(Triple Crown Races: Carlsbad 1/2, La Jolla 1/2, and in August America's Finest City 1/2)
My friend Wendy and I have been much better with running a lot before a race, so I was not concerned about this race at all in the aspect of our abilities. However, there were rumors of a giant hill and that did freak me out quite a bit, because who likes running hills? Not me.
I had to get up at 3:45 am in order to be to the race finish in La Jolla Cove by 5 am. Wendy and I got to the finish on time and then we were bussed to the start line at the Del Mar racetrack.
It was a bit unorganized, which is funny since this was the 31st time they held this race. They didn't build the start line until after 7am and the race was to start at 7:30am. They only had two waves.
Wave 1: 8 minutes and under
Wave 2: Everyone else
No one even made way for those who needed to get to their proper spots, so basically it was a mass of 6,000 people all trying to fit through the start line. Argh.
The course was really pretty and the weather was fine... a bit humid though, which I did not enjoy.
The negative things about the course, were the hills, people walking/ running on the course, cars on the course, surfers and beach goers running through us in order to get to the beach and a lack of water. At the last water spot in the race, no one handed me a cup so I grabbed one myself... but it was empty! Ahhh!
The end of the race was chaotic. Usually only race finishers are allowed in the area immediately after the finish line. Here it was family and friends mixed in with racers. I was lucky enough to be handed a cup of water after being handed my medal (still wrapped in plastic, by the way). I looked for snacks or fruit... nothing. There were some 'scones' but they were nearly gone and the line of racers before me were sticking their post race racing hands in the bag themselves. Ewww.
Believe it or not, I did enjoy myself and I had a pretty good pace the entire time, but I lost any chance of a personal record on the last two hills within the last mile.
I ended up finishing at 2:52:50, which happens to be 3 seconds faster than my best time of 2:52:53 from my first 1/2... Long Beach October 2010. So, I got a PR afterall... even if it is only by 3 seconds.
Do you see this zig zag? When that ends, it goes up to the right for a while and then back to the left... it ... was... not... fun!
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