OC half marathon

The Avia OC marathon and half-marathon was this past Sunday. I've been gradually increasing my weekend long runs over the past month or two to the point where I did two 12.5 milers a couple weeks ago. My goal was, and is, the Laguna Hills half-marathon where I had my PR last year. The race is on Memorial Day - May 25 - so I figured what better training for a half-marathon than running another half-marathon?

I hadn't run one since last year's Laguna Hills half, and I haven't even run a race since the 4th of July 5k last year (unless you count my duathlon in March, which I guess counts since it involved running two 5ks). I was feeling a bit rusty, so I decided somewhat last-minute (about 2 weeks before) to push my training up a notch and run the OC half. This way I'd be getting a refresher in racing, pacing, etc. before the race I actually care about.

And it turned out to be a good idea. The weather was ideal for the OC half, I wasn't nervous for the race at all since I was just looking at it as a good training opportunity, and it was conveniently located so I didn't have to get up at 3 am or stay in a hotel the night before in order to get to the start line in plenty of time. Plus, I run the Back Bay part of the course every weekend so I was familiar with a good portion of the course, including the only 2 hills of consequence on the course.

Boy, was I rusty! My pacing was WAYYYY off for the first half. I was just cruising along for the first half, running comfortably and slowly passing person-by-person all the people who started out too fast the first few miles. And then I got to about the 5 mile mark and had a huge shock when I realized a) my GPS was off by about .15 miles so I hadn't run as far as I thought and b) I was just now catching up to the 3:40 marathon pacer (1:50 half marathon pacer). I panicked as I realized that if I kept on course I'd have no chance of a PR (even though that wasn't my goal for the race) and that even if I pushed it the second half of the course, achieving a PR or even a time close to my PR was going to be really difficult. So I picked up the pace but I never let myself push it too hard, I always kept it at a do-able pace that didn't leave me winded but also wasn't a pace I wanted to run 26 miles at.

And I felt really good for most of the race. I got a little dizzy (very, very mild, not enough to stop or be concerned about dehydration) from about miles 9-11, but taking a Gu at miles 5 and 10 really helped me maintain energy for the second half, and I pushed the pace well into the 7:00's. My 10k result was an abysmal 55 minutes/ 8:31 pace. I finished in 1:44:07, a 7:57 pace, so I'm thinking I must have averaged in the 7:30s for the second half of the race in order to end up with that time. Which gives me hope that I can run a 47 minute or maybe 46 minute 10k someday.

Overall the race was well-organized. No major complaints except that the bag pick-up area at the end was really difficult to find and had no signs to help you find it (it was hidden behind a fence on the way to the parking lot). And what's worse, upon arriving at the bag pick-up area, I discovered that there was only race volunteer present, and she was completely overwhelmed since she had a truck full of bags, not arranged in any particular order, to sort into bins. A bunch of racers and myself and Adam had to climb into the truck, toss out bags, and sort the bags by numbers into bins while looking for our own belongings. After about 15 minutes Adam finally found my bag and we left.

He is an awesome boyfriend, by the way. He woke up at the crack of dawn without complaint, sleepily drove me to Fashion Island and dropped me off with a hug and good luck wishes, and then, after returning home for a couple more hours of sleep, he parked his car at Kurt and Jen's and rode his bike to a couple points on the course to cheer me on. And then rode over to the finish area where he helped me find my bag and walked back to his car wtih me and drove me home. All without complaint. I'm so lucky.