Surf City Half Marathon Recap

Surfs Up! Dubbed "Surf City USA" Huntington Beach, CA provides the perfect setting for a race that gives out surfboard medals. The course runs along the ocean on Pacific Coast Highway for the majority of the half marathon and both the highway and beach path for the marathon. This is my second year and I still enjoy this event the most out of the three that make us the "Beach Cities Challenge". The weather is usually great and the race occurs on Super Bowl Sunday. So I totally justify the wings I will be eating by running that morning. This year I skipped the EXPO and had a friend pick up my packet. Don't get me wrong, I love Expo's but I had other plans and wasn't going to make it down in time. Surf City does offer an option to have your packet mailed to you, but I missed the cutoff this year. It usually runs about $25 for them to mail it and with registration for me at over $100 I just didn't think I needed it. I was fortunate enough to have found the Pasadena Pacers () last year and now I have a great support group at races year round. We usually have a couple of car pools and pre race stretching, which I love, and the best part is that they are FREE! My coach Hilda offered to drive a group of us so I set me alarm for a 3:30am wake up and got some rest Saturday night. Last year the temps were cold to begin with, but rose fast. This year we were all prepared for colder temps and a possibility of rain. Since we had to be there early, I had some time to kill before the race. Hilda let us stay in her car to keep warm, so for an hour I waited for the sun to rise and tried to rest.

Yep that was me after seeing it was still frigid outside. I was definitely happy I choose my capris to run in. The marathon kicked off at 6:30 with the half at 7:30, but with the sheer number of runners (over 20,000) my wave was to start a little after 8. Just look at the crowd.

Because by 7:50 we hadn't moved, my running friend Maria and I decided to go take some photos we missed and use the restrooms.

By 8:15 we still hadn't started and we were getting antsy. Our wave was suppose to be at 8:11. Finally at 8:30 we made it to the start line and saw our favorite announcer Rudy!

Side note - I see him at almost every race and am working on "The Rudy Tour" for 2015. Once we took off it was smooth sailing. I wasn't looking for a PR at all, I am coming off three races in January already so I just wanted to enjoy. I decided to try for a 2:45 (5 mins slower than my PR) and see how it felt. I used 2:2 intervals and was feeling good. Maria decided to run with me, and running with someone is always more fun when you are lacking energy. The first three miles are along PCH which was nice, lots of crowds and some girl scout cookies! Then we turn to do two miles in the residential area. This is where there are a few slight hills and the supporters start to thin. We did see our Pasadena Pacers though and that was great! Mile 6 finds us coming back onto PCH where we will stay for the duration. We run to a turn around point and then head back to the start line for the last five miles. It was fun but some of those miles lack course cheering and can be tough. I did spot a few volunteers getting bored standing around and having water fights, but hopefully they didn't run out of water for the other runners. We realized after a bathroom break that we were behind pace by 3 minutes around mile 6 and tried to get back on track. Maria may have hated me around mile 10 when I made us kick it up a notch and keep pushing through. I know she really wanted to push me in the ocean during the last mile because I made us run the last .6. But guess what, we made it under 2:45 and it was a new PR for her! Overall I really enjoy the race and will probably be back next year. I do wish though they would add cell towers because using your phone afterwards is not easy.

KOWABUNGA!!!!