Da Iz Biz: Race Report: Surf City Half Marathon

And so the 2016 Race Season begins! This one was surprisingly good, but still a little rough. Still trying to nurse and recover from some significant foot pain that really feels like stress fractures. So really just kinda limped into this half and going to be limping into next weekend's LA full. But let's take a look at the surprising first race of 2016 for me!

Race details:
Huntington Beach, California
Run: 13.1 miles

Course Reported Finish: 1:48:03

Garmin Splits:

Race Summary:

The race went surprisingly well as the data above shows. I had two goals for this race: don't walk (except maybe through the water stations) and don't get injured. This race was simply a warm up and precursor to the LA full marathon next weekend. So I just wanted to go long in a race and be ready psychologically. And both of those things worked out (save a blister on my right foot which hopefully heals in a week).

From a pacing standpoint, I hit my goals pretty well. I wanted to stay right around 8 min/mile for the first 10K which I pretty much hit on point. I then wanted a slower mile 7, a mid 8s next 5K and then a really solid, dropping the hammer type final 5K. And I'm happy to say that I pretty much hit all those goals!!! I mean I didn't quite "drop the hammer" that last 5K, especially when I was holding 8 min/miles for the first 10K. But getting in the low 8s felt comparatively fast when you're struggling to hold on at the end and can psychologically feel a blister coming on. So I was pretty happy with how I ran the race more than the sub-1:50 results!

But that's the benefit of having some goals and trying to maintain a plan! You get surprised by more PRs!!! 1:48 (with a chip time of 1:48:03) is a new Half Marathon PR! My first couple years of racing, I only did the Boney Mtn Trail Half, so I definitely had a very slow time! But Avengers was my first half and this my second, so the PRs came right away! It did help that the course itself was almost as flat as Long Beach, if not flatter. It seems to be the theme in the Beach Cities Challenge Races.

Now that I've been through all the good points, I wanna hit the one sad point. And that's my relative performance. Yes I did well for myself. Awesome! That's great! Setting PRs is wonderful! But gosh when I look at my rankings it feels pitiful. I mean I was in the top 11% here vs. the top 7% at the Long Beach full. Looking down some of the results and the number of competitors, there were significantly more people here than at Long Beach. And I guess that makes sense with the shorter distance being a bigger goal for most people. And I guess that proportionately means some more fast people exist at the lower races. But it still hurts... So what does that mean? Just gotta get better I guess...