Surfside Beach Half Marathon - 2010

This past weekend (Saturday, February 13th. I know. A week late. I have to do a better job at blogging sooner.) I ran in the Surfside Beach Half Marathon, in Surfside Beach, Texas. This is the only half marathon race in the US that is entirely run on the beach. This has to rank as either 1st or 2nd on my list of best races and race venues that I have participated in. It was not run perfectly (I have yet to see one that has been perfect), but the way it was run made you overlook the imperfections.

Since Surfside is more than 4 hours away, we decided to drive and stay at our friend's (JJ and Caprisa) place in Baytown, Texas. Surfside Beach is about an hour's drive southwest of Baytown. Our friends had a spaghetti dinner ready for us (thanks 'Prise). After catching up, we decided to call it a night sometime after 11 p.m. I set my phone's alarm for a 4:45 morning 'wake up call'.

The alarm goes off, and I swear, it seemed like I had just put my head down on the pillow. I head off to do my early morning race ritual of taking a shower, getting dressed, having my toasted bagel with jelly, my vitamin supplements/medicine, and apple juice. I make sure I have everything that I need for the race:

• shoes
• socks
• running shorts
• compression shorts
• long sleeve tech shirt
• my Lupus Runners short sleeve tech shirt
• gloves
• knit cap
• wind breaker top and bottoms
• bib attached to running belt
• cell phone (used for GPS, Facebook updates, directions to the race, and taking pictures)
• insulated lunch bag with 2 half pints of water, a pint of apple juice, and two gel ice packs to keep the drinks cool

I had everything except for my small band aides. I use these to cover my nips so that they do not bleed from chaffing against my shirts. The last time this happened was at last year's Philadelphia Distance Run (half marathon). I did not feel nor noticed that they were bleeding until my family pointed it out past the finish line. Needless to say, I did not want this to happen again, so I improvised. I used some left over 'butt paste' instead. I'm always reminding myself that I need to have, and use, an inventory check list.

The drive to Surfside Beach from Baytown was uneventful, except for seeing a wild boar on the highway median. It was having fun digging up roots. It would've fed a nice size family, but he looked scary enough that I would not have been anywhere near it.

After almost an hour's drive I start to see other vehicles with marathon, half marathon and triathlete stickers. I play "follow the leader" with the vehicles ahead of me. Once I saw a "Surfside Beach" sign I knew we were not too far away. Once over the Surfside bridge, we were guided by race volunteers until we reached the entrance to the beach. We park right on the beach. Surfside Beach reminds me of the beach home where our kindergarten teacher use to take us to in Connecticut. Lots of good memories there.

I headed west towards the registration/packet pickup tent. Once inside I looked up my bib number and head to the table where my packet was located. As I am given my packet. I'm asked if I wanted to switch my tech shirt for a polo shirt. Nice!! Not only did they provide us with that option, but they had two colors to pick from (red or grey). Never had these options before!!

The start/finish line.

The water/waves.

I headed back to my vehicle and warmed up as I attached my bib to my running belt. I attached my timing chip to my left shoe. One of the clear plastic draw ties breaks too easily as I draw it through its hole. Although there's hardly any wind or breeze, the cold moisture made me reconsider my running gear. I take off my wind breaker bottom and gloves, and keep the knitted cap and wind breaker top on. I store the gloves in my pockets, just in case.

I start warming up by running to the start/finish line from where I had parked. The sand was very firm, even on the low tide portion of the beach. I head into the tent and try to replace my broken draw tie, twice, unsuccessfully. The third time I did not pull the tie all the way through. That worked. Afterwards I quickly get in line for the portable restrooms. A lady tells me that the male portables have no one waiting. Nice of her to mention it. I did not even see that there were 'his' (green) and 'hers' (pink) portables. This is the first race of over 500 participants that I did not have to wait in line for a bathroom break.

I walked on to join the crowd as the announcer stated that the first 300 finishers will get a surprise when they visit the stats table. Both half and full marathons start running across the starting line at 8:00, heading west. Miles 1 and 2 were uneventful. The footing on the sand felt great. I felt relaxed enough (usually takes me about 1-2 miles) to pass runners. The only thing that was strange was the fact the we had not run into a drink station. I later find out that the volunteers for that water station had headed in the wrong direction, east instead of west. Not a big thing for me as I usually wait until after the third mile to take my first drink break.

Near mile marker 2 we hit the half marathon runners turn around point, and the marathon runners take a detour on their much longer course. There's noticeably less runner traffic, and I continue to pass more runners. Around the 31 minute mark, around mile marker 4, I take my first drink. I don't take another drink break until mile marker 6. The next water breaks are at the turnaround point past mile marker 9, and then again on mile marker 11.

Up until mile marker 11, I was running within a 7-8 minute per mile pace. On mile 11, I slowed the pace down to almost 10 minutes. There after, I increased the speed to under 8:12 and 8:51 minute per mile pace for miles 12 and 13 respectively. I hit the finish line at 8:34 minute per mile pace. I felt I could have started the "kick" a little earlier, but I'm happy with the finish. I find out later, through my age group results, that I had "out-kicked" two runners in my age group, by mere 2 and 5 milliseconds respectively!!

Volunteers handing out finisher's medals.

I grab a cup of water and start walking back towards mile 13 in order to cool off and cheer the rest of the participants as they run past me. After a couple of minutes I feel cooled down enough that I start taking more pictures of the beach.

More pictures of the beach.

I continued to cheer on the other runners as they pass me towards the finish line.

I picked up sea shells for Michelle.

I walked back towards the finish line as it is getting close to Libby's time to cross the finish line.
Libby is the North Texas State Representative for the Road Runners Club of America (RRCA), Executive Race Director of Heels and Hills, Inc., and past President of the Dallas Running Club. She has a blog on running called The Active Joe.

After a water break we wait in line for a free fruit smoothie. They had a variety of flavors. I had mango. Yummy!! We headed into the tent to grab some barbecue. After the meal we head back outside as the sunshine began peering through the clouds, making it bearable to be outside.

Overall a good race. Well run. I am making this a permanent fixture on my racing calendar.

My "preliminary" results are:

Gun Time: 1:51:43 (8:32 minute per mile pace)
Chip Time: 1:50:42 (8:27 minute per mile pace)
Age Group: 6th place out 23
Gender Group: 61st out 228
Overall: 74th place out of 517
Results: preliminary results

According to my phone's GPS I ran the race in 1 hour, 51 minutes and 8 seconds, at 8:27 minute per mile pace. The weather was cloudy, with a temperature of around 35 degrees, but it seemed colder.

01. 7:43.26, 0:07:43.26, 1 mi 7:43 / mi.
02. 8:34.91, 0:16:18.19, 1 mi 8:35 / mi. - turn around
03. 7:13.67, 0:23:31.85, 1 mi 7:14 / mi.
04. 8:15.89, 0:31:47.75, 1 mi 8:16 / mi. - drink break
05. 8:07.49, 0:39:55.25, 1 mi 8:07 / mi.
06. 8:19.45, 0:48:14.71, 1 mi 8:19 / mi. - drink break
07. 8:10.83, 0:56:25.55, 1 mi 8:11 / mi.
08. 8:13.23, 1:04:38.78, 1 mi 8:13 / mi.
09. 8:30.76, 1:13:09.55, 1 mi 8:31 / mi. - turn around
10. 8:47.25, 1:21:56.81, 1 mi 8:47 / mi.
11. 9:59.16, 1:31:55.97, 1 mi 9:59 / mi. - drink break
12. 8:12.22, 1:40:08.19, 1 mi 8:12 / mi.
13. 8:41.91, 1:48:50.11, 1 mi 8:42 / mi.
14. 2:18.25, 1:51:08.36, 0.3 mi 8:34 / mi.