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)