Surf City Half Marathon 2020

Friday 1/31
Per the usual for this race, I got into work a bit earlier, so that I could leave earlier and get the race packet pick-up out of the way. I arrived at the Huntington Beach parking lot at about 3:30 pm. After parking my car, I walked over to the expo tent. At the entrance they had mile markers 8 and 24 in Lakers purple and gold in tribute to the late Kobe Bryant.

Expo

Kobe tribute at entrance

After being assigned a bib number, I picked up my long sleeve race shirt and a sturdy tote bag. Next was going through the rest of the expo to see what the vendors had to offer. Right before hitting the vendor booths, I visited the Longboard Legacy Club area to pick up my legacy item before I forget. The legacy item was the usual cotton long sleeve shirt.

Race shirt

Tote bag

Longboard legacy club

Longboard legacy club shirt

Near the southern end of the tent, they had banners with all of the participants' names. I took a moment to find my name before continuing on with the rest of the expo. Before leaving the expo, I registered for next year's half marathon. As a member of the Longboard Legacy Club, they knocked off another $5 which made the total out to $77.03 which included a processing fee. I came out of the expo with a few giveaways: a small Surf City cape, a Power Crunch bar, and a bottle of QURE alkaline water. The drive home took nearly an hour and a half.

Participant name banner

Found my name

Registration for next year

Expo giveaways

Saturday 2/1
Normally I'm only up very early on weekends to in order to run a race or to watch Premier League football matches. However I stayed up late into the wee hours of the night in order to catch the Australian Open Women's Championship match between Sofia (Sonya) Kenin and Garbiñe Muguruza. Before I got into marathon running, tennis was my passion. I didn't think Kenin would pull out the win as I thought she was a bit lucky in beating Ashleigh Barty in her semi-finals match. Congrats to her on winning her first grand slam title!

Kenin vs Muguruza

Kenin wins her first grand slam!

Before going to bed, I laid out my flat runner. Even though the weather for tomorrow's race wasn't cold enough to warrant a long sleeve shirt, I decided to just wear the long sleeve shirt from the Carlsbad race a couple of weeks ago.

Flat runner

Sunday 2/2
As I was getting ready, I caught the 5th set of the Australian Open Men's Final between Djokovic and Thiem. Djokovic was able to hold off Thiem and win his 8th Australian Open title. I left the house a little after 5 am. I arrived near the Pacific View Ave and Beach Blvd intersection at about 5:40 am. I thought that that was plenty of time for me to park the car and meet up at the bridge for the Marathon Maniacs pre-race meetup at 6 am. Unfortunately it took about 30 min from that spot to finally make it into the parking lot. From what I could tell, while I was in the middle lane, cars from the right turn and the left turn lanes were cutting in. They need to do a better job of controlling the traffic.

Since I had missed the meetup, I went inside the Hyatt Regency to wait in the lobby. It's a great spot to get out of the cold morning air. The restrooms in the lobby were also nice to use. The hotel staff also brings out bananas and water, free for all to take regardless if you're staying with them or not. While waiting, I bumped into my friends from San Diego. They were headed up to their room to change as they felt that the weather was starting to get a bit warm.

Bananas and water

As the start of the race approached, I started heading over to the starting corral. Along the way, I was spotted by a friend from Temecula. She was waiting with her friend near the Grand Ballroom. I used to also wait around that area until a few years back they had closed that section to deter runners from going there. I'm glad that she spotted me as I have not seen her in a while.

Stephanie!

I met up with my friends, Latino Heat and Karen inside the corrals. Karen was ready to give me crap if I had shown up with a Kobe Bryant jersey. She should know me better than that! While I've grown up being a Laker fan, I stopped being a Kobe fan when he had his rape incident in Colorado. The way the media portrayed him as if he was a martyr for having to fly back and forth to attend his court trial while playing basketball was absolutely disgusting. While the manner of his death was quite tragic, there are much better role models to follow out there.

While waiting for the start of the race, there were a lot of people hopping the barricade that was right next to where we were standing. Not sure why they were because there was a big opening just a few yards up front as well as behind us! The last thing anyone wants to do right before a race is to injure yourself unnecessarily while climbing over a barricade!

Start corral

Latino Heat and Karen

Although there was still some lingering symptoms from my cold, it was definitely much easier to breathe now. I felt so much better that I ran that first mile a bit too hard. Although I pulled back on the pace, I was not feeling 100%. I kept having to pull over and take walk breaks as I felt like I was overheating which might have been more due to my unwise choice of wearing a long sleeve shirt. It was a bit crowded coming down Seapoint Street, so I went up on the curb and ended up running on the dirt. After a right turn onto the Pacific Coast Highway, it would be an out-and-back for a couple of miles before the final long straight road to the finish line. As I approached mile 6, I was passed by WeRock coach Andrea pacing a couple of her runners.

WeRock coach Andrea

The turnaround point was just a little past mile 8. As with long out-and-backs, it was nice to see my friends out on the course. I was hoping to be able to finish in under 2 hrs today, but my lungs and legs weren't quite ready yet. I lost so much time in those last 5 miles. Once I reached mile marker 12, I tried to run the rest of the way in, but my calves were cramping up. I briefly stopped after reaching the Main St intersection before jogging it in.

Finish line

Finish: 2:02:50
Click here for my Garmin data.

After crossing the finishing line, I received my iconic wooden surfboard finisher medal. While walking through the finisher chute, I bumped into my friend, Julie. Volunteers were passing out a lot of post race goodies as well as QURE alkaline water.

Finisher medal

Close-up of medal

Julie at finish line

Post race goodies

Near the exit, there were some spectators lined along the barricades waiting with their dogs. There was one sleepy dog sleeping in a basket that put a smile on my face. :)

Sleepy dog

I then met up and waited with Latino Heat near the end of the finisher chute to welcome a fellow Marathon Maniac that was finishing his 400th marathon today! With the completion of the Walt Disney World Marathon, I'm only at 215. I'm just trying to complete enough (333) to get inducted into the Marathon Maniacs hall of fame. They had invited me to join them at their hotel room for some post race celebration, but I had to pass.

Run Deo Run Half Marathon 2020

Sunday 1/26
My friend, Deo, had been inviting me to run his race for the past several years. I never could make it out because I was usually running another race somewhere else. Finally this year, I was able to fit it into my race schedule. It definitely helped that I've been making a conscious effort to cut back on the number of races that I run per year.

The race started and ended at the Pecan Grove parking lot. It was really close to the 5 freeway just off of the Zoo Dr exit. I pulled into the parking lot at about 6:20 am. That was plenty early enough to secure a spot in that parking lot. I waited in my car until about 7 am before I headed over to the tables to pick up my race packet. I also took this time to use the portapotty.

Run Deo Run

Race shirt

On the way back to my car, I saw Deo and a few other marathoners run by. They were joined by a spectator running with two well behaved dogs. The marathon started at 6 am, so they were about 1 hr into their race.

Marathoners

As it got closer to 8 am start time, I headed over to the start line. It was a small race, so nobody seemed too anxious to line up for the race. Eventually all of the participants gathered at the start. I got the usual pre-race selfie with Latino Heat. The race started about 10 minutes late.

Latino Heat!

The course for the half marathon was an out-and-back down South past the golf course to almost the Pony Rides followed by a short out-and-back up North up to Riverside Dr. We ran that twice for a total of 13.1 miles. I ran the first mile at my usual quicker pace, but the chest congestion from the cold that I had picked up while at Walt Disney World made it hard to breathe. I had to quickly change my game plan and pull back on the pace. Before reaching mile 3, I was struggling on the tiny little incline heading towards the Pony Rides. It was nice to bump into my friend, Luis, who was out for his morning run.

Luis!

I always love running out-and-back courses because you get to see those that are ahead of you as well as those behind you.

From Ben

The volunteers at the southern end aid station were a friendly bunch. It was nice to see their smiling faces as I made the turnaround to head back to the Pecan Grove for the finish line.

Southern end turnaround near the Pony Rides

On the last turnaround, another runner had caught up to me. I guess I had been dilly-dallying a bit too much. Even though my calves were cramping up, I had to force myself to run as much as I can in order to hold him off.

Northern end turnaround for half/full marathoners near Riverside Dr

Finish line from Robert

Finish: 2:05:33
Click here for my Garmin data.

Since it was a very small race, not only was there no chip timing, but they collected the tear-off strip from the race bib. I believe the last time I had to do that was when Palos Verdes still had their marathon start from Point Fermin Park. I liked the finisher medal. It was unique as it was not made out of metal.

Finisher medal

Medal close-up

I then made my way over to the picnic table to check out the post race food. There was a lot of Famous Amos cookies and granola bars. I wasn't very hungry, so I passed. I then hung out with a couple of Marathon Maniacs to wait for our other friends to finish. While waiting, I saw a pair of beautiful horses go by on the trail. They're one of my favorite animals.

Post race food

Marathon Maniacs

Horse riders

After getting home and firing up the computer, I saw that one of my friends, who is always on top of NBA news, had tweeted something that caught my eye. Apparently Kobe Bryant and 8 other passengers were killed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas very close to Las Virgenes Rd. I've driven past that place more than a few times to get to Malibu Creek State Park! At first, no one wanted to believe it as TMZ was the first to break the news. Later the news starting rolling in from more trusted news sources.

Later that evening, my family and I went out for dinner at our favorite local sushi restaurant. There's nothing like some extra protein to help the legs recover. Also it was nice to drink some hot green tea and dobinmushi.

Carlsbad Half Marathon 2020

Saturday 1/18
Per the usual, I didn't make my trip down to Carlsbad to attend the race expo until I was done watching the weekend English Premier League matches. My Spurs have been doing horrible this season. They played to a draw against lowly Watford. I guess that's to be expected with Harry Kane being out injured.

I swung by the usual Chevron gas station to fill up the tank before hopping on the freeway. With the later start time, I ended up being stuck in the usual southbound weekend traffic. It took almost 2 hrs to reach the race expo tent located in the parking lot at the western end of The Shoppes at Carlsbad Mall.

After parking my car, I picked up my race bib. Then that was followed by picking up a long sleeve race shirt, a ¼ zip finisher pullover, and a drawstring bag. As a resident of sunny Southern California, I am not a fan of long sleeve race shirts. It just hardly ever gets cold enough here to require a long sleeve shirt. They do come in handy if I ever need to wear a throwaway shirt while waiting in the start corral of a cold weather race. After a quick sweep of the vendor booths, I was out of there as there wasn't much that caught my eye.

Race shirt

Back of race shirt

¼ zip finisher pullover

Back of ¼ zip finisher pullover

Drawstring bag

After leaving the race expo and hopping into my car, I drove over to the nearby Chick-fil-A for lunch. The parking lot was a bit crowded so I ended up parking in the larger adjacent parking lot and walking over. Per the usual, I found a table and placed my order via their mobile app. The app notified me that I had a free reward good for 8 pc grilled nuggets. Score! Somehow they must have known that I had a race tomorrow! In addition to the free nuggets, I ordered the spicy southwest salad with grilled nuggets and a large lemonade.

Spicy Southwest Salad with Grilled Nuggets, large lemonade, and free 8 pc grilled nuggets

After I was done with my meal, I drove over to the La Quinta in nearby Vista. It was located right off of the 78 Parkway at the Sycamore Ave exit. As soon as I checked-in and got my room key, it was time for me to head to my room and get some rest as I was feeling under the weather. As with most years, I fell victim to the dreaded Disney crud. I haven't been watching any NBA games for quite some time since the game has become unwatchable with all of the touch fouls and inexcusable flopping. However I did catch parts of the Clippers vs. Pelicans game while going through the materials that I had received at the race expo. After laying out my flat runner, I decided to walk over to the nearby Vietnamese restaurant to get some pho. I think for colds, it works better than chicken noodle soup.

Clippers vs. Pelicans

Flat runner

On my way to grab dinner, I was solicited for money by a grungy-looking girl. Dude, with the convenience of Google Pay, I hardly ever carry any cash these days. Hate to make assumptions, but it looked like she needed money for drugs. I got my bowl of pho over at Pho Lucky. The restaurant was pretty empty when I got there at about 5:30 pm. After looking over their menu, I ordered the pho dac biet xe lua which was their large combo with rare steak, well-done brisket, flank, tendon, and tripe. Per the usual I got it without the nasty cilantro. I only like it with basil, squirt of lime, jalapeño, Sriracha, and bean sprouts. It wasn't the best bowl of pho that I've had, but it was decent and did its job.

Pho Lucky

Pho dac biet xe lua

It was pretty dark outside on the walk back to my room. Thankfully I didn't come across someone soliciting for money on the return. Back in my room, there wasn't much on TV, so I ended up watching the Lakers vs. Rockets game before calling it a night.

Lakers vs. Rockets

Sunday 1/19
Even though the half marathon didn't start until 7:45 am, I checked out pretty early so that I could get to the start line in time to watch the start of the full marathon at 6:15 am. I arrived at the mall parking lot at about 5:40 am. I ended up parking a few spaces from one of my old marathon running friends, Joseph Reilly. After a brief chat, we went back into our cars to hide from the chill of the early morning air.

A little past 6 am, I went over to use one of the portapotties and head over to the start line. It was still pretty dark when the marathon started at about 6:15 am. After the last participant crossed the start line, I headed back to my warm car to wait for the start of the half marathon.

While I was waiting in my car, the race crew rolled the start line farther down the road for the start of the half marathon. Apparently the race announcers were having technical difficulties, so Rudy ended up singing the national anthem instead of a pre-recorded rendition by a famous singer.

Half marathon start line

I was hoping to finish in under 2 hrs, but I had recently developed a cough that was producing phlegm. That made it a bit difficult to breath normally while running. It felt somewhat like running at higher elevation. My legs felt okay for the first 2 miles or so, but my breathing was labored. During the little out and back on Carlsbad Blvd, the shoe lace on my right shoe came loose. I guess I took that u-turn a bit hard and tight. It's never happened before as I always double-knot my laces. I pulled over at a bench in front of the Army and Navy Academy to tie my shoelace before continuing. After that little unscheduled break, I decided to just take it easy the rest of the way. I love this scenic course full of rollers. I just wish that I wasn't feeling so crummy. During the last few miles, I leapfrogged with a 16 year old (bib #2979). I was probably annoying the heck out of her as she would pass me during my walk breaks only to be re-passed by me when I resumed running. My friend caught and passed me before we reached the mile 12 marker right before the steep little climb on the overpass across the 5 freeway. After that last short climb, it was a nice downhill run to the finish line.

Finish line

Finish: 2:03:32
Click here for my Garmin data.

It was nice to be greeted by the team of Rudy and Fitz at the finish line. I guess you can say that I run a lot of races since I'm friends with the race announcers. After collecting my finisher medal, I turned the corner and picked up a paper bag of post race goodies. It included a container of microwaveable Minute cilantro & lime jasmine rice. I thought that that was a strange item to receive at the finish line of a race.

Finisher medal

Post race goodies

Near the exit of the finisher chute, I bumped into my friend and her husband. Thankfully I didn't finish too far behind her, so I was able to say hi and get a quick picture. We would be seeing each other again in a couple of weeks at Surf City. Since I had a long drive ahead of me, I used a portapotty before heading back to my car.