TALES FROM THE TRAIL (AND SOMETIMES THE ROAD TOO)

Showing posts with label Huntington Beach. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Huntington Beach. Show all posts

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Surf City 5K

February 2008 I ran my first "Run Surf City" event.  The wind blew hard and it poured rain.  It was pretty miserable, but I did get a pretty cool finisher's medal and ended up with great pictures of me drenched and all.  Well, those Surf City people really know how to hook people like me, people who are easily amused with shiny things. 

After that 2008 race, I received an e-mail with this information:  run any Surf City event three years in a row,  become a Longboard Legacy Club member, get a special shirt and a neat little emblem to attach to my finishers medal.  I bought. 

And so today, 38 races later, and nearly 2,000 miles later, I woke at 5:00 AM, to head out to Huntington Beach for my third year Surf City event.  Storming all week, I feared a repeat of '08.  Fortunately, that didn't happen.  Instead, we had blue skies with majestic white puffy clouds.

I parked at the Civic Center (for free!) and took a shuttle in (a big yellow school bus : ).  My whole intention for this race was just to run and have good time.  That I did.  The race was well organized, sending us off in waves (I love that, because it thins the masses).  I took off in the third wave and just simply ran.  I didn't really feel like I was racing; I was just running and listening to my music.  I really didn't care for a personal record either.  In fact, I don't like 5k's much because it takes me about 4 miles to warm up and gain top speed.  5k's are only 3.11 miles.  Heck; I don't even care about speed anyway.  I just like running them races, and finishing : )
2010 Surf City 5k Finishing Medal -- The yellow piece just beneath the Surf City logo is my piece for being a Longboard Legacy Club Member.
 
Hanging Among My Shiny Things

Final Stats:
Clock time: 31:18 (not a pr, but happy with)
placed 33 out of 183 females ages 40-44
placed 348 out of 1,636 females
placed 771 out of 2,494 runners