Safari Park Half Marathon 2012

Pre-race stuff
I apologize right off the bat... there are no food pictures in this race report. :) Since I've almost fully recovered from my injury, I've been on my best behavior in getting my weight down. I hope to be in the 140's by next month.

I'm not sure what happened, but after my little run on Saturday, the right leg in particular my knee and ankle started feeling sore. I woke up pretty early Sunday morning and made the drive out to the Westfield Mall North County in Escondido. I love races that have race-day packet pickup. These days, I hate the hassle of going to a race expo. All I do is end up buying crap I don't need and signing up for another race... by accident of course. :)

I arrived and parked at the mall by about 4:30am and God bless the volunteers, they were already setup ready to go even though the instructions said that they wouldn't be ready until 5am. One of the volunteers did sass me when I asked her what's today's date. She said something like, "yesterday is Cinco de Mayo and that means today is..." It's early and do I look Mexican to you? :)

Race packet pickup at dark thirty

I got my stuff ready and took a nap in my car. The starting line was just steps from my car, so it was very convenient. Reminds me a lot of the Carlsbad Marathon. The car next to me had a nice license plate frame, which read, "Live well. Love much. Laugh often". Words to live by.

Live well. Love much. Laugh often.

About 30 minutes before the start, I headed over to the portapotties. Then I headed over to the starting area. There were no corrals but there were pace markers for you to self seed yourself. I hung out at the 8 min/mile marker. I spotted a fellow Marathon Maniac while waiting for the race to begin. I had thought that all of my friends would be at the OC Marathon. I'm sorry walkers, but please do not line yourself up in the 6 min/mile area.

Goal A: sub 2:00
Goal B: sub 2:05
Goal C: just finish if the soreness gets worse

Before the start of the race, I was very doubtful I could make an attempt at goals A or B. The main source of my doubt was the soreness in my right knee and ankle. I had looked at the elevation profile and had a pretty good plan to get goal A. Due to the parking disaster last year, they had drastically altered the course. On paper it looked like a better course. It was relatively flat with 2 monster hills.

The race
As we started the race, my right ankle felt a little weak and weird. But I tried not to panic and just jogged it a bit. It didn't feel any worse, so I picked up the pace a little bit to get out of the initial crowding. After going through about 4 miles following a girl running around my pace, I pulled over to take my S-cap. I've been getting used to taking them every 30 minutes. Once I started back up, I tried to dial it back a little since we had a monster hill coming up at mile 7. It was a dirt road zigzagging a bit all the way to the top. I had thought about jogging up it, but then I decided to just save it for the later miles. I took my second S-cap while walking up the hill. The downhill on the other side was quad-busting steep! I tried to keep my non-hilly miles between 8:30 and 9 minutes. I was pretty gassed by the final big hill at mile 12. But I knew that I had accounted for the extra minutes for the 2 big hills to come in comfortably under 2 hrs. I took my final S-cap while walking up this hill. I still had to run one final mile. It was a relief knowing that I could go really slow and still come in under 2 hrs.

1: 8:33
2: 8:01
3-4: 16:25 (8:13)
5: 8:39
6: 8:37
7: 11:18
8: 7:56
9: 8:37
10: 9:01
11: 8:43
12: 12:11
13: 8:05
13.1: 0:50
Finish: 1:56:56

Post race stuff
I knew when I ran a 2:04:06 at the Hollywood Half Marathon last month that I was ready to get back down to sub 2. It felt good to be back on this side of the 2 hour mark. It also felt good to execute a plan exactly the way I had envisioned it. I'm hoping to be at least sub 1:50 by Disney World.

I'm starting to like the Gemini Timing system over the disposable D-tags. You end up getting to keep the nice looking timing chip as a souvenir. I didn't feel like staying in the zoo this year, so I headed for the exit after grabbing a Powerade and getting my stuff in order. On the way out, I had to stop to take a picture of these white faced ducks. My favorite meat next to steaks is duck! Run! Run away! :)

mmmm ducks! :)

At the exit, I caught one of the shuttles back to the mall. I changed out of my shirt and relaxed a bit in my car before making the near 2 hr drive back home.

I liked this year's shirt better than last year's orange one. Kind of wish the shirt was cotton. I'm really tired of tech shirts. I thought the medal this year was also better. The tiger eyes were green little "gems"! Gotta have the eye of the tiger! Gotta have that edge! Rawr! :)

I'm pretty sure I'll be back next year for this race again. Sure it's far and at a somewhat remote location, but it's a good race supporting the endangered Sumatran tigers.

Shirt, bib, and medal

Eye of tiger!

La Jolla Half Marathon 2012

Saturday
By the time that I had gotten home from the Castaic area, it was already 10pm-ish. I got cleaned up and was contemplating just staying up. But I'm not a Spring chicken anymore, so after draining my blisters on each foot, I decided to get at least a couple of hours of sleep before I head down south for the La Jolla half marathon. I also decided to wear the Leona Divide shirt for the race. Ink-n-Burn makes the most comfortable race clothing!

Leona Divide race shirt

Sunday
Being the on-time or rather super early person that I am. I got to the Del Mar Fairgrounds before the race people even got there! In my drowsy exhausted state, I sort of panicked and thought maybe they had moved the starting line to a different location this year. There was also the Cirque du Soleil tent at the starting area to add to my confusion. I actually started driving down to La Jolla to park at the finish where I could catch the bus up to the start. But then I realized just how freaking early I was, so I turned the car around and parked at a nearby hotel to wait. Eventually the race folks started to show up. I guess I shouldn't show up at 4:30am for a 7:30am race. :)

I was among the first cars to park. I grabbed my VIP postcard and headed over to the starting area to pick up my race packet. I was walking very gingerly and awkwardly as both feet did not want me to be moving around. I was thinking, "how am I suppose to complete a half marathon in my condition?" But the more I moved around, the better things felt. At first I had to ignore the irritation from the blisters and just force myself to walk "normally".

I waited around the VIP packet pickup table with a few others. They weren't ready to hand them out until about 6:30am. As soon as I got mine, I headed back to my car.

VIP race packet pickup

Bring on the hurt!

After getting my stuff ready, I headed back again to the starting line area. I met up with my San Diegan friends briefly near the gear check truck. We parted ways when they went out for a warm up jog and I went to find a place to sit down.

Starting line

The Race
Goal A: finish around 2:30, don't do anything stupid

I let myself go on the first two miles just to check what the legs could do. The first mile felt ok, so I sped up a little on the second mile. But after that it was time to coast it in. I had thought about trying to run around a 2:10 but I didn't want to gamble with the still-recovering ankle. I stuck with the original plan of running around an easy 2:30 and started taking regular walk breaks at every mile marker. The downhill at mile 5 felt awkward. The quads were clearly trashed from Leona Divide. Once we hit the Torrey Pines hill, I only ran at most about 1/4 of it before I ended up hiking the rest of it. Even this monster of a hill felt easier to hike compared to Leona. After getting to the top, I stuck to keeping my miles between 11 and 12 minutes while continuing to take my walk breaks. I was promptly passed by 2 people that I knew. I took a GU at mile mile 7. The big downhill at mile 11 again made my legs felt like they were going to fall apart. I passed a lot of people running up the final hill headed up to mile 13. Right before the steep downhill cobblestone section near the cove, we ran through a row of people looking for and yanking out bandits. I wish more races would do this so that the race isn't so crowded.

1: 8:26
2: 7:55
3: 9:51
4: 10:38
5: 9:30
6: 13:42
7: 12:48
8: 11:54
9: 11:11
10: 11:48
11: 9:22
12: 11:33
13.1: 12:39
Finish: 2:21:17

Post race thoughts and food
I made a good fartlek run out of this race. I put in a lot of speed bursts here and there probably annoying the heck out of the runners around me. Running on roads was much easier than running on trails. The sure footing did not aggravate my right ankle. Getting out of the finish area has always been a pain in the butt each year. Friends of runners always crowd the exit so it takes forever to get out. I suppose I could run faster so that I could avoid the crowds. It's not as bad if you finish under 2 hours. I stopped by the t-shirt table to pick up my shirt. Then I headed over to the bus stop to catch a ride back to Del Mar.

Reverse Ultra Goofy!

I changed and took a quick nap in the car. Then I met up again with my San Diegan friends at the Brigantine Seafood restaurant for lunch. It was really close by the Del Mar Fairgrounds. I had a Karl Strauss IPA, a Crab & Lobster Cobb Salad, and finished it with a Guinness. This was a very good salad. In hindsight I should've gotten a drink with caffeine. I was dozing off on the drive back home. I had to roll down the window and slap myself a few times. 2 down, 1 more to go to complete the Triple Crown.

Karl Strauss IPA

Crab & Lobster Cobb Salad

Guinness

Leona Divide 50k

Friday
I had originally planned to take Friday off. But one of my bosses asked me to come in. So I ended up putting in a half day of work. The drive up to the Castaic area from Irvine sucked. But I made it. Along the way there was a huge accident on the southbound 5 freeway just a few miles south of Magic Mountain. Of course, everybody on the northbound side slowed down to rubberneck.

I checked into the Rodeway Inn just off of Lake Hughes Road. No frills, but a nice enough place to crash for one night.

Rodeway Inn

Old School TV

My friends who were also running LD wanted to meet up for dinner. They were staying out in Palmdale. We hadn't decided on a place yet and I was getting pretty hungry from skipping lunch. So I drove out to In-n-Out to pre-eat. But I got a text when I pulled into the In-n-Out parking lot, so I hopped back on the freeway to make the drive out to Sharky's Woodfired Mexican Grill in Palmdale.

I got some chips with guacamole and a grilled shrimp burrito. Why do I always forget not to eat a burrito before a race? It was good though. After taking about the race and future races, we parted ways. On the way back I stopped by a 7-11 to pick up some drinks. I picked up OJ for breakfast, beer to sleep, and water to hydrate myself. I then laid out my gear for the race.

Chips & Guacamole

Grilled Shrimp Burrito

Saturday
Going into the race, I've been 0 for 2 with the 50k distance. The first attempt was a painful DNF at Montaña de Oro where I was not adequately replaced my electrolytes. The second attempt was at Santa Monica Mountains where I rolled the same ankle too many times and dropped out at the 30k aid station. So the goal for this race was just to finish. I did not want to go 0 for 3 with 50k's and get in the habit of dropping out. There would be no bunny chasing for me at this race! :)

I drove up Lake Hughes Road to get to the community center. The roads were very familiar as I used to come up here for our college church retreat. I parked and picked up my race packet. It was pretty awesome to see some familiar faces. Trail runners are the best. Nice folks.

Nice shirt!

The golden rule for running is nothing new on race day. Well, I always seem to be breaking that rule. I wore new glasses. I also wore my trail shoes that I've only worn one other time. That'll all come into play later in the race. I got ready and lined myself up way in the back. The strategy was just to hike or slow jog the uphills, run the flats, and don't go crazy on the downhills. I stopped a few times to take photos. I really wished that I lived closer to some trails. Running trails put me in a happy mood.

Everything was going fine for the first couple of hours. Then on my way to the 16ish mile aid station, I tripped over something and slid head first. The water bottle on my right hand broke part of the fall. But the left hand and knees took the rest. I would also be so unlucky to trip with my bad ankle. Once the adrenaline wore off from the fall, I could feel the soreness. Why did I fall? So, I wore new glasses that I had just picked up on Friday before driving up. Apart from having my eyes having to adjust to the new prescription, I got those transition lenses that would darken and lighten on their own. It turns out that they don't transition fast enough. As I was running from bright sunlight into the shady areas, I could barely see anything. That was the section were I ate it. It was nice and flat, cool and shaded. I literally ate a part of the trail because I forgot to clean my water bottle before drinking from it. I took a nice drink of trail dirt. :)

I saw my friend Kristin here at the aid station. Her husband was running the 50 miler. I hope I was somewhat coherent when I was talking to her. It was starting to get hot and I was somewhat confused as to where to go. Good thing there were people pointing me in the right direction. I crossed the road and headed up towards the 50k turnaround at mile 20 something. Along the way, I passed a couple of people sitting in the shade on the side. It looked like the heat was getting to them as well. It was amazing to see the front runners of the 50k coming back down.

It was a long hike up to the turnaround with very little shade. Once I got there, I saw a lot of the carnage. A lot of the runners there were sitting down. Some of them were fighting nausea. Only at a trail race do you have people encouraging you to throw up, saying "you'll feel better if you do." :)

For some reason, I kept craving Mountain Dew. It was what was motivating me to get to the next aid station. Even when they didn't have any, I would still be thinking about ice cold Mountain Dew. I did drink some delicious flat warm Coke. It tasted pretty good when you've been running for several hours. Frank Shorter was a genius for drinking that back in his day.

I was emotionally deflated coming down the mountain because my right ankle was too sore to run on. It was especially sore when it was downhill and cambered at some of the more treacherous single track sections. I was afraid that I might fall off the side of the mountain. But as slow as I was, I kept moving forward. I kept listening for footsteps because the faster 50 milers were beginning to pass me. Sometimes I swear I would hear footsteps approaching, but when I turned my head around to check, no one was there. I guess being tired and baking in the sun leads to hallucinations. :)

Eventually I got myself down to the finish line. There was no way I was going to DNF especially with the generous time limit. I finished about an hour longer than I wanted or anticipated. But it was good to get that monkey off my back, to have finally finished a 50k. I was beginning to think that the marathon distance was my limit and that ultra running was just not for me.

Finish: 8:43:46

Post race thoughts
I came out of the race rather unscathed. I cleaned out my wounds, threw on my shorts with more pockets, grabbed my phone, and waited for my friends to finish their race. I'm going to have to pack my own post race food if I run this race again as the finish line food did not really agree with me. Nothing wrong with the food. They had vegetable and chicken fajitas, beans, and rice. It was just not something that I'd normally eat. Once all of the Maniacs had arrived at the finish area, we gathered near the finish line and took pictures.

Just a few scratches on my left hand

...and a few scratches on both knees

Ultra-Maniacs!

I said goodbye to my Maniac friends and stuck around to wait for my friend that was finishing her first 50 miler. That was pretty cool to see her finish especially when I was getting texts from her that she had been throwing up. I have some amazing friends!

My Maniac friends were supposed to text me directions to a restaurant. But I never got a text by the time I got down the mountain so I just headed to In-n-Out to get some protein to repair my legs and also carb up for the race tomorrow. Somehow I thought it was a good idea to follow a 50k (a distance I've never finished until this race) with a super hilly La Jolla half marathon the next day! As if the distance itself wasn't enough, I've been recovering from another bout of tibial stress fracture. Just let me tell you that a 50k is not a good distance for a welcome-back run. A much shorter road race with sure footing would be a much better choice. But I guess I'm always up for a big challenge. No one can accuse me of being too cautious. :)

The shoes that I wore also had not yet been broken in properly and they irritated the heck out of my heels. I had two big blisters, one on each foot. I lanced and drained them when I got home.

Rebuilding my legs

Labor of Love me two times!

Friday
I took Friday off from work to take the car in for service. I don't normally make an appointment for service and it just so happened that they were pretty busy. I said that I would wait and luckily they were able to squeeze me in fairly quickly. It was a last minute decision to run the Labor of Love Marathon. Last year I was registered but had to take a DNS because I was injured and couldn't make the trip even if I was 100% healthy. So after they were done servicing my car, it was off to Vegas I go. After about 3 hours, I got into town. The weather was pretty dang hot and nothing sounded better than some ice cold beer. I decided to visit the 32 Degree Draft Bar at the M Resort. I practically took a lap around the entire casino before I found the bar, but only because I remembered reading reviews where they mentioned that it was next to the sports book.

They had 96 different beers on tap supposedly served at 32 degrees. Unfortunately that list was dominated by crappy beer. I had 2 beers and a burger. The food here was not bad and definitely not overpriced. Granted nothing on the menu was fancy. I would come back here again if I'm thirsty and there's a good sports game on TV. They had a lot of screens.

Speakeasy Big Daddy IPA

1/2 burger with provolone cheese

Deschutes Mirror Pond

Later I made it over to the Courtyard Marriott on Greenway Valley Parkway. I always try to stay as far away from the Strip as I possibly can to avoid all of the smoking and the regular "crazies" that visit Vegas. :) This place was perfect. It was a non-smoking hotel with no casino. There was also an Albertson's supermarket right across the street. The room had a fridge and a microwave so it was very convenient.

Courtyard Marriott

TV, fridge, and microwave

After watching some TV and taking a nap, I went out to Monta Noodle House in Chinatown to eat dinner. I got the usual tonkotsu ramen with a mini fried rice. When I got back to my room, I laid out my race gear for the marathon before calling it a night.

Maniac suit up!

Saturday pre race
I got to the parking lot at about 6am. I got my stuff ready and boarded the shuttle for the short ride over to the starting area. The first thing I noticed was the purple portapotties. I've seen gray, blue, green, and brown. This was the first time I saw purple ones. I picked up my race packet. Since I didn't have a drop bag with me, I decided to ride the shuttle back to my car to drop off the race shirt.

Purple portapotties

Saturday Marathon
Goal: 6 hrs, take it easy

Calico races are fairly small and cozy races. The marathon, 50 mile, and 100 mile races all started at the same time. The race started right on time at 7am without much fanfare as you would normally see at a typical marathon. This race was a simple out and back type course. So whatever hill you run up, you get to run down it eventually. Right from the beginning, you're pretty much running uphill. I took the first mile a little bit harder until the pack of people broke up and I fell back into my plan of taking it easy. I was taking walk breaks whenever I reached a new mile marker or whenever I felt that my heart rate was a little too high.

3 miles into the race looking back

More uphill to go!

I would push the pace a bit on the downhills here and there, but still taking it easy. The turn around point was at mile 11. For the marathon, you would head in for 2.1 miles before turning back to the same turnaround. Then from there you head straight for the finish line. Around mile 20 something, as I was approaching an aid station, you hear a whole lot of gunfire. There was a shooting range right behind the aid station. I took a little more time here at this station as there was the huge long hill to climb from 21 to 22. The weather got pretty toasty. I kind of coasted the last final 5k and came in right where I expected to finish.
1: 9:39
2: 12:03
3: 11:55
4: 12:29
5: 10:43
6: 10:02
7: 13:38
8: 14:21
9: 14:42
10: 14:23
11: 14:38
12: 9:38
13: 11:22
14: 16:51
15: 17:49
16: 16:13
17: 12:51
18: 12:47
19: 14:07
20: 13:36
21: 16:46
22: 18:38
23: 14:51
24: 14:58
25: 15:57
26: 14:01
26.2: 1:50
Finish: 6:00:53

Saturday Marathon post race
It was a grueling hot race. The race warmed up in the 80s and 90s. I jokingly told Joyce the race director that I didn't know that I had signed up for the "Running with the Devil" race! I was able to reconnect with a few of the Marathon Maniacs at the finish area as well as meet new ones. I'm not sure why I didn't bring shirts with sleeves. I knew that the weather was going to be pretty warm. But still I only brought 2 singlets. My shoulders got pretty sunburned.

Race shirt, bib, and medal

Since I took so long to finish, the shuttle had stopped running. They were then taking us back in the Calico mobile. After changing shirts and getting my stuff in the car, I drove to the Big Wong Restaurant to eat a late lunch. My friend recommended that I try out the beef ramen. I ordered the salt & pepper chicken wings as well. Both were good and very inexpensive. The extra protein really helps in case you plan on running a double.

Beef ramen

Salt & pepper chicken wings

After getting back to my hotel. I laid out my second set of gear just in case I felt like running another race on Sunday. I picked up 2 cases of Snapple to re-hydrate myself. I drank fluids in lieu of an actual dinner. I ended up drinking 3 Snapples.

Gear for day 2

Drinking the non-alcoholic brew

Sunday pre race
I woke up feeling pretty okay. So I decided to give the second day race a go. I decided to run the half marathon. I got ready, packed up, checked out of the hotel, and headed over to the starting area to register for the race. Along the way there, I got to see a bunch of runners finish the Baker to Vegas relay race. This time I knew to park at the starting area to register and pick up the race packet before parking the car at the off site parking lot a couple of miles down the highway. I got to see Ed the Jester resting having just finished his 100 mile race, sub 23hrs and 1st in his age group!

After parking my car and riding the shuttle over, I hung out with my Nevada Maniac friends at the start. Sunday was feel noticeably warmer than Saturday. I was glad the second day was only a half marathon.

Sunday Half Marathon
Goal 3 hrs, no pushing the pace

The half marathon started promptly started at 7:30am. I took it slow and took walking breaks early and often. A couple miles into the race, I felt very hungry. I liked that those completing their 100 mile race all recognized me from the day before. I got to see a few of them headed to the finish line. As I was nearing the end of the huge downhill, I saw my friend heading up the hill headed for the finish.

My fast friend powering up the monster hill with a smile

The turnaround point was at mile 6.55. Going up the monster hill was very much like Groundhog day. I jogged wherever it flattened out and hiked the steeper sections. At the top of the hill, there was pretty much nothing left but flat roads and downhills. Still I kept things slow and tried to keep the heart rate down since it was getting pretty sunny and warm. The sped it up a little bit for the last 2 miles because I just knew that my awesome friends would be waiting for me to finish. I didn't want them to be waiting too long.
1: 10:18
2: 12:36
3: 13:38
4: 14:33
5: 12:44
6: 11:43
7: 13:22
8: 14:37
9: 14:28
10: 13:11
11: 13:34
12: 11:11
13: 11:09
13.1: 0:57
Finish: 2:47:59

Sunday Half Marathon post race
I got an extra medal for running a race on each day. My friends were indeed waiting for me. We shared with each other our race experiences and then caught the last shuttle back to the parking lot. It was pretty warm this year. I saw my friend's race photos from last year and they had snow!

Day 2 race shirt, bib, and all of the medals

As we went our separate ways, I went to eat at Big Wong again. The owner/cook recommended the short ribs. It was a new item on the menu. It came with bok choy and rice. I also got the salt & pepper shrimp. The portions were very generous. I guess he sized me up and didn't think I'd finish. He made a comment that I did really good with the food when he saw that I was going to finish everything.

Salt & pepper shrimp, bok choy and rice

Short rib in black bean sauce

I'm glad I didn't visit any buffets on this trip. Eating a lot of mediocre or less-than-stellar food just doesn't sound very appealing to me anymore. I love exploring the not-so-ventured to places in Vegas and the Calico races has helped. There is so much more than the Strip or the Fremont Street Experience. But I'll still come back for the good food that's abundant in Vegas.

All in all, I'm glad I decided to run both races on a whim.

Bling x3!