PR, Ocean View, and a Muffin: Encinitas Half Marathon Race Recap

A couple weekends ago, I raced the Encinitas Half Marathon. The short recap: Beautiful fast course. Mostly flat, with a couple sneaky hills (one around mile 12). Cute town, and friendly people. Great race swag. Only minor negatives: race shirts seemed to run big, and race gear drop off could use some improvement. Other than that, a GREAT race overall.

Now, for a wordy race report:

Encinitas is about 2 hours away from home. I’d never been there, and thought this was a good chance to get away for a quick trip and see if the past couple months of training were paying off. With a race start of 7:30, I decided the best thing was for me to drive down the day before and stay at a nearby motel. The motel was about a 10 minute walk from the race expo, and the start/finish line. It was really the perfect location for pre- and post- race.

Saturday Packet Pickup: I ended up leaving my house later in the day than planned, and arrived at the expo around 5:30pm. Technically, the expo was still open, but all the vendors had pretty much packed up and were working on closing down their tables, etc. This didn’t bother me because I don’t generally spend too much time at race expos. Although, I’ll admit part of me felt like the party closed down before I got there. And if I had wanted to scan the booths for some last minute nutrition or other race needs, I don’t think anyone was selling anything at that point. All that being said, I can’t blame them. There had been intermittent showers most of the day, so if I was working a table, I’d probably be wanting to go home early too. Anyway, packet pickup was a breeze. Got my bib, a small burlap bag filled with discounts and goodies, and my race shirt. Note: this race shirt seems to run big. I usually get a medium when getting race shirts, just to be safe (I’d rather have a shirt too big than too small). The consensus from other runners I chatted with the next morning, was that the shirts seemed big to them too (even the small size shirts). Race shirt sizing is always unpredictable. But that’s a topic for another day.

Morning of the race: I never sleep well before a race. I’m accustomed having to be at races hours before the start time to catch a shuttle to the start or to allow extra time for parking or traffic mishaps, or in the case of triathlons, a lot of extra time to set up transitions, or drop off gear bags. But here, I was only a 10 minute walk to the start. 15 minutes if I walked slow and got stopped at the lights. I already I had my bib, so there was absolutely no reason for me to go to the race early. Not having to be there early felt kind of strange.

Anyway, I ended up getting up around 5am to eat some breakfast (in this case oatmeal). I then left for the race around 6:30. I figured I could walk around, and just hang out and relax before the race started.

Once I got to the race start area, the sun started peaking out, and I realized I was going to be way too hot. I had worn capris, a tank, and a light jacket. Although it was still chilly, it was clear that the clouds weren’t going to stick around and I’d either have to ditch my jacket or tie it around my waist, if I decided to keep it with me. At that moment, I started looking for gear check.

It’s a good thing I started looking for gear check when I did. This was by far the worst part of the race, and most definitely the most inefficient gear check I’ve ever seen. The line was longer than porta-potty lines, and seemed to go on forever. After a long while, I finally made it to the front of the line, dropped off the jacket, and then went to the starting area. [side note: I think the issue was that everyone had to fill out a waiver/liability release (or something like that) before dropping their gear off. At first, they were only giving the waiver out to a handful of people at a time, causing the line to be slow. Thankfully, they changed it up and gave everyone in line a waiver, so it they could just drop it off with their gear once at the front of the line. Special thanks go out to the angel of a woman ahead of me that shared her extra pen with me. I’m still amazed she had pens with her at a race start.]

The race: A number of races I start with my only goal being to finish. Others, I race to see how fast I can go. This one was a bit different. The plan was to run it like a training run. Run the first 4 miles easy, and then the remainder of the race as a progression run. With that in mind, I found the 2:15 pacer to start with her. My plan was to stick with her for the first 4 miles and then break off and do my best to go faster each mile from that point on.

I did not stick to my plan.

My mile splits were:

Mile 1: 10:17 ~ Right where I wanted to be.
Mile 2: 9:35 ~ Um, how did I speed up that much?
Mile 3: 9:24 ~ Okay, well I guess I’m going this fast now.
Mile 4: 9:22 ~ At least I’m evening out my pace a bit.
Mile 5: 9:12 ~ Wait, I didn’t mean for that to happen.
Mile 6: 8:58 ~ Can I sustain this?
Mile 7: 8:38 ~ I have no idea where that came from.
Mile 8: 8:57 ~ And here comes the slow down…
Mile 9: 9:18 ~ Ugh, I knew I started too fast.
Mile 10: 8:43 ~ Interesting. Maybe there’s a little left in these legs.
Mile 11: 9:19 ~ Wait, is this a hill?
Mile 12: 9:44 ~ Yes, this is a hill. And me falling apart.
Mile 13: 9:38 ~ The end at last.

Watch time: 2:02:38 Avg. pace of 9:18

Official time of: 2:02:32

This was a HUGE half marathon PR. My previous best was 2:11:58. I have to say, I think my recent training is working.

The Finish: At the finish, I was given a great finisher’s medal, and continued to be given things as I kept walking. I got chocolate milk, a mug, boxed water, the best blueberry muffin ever, a banana, and some other things too. You could even get your mug filled up with hot chocolate if you wanted. The trick was balancing it all as I wandered around looking for a curb to sit down on for a bit. Once I found my curb, I settled in and enjoyed my muffin.