Tag: Surf City

Surf City 10-Recap

What’s a runner to do when she needs motivation to actually run her long runs? She signs up for a race! I saw that Surf City 10 fit in my schedule and there was a 10 miler. Even better was when I looked online and found a sweet hotel for cheap. Yes! So I registered. Then last week happened and I was doubting my ability for a 10 mile race in the dark. Could I finish it even after being sick all week? Yes but that didn’t mean it was the right choice. So I dropped to the 10K.

Oh 10K’s. We have a love/ hate relationship. Well, mostly hate.

My 10K times are either great (for me) or a total crap show. Good- 55 to 58 minutes. The rest all range around 1:10-1:15 because I blow up. There has never been an in between. I rarely run 10K’s for this reason.

I headed down to Huntington Beach on Saturday. Checked into the hotel and then headed back to find race parking. Yes, I used the distance from my car to the start judicisouly – warm up and cooldown and added 2+ miles to my total for the day.

The race was a lot bigger than I thought it would be but I did my best to line up in the proper pace area but it was damn crowded. The race started on time but it took me a few minutes to hit the starting line.

Who wants to take bets?

Mile 1 was decent- 10:22. Not too bad, not too bad.

Mile 2– Well, crap, I know what I forgot. My inhaler. Mother ….. 11:16 Know what Huntington Beach has? High humidity. What triggers my asthma? High humidity.

Mile 3- 4 Yeah no, straight running wasn’t gonna work. How about 2 run, 1 walk? Could my asthmatic lungs handle that?? 11:20, 11:49

Mile 5-6 Ok, can’t breathe, how about 1 run, 1 walk. Oh and I had decided to wear a new skirt, nope. I was less running and more waddling due the chafe I could feel, how I crossed the finish line not bleeding, I have no idea. It still hurts 4 days later.

Finish- 1:11:44

So maybe we should place bets on how long it takes me to run another 10K? Haha.

I did enjoy the race though. Running at night is kind of fun when you’re surrounded by people. A little more light might have been nice but guess who left her Knuckle Lights in the car?? Yep. Winner over here.

What race distance is your nemesis?

2019 Surf City Half Marathon Recap

Disclaimer: I received an entry to Oakland Running Festival as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews!

After a rough day of travel Saturday, I actually slept ok for pre-race hotel sleep. I woke up once around 2AM and was stoked I had another 3 hours to sleep. Sweet! Once up, I quickly got ready with all my gear and checked out of the hotel. The weather wasn’t dumping rain like the day before and the app said it would stay clear but I didn’t trust it. I was wearing arm warmers and my rain jacket over those.

My mom was able to get me as close as she could and I jumped out of the car on a street corner. I chatted with another runner as we made our way to the starting area. We ended up going our separate ways and I messaged the other BibRave Pro’s to see if we could make a meet up work before the race. We did!

Then it was time to line up. Surf City does self seeded corrals which works about as well as you think. I knew I was going to be moving slower so I placed myself in wave 4 which was 2:25- 2:34. I was almost right, haha not really, I ended up running my second slowest half to date.

Miles 1-5 10:52, 11:13, 11:26, 12:28, 11:27
I was moving slow but wasn’t feeling the need for walk breaks which was great because I know how out of shape I am. However things got weird around mile 2. I was cautious on how my foot would feel but I was expecting pain- instead my foot went numb. I could barely feel my left foot for the next 2 miles and around 3.5 my right foot joined it. I started walking just to see if that would change things. Thankfully it did. Just as it started to rain. Ok, mostly mist but it was still wet.

But then I realized I had another problem. Mile 6- 16:00
I suddenly need the restroom, not like my stomach was upset but I really needed the restroom. There was a series of port-a-potties around mile 5.5 and even though they had a line, I jumped in the line. Well, there goes my mile time.

Miles 7-10 11:46, 12:29, 12:28, 12:35
I was feeling ok but knew I was slowing. I wasn’t really paying attention to my watch. I was just focusing on the fact that I was still running and not taking walk breaks. Woo hoo! Well until mile 9. I knew once I took the first real walk break, there would be more to come. We had hit the turn around point and were running into a breeze now. I was still cold and it was misting every now and again but the breeze felt good to me.

Miles 11-13 13:38, 12:22, 12:37
I’ve run 2 marathons and never experienced “the wall”. Welp, I think I found it. Other than cold and wet toes, my body felt ok but I was done. I walked a fair amount of mile 11. From there I was just run/ walking my way in. This is normally the part of the course with the best views and most spectators but I was just keeping my head down and trying to get to the finish line.

Finish- 2:43:06 My second slowest half ever!

Granted, the 5 minute bathroom stop didn’t help matters along. I have no shame in that finishing time, I knew I was going to be slower, my training was almost non-existent and when I did get my act together, I hurt my foot and ended up taking 11 days off in a row. I’ll have no problem adding those results to my Athlinks profile for all to see. It gives me a starting point and now I know what I need to do going forward.

I still love Surf City and all it has to offer, maybe one day I’ll run it again and run it well.

Week 5- Fiasco

2019 Race Schedule (so far):
3/24 Oakland Running Festival (more to come)
4/28 SLO Half Marathon
~~5-4 Wildflower (Thanks BibRave)~~ Canceled
8-11 Oaktown Half (Thanks BibRave)

Honestly, fiasco is the nicest way to describe last week. If there was something that could go wrong or screwball it did. I feel like I unintentionally dared fate to come at me. I take it back! I don’t know what it was but I take it back!

Monday and Tuesday weren’t bad or if they were the rest of the week overshadows them. My foot was aching again so I knew I was likely only going to get in one run before Surf City on Sunday. That run was Wednesday and I really needed to run off some stress and clear my head. I ran the work route directly after work and made sure I had all my lights but I really needed that sunset view. And I got it. I had a pretty decent run and was feeling better when I arrived back at my car. Where I proceeded to stretch a bit and then promptly lock my key in the DAMN CAR!

It was completely dark and it was getting cold. I stared at the Knuckle Light, pepper spray and phone still in my hands like I could will them to turn into my keys but no luck. You idiot! I may have mentioned work’s proximity to the police station in town before but it is only one door down. So off I went to use the after hours phone to ask if they could help me. Nope. Told me call a locksmith. Grrrrr. So I called my parents who as it happens were just sitting down to dinner. Crap. My dad knew what I had done the second I said I had done something stupid. He was able to get my spare and bring it to me but work town is 45 minutes from home town. I was still stuck sitting on a curb. Again, my own stupid fault. I had texted a coworker just so I could tell someone of stupidity and she was nice enough to come back and let me hang in her car while I waited for my pops to arrive. Some people are awesome. I now belong to AAA.

Then Friday rolls around and I head to Penney’s after work to pick up a quilt I had ordered to finish off the room re-do. The parking lot was dark, wet and mostly empty but there was a man working on his car. I thought that was weird as there was a parts store and Wal-Mart at the other end of plaza that would have made more sense. He sort of followed me into the store which also made me a little paranoid. Once inside, there was a one man being helped by the cashier and another shopping. The man behind me spoke with the man shopping. See Fallon, no reason to be paranoid. I asked the other cashier for my catalog order while the shopping man kept piling clothes on the counter. The employee helping me went to the back to get my order and the one helping the other guy took him over to the dress shirts. Meanwhile the other man still looks like he is browsing clothes and his friend had left. All of sudden I hear rapid foot steps and he is running past me carrying all of the clothes from the counter and a few more. What the hell? Is this really happening? He barrels out the front door and I just stood there in shock. The employee comes back with my order and I was like “dude, you just got robbed!”. She just sighed and said it happens more often than you would think. Wait, what?!

Then, Saturday arrived and it was time to head down to Huntington Beach for Surf City! Except while most of the country has been dealing with mountains of snow, California’s been blasted by heavy rain. Which is great as we are drought ridden and the water is needed but also bad because fires. The fires leave burn scars that can’t handle that much water and we flood or worse- mudslides. We were about 20 miles outside of Santa Barbara when we got the alert that the 101 was flooded out and would be closed indefinitely. Ummm, crap. There’s really no way around or if there is it was likely flooded too. So we turned around and backtracked an hour to pick up a rural highway that heads east to the I5. The I5 though open was a mess. It was pouring rain, visibility was nil and we passed so many wrecks and bad ones at that.

I missed the expo, what should have been an 5 hour drive turned into 8ish. Thankfully, Surf City allowed other people to pick up your bibs as long as they had your QR code and a photo of your driver’s license. The other BibRave Pro’s were already there and Christine offered to get my bib and shirt for me. Lifesaver. I was able to meet her at her hotel and pick up the items. Then it was off to my hotel to check in then find dinner and try to decompress from the stress of the day.

Sunday- Surf City Half Marathon
Recap to come.

16.3 miles for the week. Slowly going in the right direction.

How was your week?

Rain or Shine? Run

Wait, it’s February? How did that happen?

That means 2 things- Super Bowl and Surf City. Now I could care less about the Super Bowl but Surf City is always the same day so I just pretend the excitement is for the race not the game.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I am no where near race ready. When I toe the line on Sunday I will be fully prepared to take it easy and take my time. I have run/walk intervals set on my watch and ready to go. But I am looking forward to revisiting the race that started me down the path of (longer) distance running. The crowds are awesome, the beach view is great, I get to (hopefully) see a bunch of other BibRave Pros.

I posted this 3 years ago at my second Surf City

Now if the weather will cooperate. Granted, it is absolutely nothing compared to what is happening in most of the country but a rain filled Saturday and Sunday wasn’t exactly what I was looking forward to. I can roll with it though and have just changed most of everything I was going to pack and wear.

So, fingers crossed for a fun filled weekend that’s only slightly wet.

Week 4- Not Too Bright

2019 Race Schedule (so far):
3/24 Oakland Running Festival (more to come)
4/28 SLO Half Marathon
~~5-4 Wildflower (Thanks BibRave)~~ Canceled
8-11 Oaktown Half (Thanks BibRave)

You know what they say about best laid plans?

I had my week planned -when I was going to workout, how I was going to eat healthier, be less of a Slacker, yada yada. And well… yeah.

Cold wind kept me indoors on Monday which is silly as I hate wasting a non work day. But I also really hate a really cold wind. Then my stomach turned into an asshat on Tuesday and that lingered for a few days. That’s what I get for thinking I was having a good spell. Then there’s the random tiredness. Which actually isn’t so random. This was week 2 without soda and my new migraine medication can make me groggy. Not the greatest combo… or maybe it is, who knows. I did manage to finally clean my car this weekend so that in itself should make this week a win. Ha!

Monday- Transform 20
Well, I started the week slightly according to plan. Then it was off to that doctor’s appointment I made a month ago when I was so sick. Which didn’t really get me anywhere.

Saturday- 8.4 miles
Long run Saturday. Despite the opinion of my Garmin, I actually felt pretty good this run. I kept things slow and easy and started with run/walk intervals but was able to ditch them around mile 4 and only walk occasionally. Which I thought was great considering how little running I’ve been doing but my Garmin judged me and told me I needed 3 days to recover post run. How rude!

Sunday-4 miles
I headed out for some nice and easy recovery miles. I won’t lie- even though I kept the pace slower than Saturday’s long run, there were parts that were the very opposite of easy. I kept pace and ran all but one of the hills though. Still, I wish it had felt a little better.

12.4 miles for the week and only 1 Transform 20 workout. Which means I will be restarting week 2 come Monday as I was barely hanging on as it was. I am hoping to get in 2 short-ish runs before race days so fingers crossed!

How was your week?