A year ago I ran this race and found myself texting back and forth with my boss about vampire lore. He apologized for interrupting my Saturday and asked what I was up to and I told him I was on a bus to run a marathon. He insisted I stop working and do whatever I needed to do to prep for the race. I tried to explain that by the time you’re on the bus if you’re not prepared already it’s probably too late. Plus, I’d run enough races that while I’m always nervous and worried and anxious, I’m also sorta arrogantly shrugging my shoulders with the wisdom that comes from rolling the pedometer time and again — it is what it is. Hope for the best, plan for the worst as Jack Reacher might say. But in my reality, it’s hope for the best and kinda just wing it.
Today there were no texts to or from my boss. Just the usual stressful ordeal of worry revolving around finding the parking lot, getting my bib, getting on a bus and hoping the driver knows where to go. All that went relatively smoothly, save for the weather. The drizzle that marred my drive down to Huntington Beach turned to a windy pelting as I walked from the bib pickup to the bus and I found myself drenched. It was a harbinger of the day itself — we didn’t have ALL the weather, but we had a lot of it.
The rain gave way to a brief peek of the sun which heated things up quickly. But fret not, clouds continued rolling on by, and the sun traded off with rain time and again… and at one stage the precipitous drop in temperature due to the precipitation caused hail to rain from the heavens. And the wind was a constant… a head wind for 20 some odd miles with only minor breaks. Someone mentioned the race director’s claim that we’d have the wind at our backs was because there was a misunderstanding of how winds are reported — when they say 15 mph South with gusts up to 25 or 30, such reportage is about the origin of the winds, not the direction it is blowing. So as we were running south, the winds were right in our faces the whole way. And sometimes with hail hitting us square in the jaw. In vampire parlance, that kinda sucked.
But the sunshine was nice… if again in vampire parlance, a bit toasty and damning.
Brief comment on above — I’m just not sure that cable is in the best position given that 150+ people are going to be trying to run through that arch.
And a brief comment on the below — I think when I uploaded the pics they didn’t “finish” in order — it was just whichever one was smallest in size or had the best connection in any given moment. I’m too tired to double check but I think they’re mostly in the right numerical sequence for miles… but if not, well, to hell with it.
FYI – the banzai surf school wasn’t open when I arrived in the parking lot at 6:13 AM (took awhile to pay for parking because not everybody read the instructions that we should bring exact change of $15 to speed this process along). It also wasn’t opened when I left the parking lot around noon. Not sure WHEN the banzai surf school is open — maybe it’s one of those “you have to be invited in” places. Ya know, like vampires.
Callback! Bringing it round! You’re welcome, internet!
[Maybe there’s a reason I’m not currently getting paid to write anything.]