7 May 2017 - Orange County Half Marathon

This year I am working on the Beach City's running challenge. Basically, if you run the Huntington Beach, Orange County, and Long Beach Half or Full marathons you earn a special medal. It's no Dopey Challenge, but it does force me into staying in "running" shape for the whole year. This race is one of my favorites because the course covers a great deal of beautiful scenery (biased because the area is my home too).

There was a new challenge this year in the form of rain. In all my races, this can absolutely destroy a day making you feel cold/miserable as well as promoting race-killers of blisters, chafing, and other gross runner injuries. I've survived rainy races before. The toughest one happened in April 2013 in Toledo, Ohio. It was about 45-55 Deg F (7-12 Deg C). It rained for most of the whole race. Here is a throwback photo I stole (note how I am still smiling - this goes a long way to help me finish):

So Orange County, a place I moved to nearly 2 years ago to get away from bad Ohio weather, decided to keep the end-of-the-California-drought-party going. From 0530 to my start at 0640 I took shelter under a nearby office building overhang. It actually stopped for about 10 mins as the race started. Here was the starting line experience.

It proceeded to rain until about mile 4 and then the bad weather was gone permanently. I found my pace around mile 3 and for the first time since my 2016 Disney races didn't need walk breaks for a few miles. This is an amazing sensation I have rarely experienced where everything in my body is working perfectly and I feel as if I can go on forever! Due to being in the zone, I didn't take many photos. Here is my race map and finish photo. My goal was to break through the barrier of 2h 40m (last year this race took me 2h55m). My next goal is to get below 2h35m...