Running in Southern California

It is really really cold in most of the country, and I definitely feel lucky to be in Southern California for the winter! Even when it is 'cold and rainy', we can still go outside and enjoy being outdoors because it is almost never really that cold or that rainy (in comparison to other parts of the USA). Wintertime here is ideal running weather.

Last Sunday I ran the Carlsbad Half Marathon and besides being partially sunny and in the 60's, the race course was one of those beautiful Southern California Coastline runs. It reminded me of the Palos Verdes Half Marathon. They are both out-and-back courses that wind through a few neighborhoods, but mainly run along the Southern California Coastline.

Here is a little description of these race courses (for those of you interested):

The Carlsbad Half started at the Westfield Mall, wound west towards the Pacific Ocean and through cute little Downtown Carlsbad, ran south for a few miles along Highway 1 past the power stations, then turned around and came back the same route back towards the mall. They advertise it as a flat and fast course. It is definitely flatter than some races out there, but it does have a few hills. Being by the ocean, I got the chance to distract myself by looking at the boats on the water and the pelicans flying (very closely) overhead. Other nice distractions were the multimillion dollar oceanfront houses in Carlsbad that I (and almost everybody else) oogled and fantasized about living in.

The Palos Verdes Half Marathon, which I ran last Spring, has even more multimillion dollar oceanfront houses and big hills. It started at a park that overlooks the Pacific, winds up and down a road that follows the coast, runs through several neighborhoods and oceanside golf courses, then turns around and comes back to the park. The great thing about this race is that the course had some spectacular California Coastal views. And since the race is sponsored by the local Kiwanis Club, it is relatively small and has a very hometown race feel-- they served watermelon to the runners post-race.

I have to say, honestly, that I am enjoying these races a lot more describing them after-the-fact than while I was running them.

The heat at the Palos Verdes race was scorching, there was very little ground cover, and the race organizers ran out of water. People were giving runners water from their garden hoses, and I'm not sure if she was a volunteer or a good samaritan neighbor, but one woman went to the local grocery store and was handing out full bottles of water because the race ran out.

In the Carlsbad race I just wasn't feeling it and ended up with bad cramps at the end. I tried to control my pace in the beginning, but every time I checked I was going too fast in the first half. I paid for it in the second half of the race. I slowed down, but was running fine, until after the mile 12 sign when I started to cramp in my calves and hamstrings. I walked the rest of the way and must have looked pretty bad because people were trying to direct me towards the marathon finish corral instead of the half-marathon corral. Yup, I ran it slow enough that there were marathon runners finishing at the same time as I was finishing the half marathon. To my credit, the marathon started 90 minutes earlier than the half marathon-- but still, it was sort of disheartening.

Would I recommend these races to other people? Definitely! Would I run them again myself? Considering how I felt at the end of these races we'll have to wait and see on that.