Our shuttle left the hotel at 5:05am and drove us 6 miles away to the start line. We spent most of the pre-race time chatting with a Calgarian who had relocated to Orange County. Leave it to a bunch of Canadians to find each other in a sea of 10,000 people! We made our way to B-Corral around 6am and lined up with the other runners hoping to finish in 2:00-2:20. We decided to run 6 min/km with hopes of finishing under 2:10.
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| Tee-dubs getting ready to whoop some ass! |
There's something really powerful about standing shoulder to shoulder with 10,000 other runners while listening to someone sing the Star Spangled Banner. The cheering that followed was inspiring and motivating. We started to shuffle towards the start line, and with a blast of the horn, we were off.
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| Corral B as it approaches the start line. Loved the arch of ballons! |
The first few kilometers were fairly crowded and slow. There were lots of first-timers who had directionality issues and were weaving all over the place. A litte frustrating when you're in a crowd that big. We hit the first downhill portion and headed towards the coastline. There were thousands of spectators cheering us on as we made our way along the Pacific Coast Highway. I remember being utterly amazed by the massive caterpillar of runners spread out ahead of us on course.
We turned onto a residential street that took us down towards the waterfront. The houses were spectacular and the landscaping was amazing. Definitely lots to look at and keep us preoccupied! We hit the coast to find people on their decks, porches and balconies dressed in their PJs and holding cups of coffee while offering cheers, applause and words of encouragement. Many runners shouted their appreciation and gave a wave. The coastal section took us along the beach and past marinas with some pretty awesome yachts. Honestly, the views and the roadways made this course immensly enjoyable!
We crossed a bridge and began the first of two large hills. We slowed our pace to 6.5min/km and powered up an almost mile-long hill. We were greeted by an entire football team (the Lancers) cheering us on and handing out water. It was really nice to see some high school kids taking pride in their volunteer work and making a difference. And, they had the best hand-offs out of any of the water stations, too!
At the top of the hill, we rounded a bend and found ourselves running along the bluffs. The view was spectacular! We passed a flag pole with a huge American flag flying proudly over a monument to American soldiers. That was probably my favourite part of the race.
Both Kim and I felt strong, despite some nagging injuries and my shin splint had stopped hurting altogether by the 10K mark. I somehow managed to run 16K before I needed my first walk break, a new high for me! After a short minute, we were right back to pounding the pavement and even took a small detour to run across someone's lawn and through their sprinklers!
Then we hit the next big hill and rocked it. Someone had a sign that read "Make this mile your bitch!" and another that said "The surgeon general didn't warn about smoking the competition!". It's signs like these that get you through the pain and hurt!
With 12 miles down and 1 more to go, we realized we may actually be on pace to run sub 2:10. And had it not been for the fact that the course was actually 21.35km (instead of 21.1) we would have done it. Some poor bloke hit the wall about 50 yards from the finish line and fell flat on his face. He was being tended to as we crossed the line...in 2:11.25. A wee bit shy of the goal, but another personal best for me!
Finishing the Orange County Half Marathon brought us one race away from completing our Beach Cities Challenge! But for now, another awesome medal gets added to my wall and tons more memories of running with my sister.
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| TW2 and TW1 after completing the Orange County Half Marathon. |
Happy trails, fellow runners!
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