After picking up our packets and checking out the expo, we headed down to the beach. It was a gloriously beautiful day! Sunny and warm but not hot. The kids played in the sand and splashed in the water and the rest of us soaked up the sunshine.
If you look closely at the horizon, you can see Catalina Island.
The sunshine kinda brought out the kid in me!
Thanks to Jeff & Kim and their Marriott points :-) we stayed at the Newport Beach Villas. Very Nice. Sunday morning Jeff, Kim & I left the hotel a little before 6:00 AM to head to Huntington Beach.
The shuttle service for the race was horrible, and poor Kim had to jog to the start line to meet Steve for their 5K. Jeff & I walked over to the start for the 1/2 which started a bit later. It was overcast & cold before the race.
The sun came out after about 1-2 miles. It stayed cool so the sun felt good. I was keeping a pretty good walking pace. The thought occured to me that I might be sorry in the later miles, but it would also feel really good to have a PR (personal record), so I tried to keep the pace. I did have to stop for a pic or two. :-)
My right knee started hurting around mile 10, but I didn't slow down. By mile 11-13, I was longing for it to end. Crossed the finish line at 3:06! (previous PR 3:14)
Jeff had his own PR of 1:59 despite some heavy duty pain in his ankle. And then there's Kimmie. She was just 4 weeks out from surgery, but decided to attempt walking the 5K anyway. She just wanted to finish, even if it took 2 hours. Well, she finished in 49 minutes! That's a great time even without surgery! And her sweet brother Steve stayed with her the whole time even though he could've run. Good brother! I'm proud of you Kimmie!
I was looking online for any press there may have been for the race, and specifically the number of runners, which was about 18,000. I found this interesting article about a man named Robert Lopez who ran Surf City...his 198th marathon! AND he and his wife have both survived cancer! Pretty inspiring, if you feel like reading it:
http://www.marathonguide.com/news/search.cfm?M_ID=484
I could relate to something he said: "I was attracted to running because it wasn't a team thing and nobody was relying on me to not screw up and a little bit of pressure was off. But also there was a social aspect to it. I was able to meet people, and they had great stories to tell." When you run (or walk), the only competition is with yourself, but there's still a lot of camaraderie. Sometimes chatting with complete strangers can get you through a tough mile or two. I've also recently "met" some pretty fun people on...[EDIT: Previous website referred to here is no longer a good site. See new, fantastic site www.runningoftheears.com] and will be joining some of them next month at Disney World for the Princess 1/2 marathon! Oh yeah, and the medals are pretty fun too!
