2014 - Surf City Half Marathon

Date:  Sunday, February 2nd. 

Starting time: 7:30 am

A couple of weeks before the Surf City Half Marathon, I received an email announcing a new challenge: The California Dreamin' Racing Cup. Basically, all finishers of the 2013 San Francisco Full/Half Marathon who finish the Surf City this February will receive a cool bottle opener medal. 

Since I ran the San Francisco Marathon last year and many of my friends were heading to Newport for the race,  I said to myself "Why not?"

Saturday, February 1st - Expo

We left San Diego at 2:30 pm and arrived in Huntington Beach jusssst in time before they closed the expo at 5:00pm. It usually takes us an hour and half to drive there but there was serious traffic that day.

Flashy hot-pink shirt for the women. Bright yellow for the men.

I love this running/surfer-style expo. It was  in and out for me, except for a quick stop to purchase a new pair of compression socks and cheap sun glasses. I had forgotten mine at home and I remembered that last year I was squinting my eyes for the last 4 miles of the race.  After the expo, we checked in at our hotel and went out for dinner at Vie de France. It was ok, nothing to die for! 

Saturday, February 2nd

I woke up at 5:45 am and headed to the hotel lobby 30 minutes later to meet my friends. It was verrrry cold outside, around 49 degrees. I had to borrow a jacket.  We carpooled to Edison High School at the Corner of Magnolia and Hamilton where a school bus would shuttled us to the starting line. We arrived at the starting line around 7:25. I usually like to be at the corrals 30 minutes before the race starts but my friends are more easy going. My friend Pretty has assured me it's an Indo thing. I don't know. I am half Austrian. I am usually on time :-) We took some pictures, wished each other good luck and finally got rid of our jackets. The sun was coming out.  Nice! I was no longer going to freeze to death!

I was assigned to corral 9 but we all started together in some random corral. For the first time ever, I was not paying attention. Maybe the Indo thing is rubbing off me?? We crossed the start line around 8:00 am. I ran without Garmin or music but I turned my RunKeeper app on just to have some stats to look at after the race. My goal was to enjoy the race and get that cool bottle opener. It was really just another training run. I was also having issues with my piriformis and IT Band so I didn't want to push it.

Mile 1-2

We started along the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) and passed the Huntington Beach Pier. 

Photo Credit: Surf City

Mile 2-5
We made a turn on Seaport and headed to Huntington Central Park. To my surprise, I was keeping it up with the 2:05 pacers. There was a little incline between mile 3-4, around Garfield Avenue. I remember thinking "Does Garfield dislike Sundays or Mondays? I don't know but I could eat a soup right now!".  It's so early in the race and I was already having weird thoughts! :-)

Mile 5-8
We were back on the PCH.  I spent these three miles chasing runners left and right. The 2:05 pacers had passed me but they were not too far away. Eli and Stephanie, whom I just met before the race, they are friends of friends, are doing their Galloway thing. They passed me. I passed them. They passed me. I passed them. This brings back memories of the WDW Marathon where I ran next to Jeff Galloway and his "entertaining" stopwatch. Beep beep. It's time to walk. Beep beep. It's time to run. Beep beep. It's time to walk. Jokes apart, I don't use the Galloway method anymore but I owe the man and his training program a lot for helping me out when I was injured years ago at this precise race course. At mile 7, I spotted someone wearing a rabbit costume with a poster that said "Cheaters. Cut through here". He screamed "You don't need to run the next 2 miles". Everyone laugh. 

Mile 8-13
This race course is an out and back. At mile 8 we made the turn.  The last 5 miles are almost flat, not entirely but it's not too bad.  At mile 9, I got chills literally. We had very strong winds making it impossible for me to speed up.  At mile 12, I saw the best poster EVER, it read: "WTH or Where's The Finish". This poster was made for me. Soon we saw the Huntington Pier. We were almost there!

I managed to cross the finish line with a big smile on my face, just few minutes after the 2:05 pacers. At first, I thought I'd ran a sub 2-10 ( yeah, I was back in the game), when in reality I finished in 2:14. It turns out that I started few minutes before the 2:05 pacers.  This happens when you run a race without a Garmin and time goals in mind. 

Overall, I enjoyed this race. It's not the best course in the world but it's worth for the medal, the shirt, the expo. I also love that there is a big group of Marathon Maniacs running this event every year and I am always lucky enough to have my picture taken :-)

2013 with Marathon Maniac's President

2014 Tinker Bell Half Marathon Weekend

Friday,  January 17th - Expo

This was my third Tinker Bell Half Marathon.  It was also the year that I almost went broke at the expo. New Balance and runDisney launched a new line of Cinderella and Goofy inspired running shoes for the adults and a Minnie special edition for the kids.

Of course, my daughter felt in love with the Minnie ones and to my surprise I really liked the Cinderella ones. I am not a big Cinderella fan but I love how this shoe felt (very light and neutral) plus the blue-yellow-white color reminded me of my Canary Islands. So I ended up buying both. I also brought to the expo last year's Minnie edition to see if I could exchange them since they don't fit me anymore. Yes, my feet have grown over the year.  They told me that they didn't do exchanges at the expo but they tipped me off to check for its price on Ebay. Wow! $450 for my +/- $100 shoes. Seriously? I might keep them as a "collectable item". How crazy!

Also, this year runDisney launched their own line of tutus. I got the lime-aqua colored one from a friend at the WDW Marathon. It's cute for Disney races but it's kind of puffy.

Saturday, January 18th - Kids Race

This was my kids' second race at Disneyland. The first one was 3 years ago.

My little Tinkerbell can fly. Both feet off the ground. 2011

They were excited to run in California Adventure again. However, the race course for their 200 meter and 400 meter  run changed this year. It took place in a parking lot outside of the parks. What a shame! On the other hand, the kids' race was postponed until 9:30 am which is kind of nice. We no longer had to wake up at 5:30 am.  They both ran happy and proud. After the race, my 5-year old son asked if we could sign him up for the next one. My 8-year old daughter, on the other hand, asked if we could sign her up for the 10k.  "This is too short and I don't like the plastic medals. I want the real thing".  I know she can run 10k but she will need to wait until she is 10 years old.

Sunday, January 19th - Half Marathon

I went to bed at 11 pm on Saturday and woke up at 3:00 an on Sunday. 4 hours of sleep. Zzzzz

I met my fairy friends in the hotel lobby at 3:30 am. Zzzzz

We walked from the hotel to the staging area ( 10-15 min) and met more friends.

The race started at 5:00am.  My only goal for this race was to have fun. I stopped to take pictures at Paradise Pier where I met my friend Crystal.

I also stopped in Cars Land, Disneyland's Main Street and Small World.

It was cool meeting so many friends on the course! I ended up running 14.2 miles per my Garmin! Go figure! My finishing time was 2:18 ( 2:09 at mile 13). It's probably my slowest at Disneyland hehehe but so worth it :-)

For more information about the race course, see my previous recaps from 2012 and 2013

Tinker Bell 10k - Inaugural. 

This year was Tinker Bell 10K Inaugural. I didn't sign up because I thought it was at the same time as the kid's race but that was not the case. I wished I would have signed up. Beautiful medal! There is always next year!

Coming Up ….

My next runDisney event is the Inaugural Glass Slipper Challenge.  This is the WDW Princess 10k on Saturday followed by the WDW Princess Half on Sunday. You get a third medal for completing the "challenge". I am also adding a 5k on Friday with my husband and kids.

What's your next race?

I am still here!

My blog has been quiet for about 2 months, so I thought I'd write a quick update on what I've been doing lately. It's been busy at work and home but this doesn't mean I haven't ran at all. I've been working hard on a new challenge, the 30-plan plank nap challenge.

Naaa, I will rest when I am dead! No time for naps, people. Since my last blog entry, I've participated in a couple of races, including the following:

October 28th, 2013 - Rock 'n' Roll Los Angeles Halloween Half Marathon

This was my last Rock 'n' Roll race of the year. I completed 7 RnR races achieving "Rock Legend" status.  Out of all the RnR heavy medals, this is definately my favorite.

I can't say the same about the race course. I truly disliked the uninspiring route and the condition of the streets in LA. It was ugly and boring.  I wish they would have kept the original route. To top it all, I was suffering from both plantar fasciitis and piriformis. So it wasn't a fun day for me. Still, I enjoyed the Halloween atmosphere pre and post race as well as the company of my good friends.

Which came first: The chicken or the egg?

Sexy kitties, a bumblebee and "Dexter the HK killer"Plantkin

With my friend Tunisia the queen of planking

November 9th, 2013 - Mermaid Run San Francisco

Two weeks later, I was scheduled to work in San Francisco, a last minute thing.  Lucky me, there was a new race in town that weekend, the new Mermaid Run Sirena10 miler.  It was exactly what I needed to erase the bad experience I had at the RnR LA. As usual, we had beautiful weather, breathtaking views and guess what? Hardly a trace of plantar fasciitis. Yes, San Francisco has become my favorite place to run in the world! Nothing compares to running on the Golden Gate bridge. As for this race, there were a lot of added bonuses including a super cute technical shirt and a lovely finisher necklace.

November 28th, 2013

My last race was the O'side Turkey Trout in Oceanside. I signed up with my  8-year old daughter on Thanksgiving Day Weekend. I like their slogan: "Move your feet before you eat". We ran the entire 5k side-by-side without any stops except for water breaks at the stations. It was cold, windy but sunny. It was also our first time running together in Oceanside. This was my daughter's fifth 5k and her 4th this year. I truly enjoyed running with her but what I liked the most was the expression on her face as we crossed the finish line. She was tired, happy and proud. It was priceless!

What's next?  I am running the 2014 Tinker Bel Half Marathon on Jan 18th.
What about you? Are you training for a big event?

Road Runner's Adventure Run

This is a free 60-minute scavenger hunt-like fun run organized by Road Runners Sports. How does it work? You arrive to the store before 6:00 pm and register for the "Adventure". They give you a Ziploc bag, a small pencil, a piece of paper and a coupon for a free beer courtesy of  Stone Brewery. Not bad at all! I decided to buy an "Adventure Run" shirt and a headlamp since I have 20% discount at the Road Runners store. For making the purchase, they gave me a ticket for a raffle.

They had many vendors outside of the store that let us try their products during the run.  They just required us to leave our ID with them. I tried the Nathan's hydration belt, a new pair of New Balance and some compression socks.

My friend Sheri was volunteering at the event.

At 6:00 pm, the organizers unveiled a map with checkpoints. These were places where we should stop to get tickets for a raffle. The more tickets the more chances to win prizes at the end of the night.  Some people wrote the checkpoints down and some people took pictures with their smartphones.  Each checkpoint was either a local business or a volunteer. I had no idea where I was going running but I followed the crowd and collected my tickets at each point. We were told to be back at 7:00 pm, this is when the raffle was scheduled to start. I didn't really look at my watch until 6:40 pm.  We were somewhere near Legoland when we decided to turn around. We knew at that point that we were +/- 2 miles from the end. We ran a total of 4.5 - 5 miles.

As soon as we arrived at the Road Runner's parking lot, we place our tickets in a bucket and wait for our lucky numbers to be called.They were giving  away: free hour massages, Polar gear, hydration belts and many more products. After 20 minutes, they asked everyone to stand up.  Thinking that it was the end of the party, I went to say goodbye to my friend Sheri. She told me that this was just to stretch our legs and to stick around for more prizes. I was cold and hungry, ready to go home but we decided to stay until the end.

Soon after, they announced the last giveaway and biggest price. Again, I was ready to take off when I heard my name. YES!  I received a free pair of Asics, a free hydration belt and free Powerbar Energy Blast products. Now, I am not a big fan of Asics but I am a big fan of FREEbies :-)  Did I mention that I love this Adventure Run?

Thanks Sheri for all the tips! Also thanks to my friend Tessa that convinced me to participate.
It was FUN! For more information about the Adventure Run, click here

Coming Up ...

Are you participating in any Halloween themed races this year?

2013 Long Beach Half Marathon Race Recap

Race Date: October 13th 2013

Start time: 7:30 am 

Distance: Half Marathon

 The Long Beach Marathon is one of my favorite races in Southern California. I ran it for the first time last year and I had the time of my life. I originally signed up for the half marathon but upgraded to the full in the very last minute at the expo. You can read more about here. This year, I was invited to participate in any Long Beach event ( half marathon, full marathon or bike race), courtesy of Team VW.  After having such a great experience last year, I chose the full marathon!  Unfortunately I've been suffering from plantar fasciitis fuckciitis for the last 3 weeks so I ended up downgrading to a half marathon. It was a FREE race and I had a lot of friends running it so I figured why not. I would take it easy and  run/walk/crawl ... do whatever it takes to finish the race. 

Saturday October 12th - Expo

My friend Tessa and I left San Diego around 9:30 am and drove to Long Beach to pick up our race packets. Our first stop was Dexter's house. Who is Dexter? He is a serial killer. He is the main character of a television drama series which took place in Miami but was mostly filmed in Long Beach.  To be honest, I never watched this show before but my friend Tessa is a big BIG fan. She had promised to give me a "killer" tour this weekend as we would run by some locations featured on the TV series

This is where Dexter and Rita lived

The actual owner of the house was there and she let us sit in her porch. How cool is that!

After the quick stop, we went to the Expo. 

I picked up my race bib, technical shirt and headed to the Team VW booth. We were given a cool VW backpack, one technical shirt, 2 cotton shirts for my supporters and a Volkswagen car. Isn't it amazing? I am just kidding! The backpacks and shirts were very nice treats. It was completely unexpected. I thought I would just get a free entry to the race.

We walked around for a couple of minutes and met Julie Weiss aka Marathon Goddess.

She was featured in a movie called the Spirit of the Marathon II. If you haven't watched this movie, I really recommend it. It might inspire you to run Maratona Di Roma one day. 

Sunday October 13th - Race Day

We woke up at  4:30 and left my friend's apartment 15 minutes later.  The full marathon was scheduled to start at 6:00 am and the half marathon at 7:30 am. There was a lot of traffic but we avoided most of it.  My friend Nadine lives in Long Beach so she knows her streets. $10 for parking, just 2 blocks from the front beach. Not bad at all!  I met some of my friends at the start area.

Sheri (yellow shirt and flower) was running her first marathon

My blogger friend Monika with a K 

My friends aka The Medal Whores (FB page)

My friend Marathon Mitch, a fellow Marathon Maniac

I also met Ingrid, Jen and Katie from Embrace the Crazy

We started with the 2:15 corral and no BIG expectations.  My friend Tessa is a fast runner but has a double fracture in her pelvic bone while I have my foot issues. We make a wonderful pair, don't we? We ran together for the first 2 miles before we reached one of the bridges. Tessa pointed out at some deck that was featured in Dexter.  I like my friend's enthusiasm. A stranger wanted to know more about this and kidnapped my friend with a million of questions and a faster speed. Heeey, what do you think you are doing, man?

Suddenly, I was running alone. No problem. I spent miles 3-6 playing the "let's see how many people I can pass before my foot starts killing me" game.  My ultimate goal was to meet Tessa again.  I could no longer see her on the course.  I focused on a girl wearing a purple top. She had nice speed. I passed her. Next target, a couple wearing red shirts. I passed them.  It was time for a quick body check. "Yep, my feet are still attached to my legs. Let's keep moving".  I had no clue what my speed was. I was not wearing a Garmin or carrying my iPhone, on purpose. I didn't want to obsess over time. I just wanted to run until my foot says NO. 

At mile 6, I reunited with Tessa, right before entering Long Beach. We ran on the bike path for 5 loooong miles. It felt like an eternity. Aha, for some reason it's called Long Beach! For those who don't know, this is also where they filmed Baywatch or "Los vigilantes de la playa" for my Spanish audience.

Photo Credit: Rick Warren

At mile 8, my foot started to hurt like hell. However, the thought of not having to run another 18.2 miles put a smile on my face. "I can do 5!". I also started thinking about my daughter and her love for running when a biker passed me blasting music from his speakerphone. He was playing my daughter's favorite running song,  Journey's Separate Ways. It gave me chills. Thanks Universe!

At mile 10, we turned around at Dexter's sister's house, Debra.

There I realized that I'd lost Tessa at some point. She was probably hanging out with Dexter's sis somewhere :-) At mile 10.5, the half marathons and full marathoners merged. I found myself playing the passing game again. In the horizon, I could see the Aquarium. It was the final home stretch. My finishing time time was 2:09:17. It's not fast by any means but I am happy considering my plantar fasciitis.

I don't think I will race with music again unless it is a very hilly course. I missed my Garmin, though. It would be nice to go back and check my stats. But for now, I really like the ones provided by the Long Beach race organizers.

- Of the 11933 who finished, 58% were Women and 43% were men.
- I was ahead of about 55% of men runners. I like that!
- I passed 652 runners and 178 passed me.

BIG thanks to Team VW for the free entry. I would also like to thank the race organizers and volunteers. I really love this race! 

___

Quick update. I just found out that my story was selected by Team VW and it's featured on their official website.  *big smile on my face*