My friend, Kathleen, and I finished the 2009 Santa Cruz half marathon yesterday. And wow.... it was a HOT one! It hit 90 degrees here and in Santa Cruz yesterday.We did great though, regardless. A new personal best for me. My official chip finishing time was 1:55:05. That's about a 8:47 min/mile pace. I came in at #81 of 557 finishers in the females 30-39 age category. Kathleen's finishing time was 1:52 (finished 63rd!)... and I think that was a new personsal best for her too.
We started out a lot faster than we should have... probably because a) we forgot our watches and b) we were still in line for the restrooms when the gun went off. So, by the time we crossed the STARTING line... the race had already started 6 minutes prior and we had a LOT of adrenaline to try and manage!
It wasn't my favorite course.... beautiful from the starting line to mile 3 and from mile 10 to the finish. But, it was bumpy dirt trails with lots of rocks looping around open farm fields from miles 6-9 (along an ocean cliff for probably 1.5 miles of that sucky part). And, because we started the race late... we spent the entire race trying to pass runners ahead of us and that's extra challenging on dirt paths. You sometimes run in the grass alongside the trail, trip on rocks or bumps or whatever. Not exactly as safe for your ankles as road racing. And to top it off... you finish the race off on the sandy beach. Yes... you run your last approx 20 yards on sand. Not sure who thought up that great idea.... clearly... not one of the runners.
The photo above is of us after the race all nice and stinky (taken with my BlackBerry) with the Santa Cruz wharf in the background.
This is me at home with the boys after... in the large photo... you can see the boys standing at the gate behind me crying because I'm not holding them. So, of course I had to pick 'em up to be in the photo.
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