Surf City Recap

I waited a bit to do my recap because I've had many different thoughts on this race.  Overall I have to say it was terrific!  The entire weekend was a lot of fun and the race was flawless.  We stayed at the Huntington Hyatt so that we'd be able to walk to the start without worrying about parking.  We went down on Friday and had dinner with friends at Captain Jack's in Sunset Beach.  It's one of our favorite places to eat when we're down there.

Saturday, we hit the expo early so that we could avoid the crowds.  It was a beautiful day and I think if we'd gone much later it could've gotten hot in the tents.  It was organized and had lots of great vendors.  That evening we had a large group for dinner and carbo loading at Mamma D's in Newport Beach.  Another fabulous meal with outstanding service.

Woke up at 5:50 on Sunday, ready to run!  We walked over to our friends trailer and toasted my bagel and enjoyed a cup of coffee.  Around 7:00, my twitter friend @CarrieSinCa stopped by to introduce herself.  My friends (that don't do The Twitter) thought I was insane to invite someone I've never met over.  One friend (who shall remain nameless) even wanted to know what her half PR was because she didn't want to feel intimidated by someone super fast coming by!  Runners are funny!  Anyway, it was great to meet her and my friends all thought she was awesome for stopping by to say hi!

Finally it was time to line up.  It was an amazing day and the race started on time.  I felt great most of the race.  The inclines didn't bother me at all.  I didn't like the downhill more than the uphill.  That was the only time my knee gave me any trouble.  But as soon as we flattened out, I was feeling good again.

I keep my playlist on shuffle so that I'm always surprised on my runs.  This was the first time I've ever encountered ALL of my old songs coming up.  I didn't have one new song and it was bumming me out. So I started double clicking my headphones to fast forward songs I didn't like around mile 5.  At mile 8 I realized I wasn't hearing my splits.  I pulled out my phone to find out my runmeter had turned off just past mile 6!  I was so bummed that I wouldn't have an accurate time.  But I just turned it on and kept going.

When I past the finish line the clock read 2:07.  I was bummed because I thought we'd started about 4 minutes in.  All of my splits seemed to be on track for a sub 2 run so I walked through the finish a little dejected.  I didn't see anyone I knew, so I decided to head back to the trailer, where we'd agreed to meet.  I ran into my hubby and our buddy who'd been taking pictures of us along the route.  They told me our wave didn't start until nearly 8 minutes and that I'd definitely finished sub 2.  That brought my spirits up! Soon after Sarah showed up and a few minutes behind her was Lisa.  They both had great runs as well!

Lisa said that this race always posts results same day.  So around noon I checked out the results page. It had my 3 mile split and my 8 mile split but didn't show a finish time.  Lisa and Sarah both had times posted and were very happy with their results!  I finally went by the tent and asked about my results.  I was told that meant I didn't finish.  I assured him that I did finish and had a good time (for me!).  He said that once my splits were confirmed that the back up system was in place and my time would be posted.  He said it would be up by 3PM that day.  It wasn't.  So I waited until Tuesday and then I filed a form with them requesting that they look into my results.  By Thursday I had an official race time!  I was so happy to have an official time.  But it seemed a little generous.  My official time was 1:55:02.  That seems a little fast.  After using what I had from runmeter and looking at my start and finish time, I'd estimated I was somewhere between 1:57-1:59.  Now most people don't complain about a faster time than they'd figured, but since it now is a new PR I want it to be accurate.  At this point I'm sticking with the time and knowing that if I want another PR, then I'll just have to run faster!

So overall, I really  have no complaints about this race.  Everything about it ran smoothly and we had a fabulous weekend with friends to boot.  I will definitely do it again!  Oh and my hubby did a great job taking pictures for us!!