Race Report - Surf City 5K 7/4/08 (Read 449 times)

This was my second running of the Surf City 5K in Huntington Beach, California. Official site: http://www.surfcityrun.com My photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/roadster1200xl/SurfCity5K2008 (taken after the race) The race is really four races: 7:00 H.B. resident's only, 8:00 open race, 8:30 stroller race, and 9:00 kids run. I ran the 7:00 race and was glad of that because the sun started coming out at 8. It was humid with the temperature in the upper 60's at the start of the race. Fortunately the marine layer kept things from heating up too much. The race is out and back, mostly flat, but the start/finish area is slightly higher in elevation than the turnaround point at the beach. We run about 1.25 miles down Main Street to the beach then go about .25 miles along Pacific Coast Highway to the turnaround point and back to the start. The elevation gain in the last half mile is not much but is noticeable. The race has a small-town feel to it with a few costumes but mostly casual runners. Lots of people along the route cheering along the runners while they await the parade that starts later in the morning. I didn't start the race close enough to the start line again this year. My main complaint about this race is they don't make an effort to tell walkers and very slow joggers to start way back. I ended up behind quite a few walkers that must have started near the front of the line and it made my first mile a bit slow. My splits were 9:27, 9:09, 8:38, and then finally 7:53 for the last tiny bit. The result was a 28:21 time which is only about 30 seconds behind my PR. Without the first mile nuttiness I probably could have beat that. And there's my second complaint about the race: at the finish line there were TWO lanes open. TWO. What were they thinking? The backup meant I couldn't even run across the finish line. Shortly after that they opened more lanes but I still am annoyed by that sudden stop right before the finish. Grrr. Anyway, it was a good way to start the holiday! Hope you all had good runs yourself!

How did the La Palma race go?