The Big Chill: A Race Report

Come one, Come All to Sunny Southern California for an Ocean Front Run in the Warm California weather.

SCRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEETTTTTTCHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Oh Snap... wait a minute. It's flippin' 47 degrees and RAINING and WINDY!

I wake up to my phone ringing at about 5:30 am. It's my boss. She was running the full marathon. She calls to tell me that it looks like a cyclone down at the starting line and she's going home. The half marathon started an hour later (that's why I was still in bed).

So I sit up and look at the Captain. Should I run it? Shouldn't I? Should I? Shouldn't I? Of course, he wouldn't give me an answer, except to say that I will be regretting it all day if I don't try. (Dang, that man knows me well) So I decide to to just drive down to the starting line and see how it looks.

We arrive at Main St in Huntington Beach and I see all kinds of runners milling around in their ponchos and trash bags. That's when it hit me - THESE ARE MY PEOPLE. I am running this MO FO.

So the Captain got as close as possible to the starting line and dropped me off. I hovered under a building awning try to stay dry (didn't work so well with the wind). Then I realized that I was at the starting point for the 5k so I had to walk about 4 blocks to the Half Marathon Starting Point. There, we had to get in our corrals with no coverage from the rain. This is when the doubt kicked in. Standing there just getting pelted by rain from all directions, soaked through, freezing my tootsies off, I thought "Well, this was a mistake." If I could just start running, I would be better. But I had to wait for about 30 minutes. ARGH.

Then FINALLY - we're off. I was in the 3rd corral. I took off like a bat out of hell. (Where the heck did that saying come from?) I don't remember much except that my hands were so cold, I could barely change the songs on my iPod. I looked at my watch (didn't bring Big G) around mile 3 and realized that I was running about a 9 min/mile. That's way faster than normal. That's when it hit me - maybe, just MAYBE I could get the same time I did last year.

I kept that pace all the way until about mile 8 - where we did a turn around. BAM - the wind strikes again. This time it was blowing off the ocean (to the side) AND from the South. So my paced slowed a bit. I popped a caffeine shot block and kept going.

Mile 11 - I looked at my watch and realized I had 2 miles left and only 16 minutes if I wanted to beat my time. Was I going to give up? Oh hell no - I started picking people infront of me to pass up - skinny blond bitch was my first victim, then skinny tangled hair was my 2nd. That's when "Stronger" by Kanye West came on my iPod (that was my marathon song). I knew I had a chance. The last quarter mile, I cracked as fast as I could. I could do this!

Final Time: 2:03

I DID IT! (last year was 2:04). I have NO idea how, but I did it.

After the race, I grabbed my medal and kept running - straight to The Captains' car - where I jumped in to big dry towels and a warm cozy sweatshirt (oh, and a seat warmer pre-warmed up). He was so proud of me. He said "wow, you even beat a bunch of guys." For some reason, that is what he thinks is the cool - that I can run faster than some guys. ha ha.

Hopefully the Brightroom photos came out because there isn't one photo from that day! Stay tuned for those!