- July 12th, 2015
- Ventura, California
- Shoreline Half Marathon
- Sharon: 2:54:19
- Tim: 2:28:48
50 down only 2 to go!
Since my last couple posts have been whiny, bitch fests, I see no reason to change my tone now. Seriously – I was hoping my last 3 race reports would be positive, inspirational, and fun to read. But alas, it was not to be. This race was a mess.
The race was on Sunday so we got a hotel Saturday night planning to get a good nights sleep before the race. Alas, that was not to be, either. Around midnight a loud girl was fighting with someone and the cops came. Then, about 2am some people decided to have a party in the courtyard right outside our window. Tim asked them to keep it down and they did, for about 5 minutes. He called the front desk and someone kicked them out. We got up at 6am. Tim commented that we would have been better off if we had skipped the hotel and just got up at 3am (the usual) to drive to Ventura.
The area we stayed at in Ventura had lots of thrift stores. I love thrift stores! I bought 2 shirts (only $3 each) and helped an animal shelter.
The HM started out at 8am, which I think is a little late for a race in July. This was one of the most disorganized races we have done. I’m glad we didn’t opt for the day of race packet pickup. There was a long, slow moving line. The MC announced that the race started in 20 minutes and people should have gotten there earlier or picked up their packets the day before. Really? – Dont offer a service and then berate people for using it. They also said they had a bag check but no one knew where it was. A pacer who needed to get to her corral was frantically trying to find the bag check. We finally got our bags checked but some of the volunteers were downright rude.
Standing in our corral we got talking to a guy name Dale who was doing a HM a month. He started running after beating cancer. This was his 26th HM. We talked to him and his wife after the race, as well.
The weather report said cool and cloudy. It lied. This was the hottest race we have done this year. We have been really lucky this summer but this race was hot and I definitely got a case of heat exhaustion. I was really worried about Tim because one of his afib triggers is heat but he had a great race (yay).
I’m glad I wore my goofy looking Hoka shoes because my feet hurt more during this HM than any other race. In spite of my not running at all during the week for the last couple of weeks, my Achilles tendon started hurting almost immedieatly, as soon as I started to run. Also, a blister popped. Did I mention my black toenails. Poor feet – I promise to rest you after 2 more races.
I did have some good conversations this race. I talked to a guy who was running with his son in the same way I run with Tim, meaning they were both way ahead of us. We ran together for about 3 miles. I also talked to a woman and her teenage daughter who were running together.
It was a beautiful course. At least they did that right. Unfortunately it was a popular path with agro guys on 10 speeds who appeared to be out for a training ride, very scary. You also had to watch out not to get clotheslined by dogs on leashes.
This race started out warm and got hot. No clouds. The last half of the race I was both sweating and had chills. I got to the point where I was walking every couple of minutes.
This race made the one unforgivable fuck up. They ran out of water. As a race director, even if you get everything else right (not something this race was guilty of) you have failed if you run out of water. The last 2 aid stations were out of water and one before it ran out of cups. I came in 380th out of 415, so there were a lot of people behind me who had a long way to go without water. The volunteers blamed the heat. I understand that people drank more because it was hot out but the heat made it even more dangerous for runners who now had no water. They had water at the end and someone could have taken water to an aid station. When I suggested it to a group of volunteers just hanging out (8 teenagers) they shrugged with a not my job attitude.
They had tacos and beer after the race but the line was so long we didn’t even bother. I felt so awful I just wanted to take a shower and go home. This was one of the most demoralizing races of this project for me. I thought I had made a breakthrough and here I am back at my old race times. Everything hurt after this race. I practically crawled the 3 blocks back to the hotel.
Next week we are doing a repeat Charlie Alewine race. That’s the race I targeted for my last PR attempt. I may need to rethink that. I want to be able to run our last race. Even if I take it easy next weekend I will still be happy to be doing a familiar race that I know has a good running surface. Damn it feet – heal.
Cons
- Chaotic bag drop
- MC berates runners in line at packet pickup
- Very hot
- Agressive bicyclists
- Crowded course
- Uninformed volunteers
- Ugly t-shirt with lots of sponsor logos
- After finish you had to walk to the other side of expo for water
- Long line for tacos and beer
- Ran out of cups
- Ran out of water! Last 2 aid stations
- An overall lack of caring about runners
Pros
- Many very nice volunteers
- Nice beach views
I hated this race. Even if they hadn’t run out of cups and water this would have been a mediocre race at best. The combination of my body falling apart (sore feet and heat) and the one fuck up after another that this HM was, mentally defeated me. I do not recommend this race. I would never recommend a race that runs out of water with almost 100 runners still on the course. Shame on you, Shoreline HM. Even carrying my own water I got a nasty case of heat exhaustion that lasted about 9 hours. Come run the beach path but don’t bother with this race. It was a mess with a bad attitude.
Oh no, what have we done? We signed up for our first full marathon. We are doing the Beat the Blerch marathon in November. I don’t think that is enough time to train for a marathon but it’s on Tim’s birthday weekend and that’s what he wants to do.
Please cheer Sharon up by leaving a comment. Come on – only 2 more chances to leave a comment.
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