Finding Momentum

My friend Lily and I have been talking of running a half-marathon since December. We signed up for the Santa Cruz Half-Marathon a couple of months ago along with a couple of friends.

Training was pretty flexible: we mostly ran on our own and starting in March got together on the weekends to run a longer-distance course. We did quite a few different routes in Berkeley: Rockridge BART, Indian Rock, the (full) Fire Trail, the Berkeley Marina, and so on. I must say it was a lot of fun.

We had a couple of friends drop out of the race because of schedule conflicts (sorry Ziwei, Jared) but in the end it was myself, Lily and Josiah that could make it on race day. We were accompanied by our friends Hannah and Jen who to hung out with us and cheered us on.

Friday night after Large Group we drove back to my house in Saratoga and stayed the night, then at the crack of dawn at 5AM, we drove into Santa Cruz. After getting our race numbers and timing chips, we headed to the starting line.

Josiah took off from the start and zoomed off to a 2nd place finish in his age group (and garnering a 9-minute PR in the process). Lily finished with a 5th place finish in her age group. I am running with beasts.

Wow, what an amazing run. The half-marathon starts on the Santa Cruz beach boardwalk and takes you by the ocean, cliffs, surf, sunshine and all. It was a warm day, so the 7AM was already pretty balmy. Perfect conditions, I tell you.

And I had a blast; I felt really good through nearly the entire run. Towards the end I could feel the strain on my knees, but that’ll solve itself in a week or so. Which already has me thinking of another race: anybody want to run a full marathon?

We all hung out at the beach & boardwalk afterwards, with nothing to do but rest and shoot the breeze. The sand & surf were amazing. What a feeling. I can’t get over it.

Photos! Thanks Jen!

Who me? The Prince of Darkness?

Lily and Josiah warm up.

Josiah, myself, Lily, Jen and Hannah at the finish line.

Hanging out at the Boardwalk afterwards.

Related posts

1. I’m running a marathon. My buddies Matt, Josiah, Tony and I had been talking...
2. On the SF Marathon: A thank you, some more thoughts, and photos to top it off Before we begin, let me say THANK YOU to all...
3. One day before the race I'm feeling a mix of anticipation and excitement ("wow! a...