Huntington Beach, CA
Feb 5, 2017
Split Times:
Location
|
Net Time
|
Pace
|
5k
|
25:11
|
8:07/mi
|
10k
|
51:06
|
8:14/mi
|
10.4mi
|
1:25:07
|
8:21/mi
|
14.1mi
|
1:57.38
|
8:25/mi
|
19.7mi
|
3:00:14
|
8:43/mi
|
Finish
|
4:00:06
|
9:10/mi
|
Total Time:
| 4:00:06 (9:10 pace) |
My Rank in Age Division (M45-49):
| 50 out of 150 |
My Rank Overall:
| 385 out of 1585 |
Unique State:
| 25 |
Overall Marathon:
| 35 |
Under 4 Hours:
| No - 6 seconds!!! |
Weather:
| 53°F and Partly Sunny at the Start Line |
Quick Facts:
- This was my 2nd time running in California (remained at 25 unique states) and my 35th overall marathon.
- Earned the California Dreamin' medal by running the most recent San Francisco & Surf City Marathons.
- Weather was beautifully perfect for the race.
- The expo was a nice outdoor event near the beach. Most of it was under a huge tent, but a good band was playing outside and good vendors were inside.
- After the race, I watched the Patriots complete the largest comeback win ever in a Super Bowl in the Super Bowl's first ever overtime game. They beat the Falcons in Super Bowl LI (34-28).
- The hotel that I stayed at, DoubleTree Club Orange County Airport in Santa Ana at 7 Hutton Centre Dr, was perfect. They had a luxury bus for the shuttle to/from the marathon, and they greeted us all after the race with pots & pans clattering! They had a great pre-race pasta meal, too. Great hotel.
~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~
The Surf City Marathon obviously has a great location with fantastic scenery with the course running along the Pacific Coast Highway with views of dozens of surfers. The weather was perfect for running this year with cloud cover, very little wind, and cool temperatures. They seemed to have fantastic spectator support from some pre-teen / teen group or organization? At least for the first half of the Full, there were dozens and dozens of kids cheering us on with as much gusto as they could muster. They were awesome! There were very few hills of any kind. I’m from Fargo, and even I thought the course was fairly flat. The water stations were as good as could be with exactly what they’re supposed to have. Bananas were also found a couple times throughout the race. At the end of the race, it was nice to see an orange and the usual water, banana, and other food items. For me, it’s practically REQUIRED for the finish line to have chocolate milk, and I’m thankful to say they had my wonderfully tasting chocolate milk waiting for me! The medal was awesome. I did the San Francisco Marathon in July of 2016, so I also was able to pick up my California Dreamin’ medal with a spinner on it … nice! Everything about this race was really, really nice. I do wonder if the length of the Full was a little more than normal. I believe it was more like 26.58mi, according to my GPS. This is significant to me, because, well, I had a time of 4:00:06! I would’ve gotten under 4hrs, if it was a tiny bit shorter … perhaps 23 miles would’ve been nice. Ha. Seriously, more clocks along the route would’ve made the race perfect … some races, for example Charlotte, have a clock on every mile marker.
Also, a big thanks goes to the Double Tree Club on Hutton in Santa Ana! They did a surprisingly good job making all of the runners feel welcome there! They had a perfect pasta meal the night before. They had the luxurious bus ride to and from the marathon. They even greeted the runners after getting shuttled from the finish line back to their hotel with loud clanking of pans while lined up at the entrance to the hotel! Lots of congratulatory noise after an exhausting, fulfilling day. Then, the hotel finished it off with a Super Bowl party in their restaurant.
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In the South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa on my way to find my new Apple Watch!
It's near the Lunar New Year (Jan 28, 2017) ... the year of the rooster.
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| I had a delicious quiche for lunch at the mall while making my final decision on which watch to wear. |
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| Huntington Beach at the Expo |
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| Huntington Beach at the Expo |
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| One of several VWs at the exit of the Expo |
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| VWs at the exit of the Expo |
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| VWs at the exit of the Expo |
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| I have to pick up a glass at the Expo! |
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| I spotted a dork at the Expo. |
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| Cosmic Reaction playing great music outside of the Expo |
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| Cosmic Reaction playing great music outside of the Expo |
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| Cosmic Reaction playing great music outside of the Expo |
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| The Double Tree Club at 7 Hutton Centre Dr had a nice pre-race pasta buffet. Perfect for the night before! |
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| My new Nike+ Apple Watch from my awesome wife! An early Valentine's Day present. Thank you!! |
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| Start Line to the Surf City Marathon |
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| Start Line to the Surf City Marathon |
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| Good view of the 1000s of runners in the Half & Full. This is at the point where I've already run back and forth on the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH-to the right), and now I'm heading back north up the bike trail. |
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| Good view of the 1000s of runners in the Half & Full. This is at the point where I've already run back and forth on the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH-to the right), and now I'm heading back north up the bike trail. |
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| Screenshot from my new Nike+ Apple Watch |
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| The Surf City Marathon medal and the California Dreamin' spinner medal that I earned for doing both the San Francisco Marathon & this Surf City Marathon! |
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| Double Tree Club greeting after the race! They did a fabulous job organizing the shuttle ride to and from the race, the pasta buffet, the Super Bowl party afterwards, and this greeting after the race! |
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| Double Tree Club greeting after the race! They did a fabulous job organizing the shuttle ride to and from the race, the pasta buffet, the Super Bowl party afterwards, and this greeting after the race! |
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| Found this place at the LAX airport for dinner. Waited at the airport for awhile for my red-eye flight back to MSP. |
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