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SAFARI PARK HALF MARATHON: RACE REPORT

A few months ago, it dawned on me that I had only raced two half-marathons in my entire life.  Back in High School when running sparked my interest, my training runs were catered to the Half Marathon distance; however I was only racing 5ks. At the time, I wanted to improve my 5k before I “graduated” up to 10k, 12k, etc.  Still naive and inexperienced, in 2004 I finished my first Half Marathon (Caesar Rodney Half in Wilmington, DE) in 1:45:40.  Then six years later I dropped 8½ minutes at the 2010 OC Half Marathon in Newport Beach, CA, finishing in a time of 1:37:07. 

With my first Half IronMan (IronMan 70.3 California) rapidly approaching, I decided that a solid half-marathon performance in March would be assuring.  After 5 months of running success, I was confident that I could finish a half in under 1:30:00. The question was, “Would I?” A handful of co-workers were registered for the Inaugural Safari Park Half Marathon, so I immediately jumped on the bandwagon!  The race was perfectly timed, 20 days before my half-iron. 

When I woke up on race day, there were two potential inhibitors looming over me.  One, Daylight Savings had gone into affect so I had lost an hour of sleep. Two, the day before I had ridden 70 miles so my legs were pretty torn up. But seeing the glass half-full, Oceanside was my priority, so the fitness gain was my reason for racing.

With an open-mind, I started the race like any other. I was on a mission for a sub 1:30:00 finish time. Knowing that I had a decent amount of ground to cover, I mentally transformed the race into an epic adventure through Africa to help pass the time. As usual, I was running without a watch so my focus was on my stride and posture. I'm a firm believer that your body will tell you more than a watch ever could. Based on what I'd learned during my fall marathon training, I seemed to be running well! 

Mile-by-mile I focused on maintaining a constant effort. I was slightly dissapointed that I didn't see any of the park animals. Wait no, I saw a horse! (After growing up near Pennsylvania, this was everything but exciting.) In actuality, I probably missed all the park animals because I was in the "zone," and focused on the road ahead. I felt great up until mile 9 when a heavy fatigue struck me like a sucker-punch. Struggling to hang-on, I was saved by the Chocolate Outrage Gu around the 10-mile mark. Slightly revived, I was determined not to lose it all in the last 5k of the race. As it turns out, all of those 5k's I've raced paid off, because I stayed strong all the way across the finish line, 1:29:05!!! Needless to say, I was estatic! Oceanside, here I come!

Congrats to all CGIers who raced at Safari Park! In all, we had over a dozen!

(Photo compliments to Ollie Neglerio, http://ollie.neglerio.com)

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood...

February was a heavy travel month, New Orleans for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Mardi Gras Marathon, followed by a trip to Texas for the Livestrong Austin Marathon, and finally a day trip up North to test my spear-throwing skills at the Spartan Race in Temecula.  Don’t get me wrong, I love living like a jetsetter but I also love San Diego!  It’s always a great feeling when I step outside of the airport just to be welcomed home by the smell of the Pacific sea breeze.  This is why I’m stoked to be here in San Diego for the entire month of March!

Staying true to tradition, March came in like a lion!  After a week of heavy training sessions, crazy deadlines and numerous “bumps” in the road, I was ready for a much-needed Saturday here in San Diego.  I woke up, bright and early (just how I like to) for Chelsea’s 5k in Balboa Park.  Over 5,000 runners and walkers came out for the event.  It was refreshing to see so many people rallying to raise awareness and honor the memory of Chelsea King.  The front-end of the course was flat and fast, so fast that my first mile split was a 5:16.  That’s much less impressive once you know that I finished in 19:12.   While it was a good follow-up to the 19:08 that I ran at the Paramount Break-A-Leg 5k in Austin, it still left me hovering over the 19:00 mark.  One of these days I’ll breakdown and either start running with a watch or start doing pace work.  18:59 is so close that I can practically taste it!

The San Diego sunshine showed her face at the finish line festival in Balboa Park, making for an awesome morning!   After re-hydrating and moaning about the killer hill at the end of the course with some co-workers, my roommate Hunter and I headed back to North County for our afternoon ride.  Unfortunately, Ironman 70.3 Oceanside is only 28 days away, and we couldn’t join the rest of the crew for brunch.

The 4-hour ride inland was great!  I’m feeling more and more confident that I’m going to deliver a solid performance at Oceanside in 4 weeks (knock on wood.)  We followed-up the ride with a 1 mile swim-down, then cruised by Seaside Market for some food.  It was a very “San Diego” Saturday, exactly what I needed!