Santa Clarita for dinner. Per the usual, I placed my order on the mobile app for a grilled chicken sandwich meal. I got it with a Greek yogurt parfait with granola and a large Sunjoy. I decided to just eat my meal there.
Grilled chicken sandwich meal
Greek yogurt parfait with granola
After finishing my meal, I drove over to the other side of the Santa Clara River to charge the car at the nearby Tesla Supercharger station at the Bridgeport Marketplace. The main bank of 24 charging stalls had a max charging rate of 150 kW. I got one of the 8 stalls in the smaller bank of charging stalls next to the Wells Fargo drive thru ATM. Those had a max charging rate of 250 kW. While waiting for the car to finish charging, I checked out the nearby restaurants while finishing my drink.
After the car was done charging, I drove over to the nearby Super 8 on Sierra Highway. I got checked-in and was assigned room #226. I found everything in the room to be clean and in good working order. It was definitely more than adequate for a one-nighter.
View of the parking lot from my room
After I got settled in, I turned on the TV to watch game 1 of the ALCS. Kiké got 4 hits and 2 RBI's. Man, I miss that guy being on the Dodgers' roster. He's such a versatile player with a great fun personality. Boston at one point had a 3-1 lead, but eventually they lost to those Trashtros, 4-5.
ALCS game #1: Boston vs. Houston
Kiké Hernandez
I laid out my flat runner for tomorrow's race before taking a shower and calling it a night.
Flat runner
Saturday 10/16
We had a couple of parking options for the race. Instead of parking in a dirt lot for $5 and taking a short bus ride, I opted for free parking on the roadside on Escondido Canyon Rd just outside of the Vasquez Rocks Park. I arrived at about 6 am and stayed inside my car until just before daybreak. At about 6:30 am, I got my stuff together and started walking over to the starting area which was the same location as yesterday's packet pick-up. Along the way I saw signs along the south side of the road. It didn't seem like anyone was supposed to park there. I talked to the race director before the start of the race and he told me that that no parking sign was for non-race people aka unauthorized vehicles. I'm sure that they'll clarify that in future years for their final race instructions.
No parking for non-race aka unauthorized people
After reaching the starting area, I got in line to use one of the portapotties. Then I milled around, passing the time until the 7:30 am start time. They had up a banner with participants' names. Since it was a small race, I was able to find my name pretty quickly.
Participant name banner
Found my name
When I looked at the course map prior to the race, I noticed that there was going to be several gnarly climbs. So I went into this race with the strategy of running the downhills and flat sections and taking it easy on the climbs. I ran at a hard effort for the first 1.25 miles until the climbing started. It was pretty cool to see a barefoot runner! It turned out that this was his very first half marathon and he was fast! There were some pretty strong wind gusts, so I had to turn my cap around or risk having it blown off!
Barefoot runner on trails!
Beginning of the climbs
Going up...
Still going up...
Top of that first major climb
More runners behind me
Once I got to the top of that first climb at about 3.5 miles, it was time to put away the phone and run as there was a stretch of downhill. I took a brief walk break after reaching the aid station at about mile 4 before continue to press on. That downhill was followed by another half mile uphill climb. I ended up passing a couple of runners on the downhills, but they would pass me on the uphill climbs. This would continue on for the majority of the race. When I came up to the aid station at about mile 6.6, I got to say hi to my friend who is the wife of the race director. We went to the same high school, but not at the same time. She was there a few years or so before I showed up. I have not seen her in years. I took a gel before continuing on. After reaching mile 8.25 or so, there was a good 2 mile stretch of gentle downhill before reaching the black tunnel/underpass. Before reaching the tunnel, I came up to another runner that thought he was lost. I reassured him that we were still on course and ran with him until we got to the tunnel.
Black tunnel
The sun was out in full force and I might have pushed a little bit too hard on that downhill stretch, so I came into the aid station at mile 11.7 feeling horrible. Not only were the leg cramps creeping in, I was feeling dizzy and just not stable enough to even walk much less run. I took some salt caps and stayed at that aid station for about 6 minutes until I felt good enough to start hiking. The last 2 miles were a total grind. Between the sun and the wind gusts, it was just not very enjoyable at that point. It took a while for the salt to kick in and for my legs to feel normal again.
Finish: 3:25:20
Click here for my Garmin data.
This half marathon ran more like a full marathon. It's definitely not one that you should run for your first unless you really like a difficult challenge! The course also came out to be almost 14 miles. I guess that extra distance made up for that short race out in Flagstaff last month!
After getting my finisher medal, I got some water and took a while to recover a bit before I started heading out. Also since it might be a long drive home, I used one of the portapotties before walking back to my car.
Finisher medal
Cobb salad with grilled nuggets, mac & cheese, and frosted lemonade
Cobb salad with grilled nuggets
Mac & cheese
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