20 Miler (Including The Santa Barbara Half) Recap

So this past Saturday, November 10th, Travis, E-dog and I completed the Santa Barbara Half. We seem to have this theme going this year, which I don't necessarily recommend, where we tend to not look at the course map ahead of time (you'll read about that later).

The morning was brisk! Very windy and chilly. Due to a little lack of planning by the organizers, there was about a 15 minute start delay due to the abundance of runners needing to take shuttle buses to the start. That's cool though because they acknowledged it. I guess by Travis parking near the start, that helped us out, BUT we really decided to do that so that we could get an extra 7 miles in after the race to complete a long 20 mile training run. I must say, people looked confused and it was kind of weird to be running "home" to the car in the opposite direction, on the other side of the road as the full marathoners were still out there! One spectator asked why I was coming from another direction and I quickly explained what I was doing so I didn't look "cray" LOL.

So to back track, in celebration of Veteran's Day, there was a flyby before the start along with a bag piper and a bugler. Even more inspirational was the fact that a little 13 year old girl who was in a wheel chair and on a breathing apparatus was going to be pushed the entire race by her parents; her first half marathon.

The race was nice, taking us down the streets, through a bike path (a little narrow with all the runners), through neighborhoods and ultimately along the beach. There were some rolling hills and pretty views. The big surprise came at mile 10 when low and behold a very long hill! As I mentioned earlier, we didn't bother with the course map. It lasted for about 3/4 of a mile. I'm proud to say I ran up every dang hill that day, held a consistent pace and drafted accordingly, looking ahead to see every turn as our coaches had taught us. Dare I say I have "mastered" the "grab a water cup and turn it into a little spout you can run with" technique that Coach Tim had taught us a long time ago. :) I had a nice strong finish and turned in the time I had wanted in order to still do 7 more miles afterwards (goal was a 2:10 or less; did about a 2:08-ish). The race volunteers provided us with mini flags to run to the finish with. The last leg had flags lined up on both sides. Soldiers were in uniform cheering us in and they were saying thanks for running, as I was thanking them for their service. What they do is above and beyond to protect our country; glad we were able to show support by running. Thanks for reading and as always, below are photos!

Thanks Brightroom for the photo "proof."

Of course Travis is looking at his watch, not the camera.

Yes, Ernie and I are still goofing around after 20 miles.