I had fun racing the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Run Half Marathon (13.1 miles) this morning. The weather was good -- cool and overcast. I gave the race my best attempt, but I didn't quite go as fast as I was hoping to. I finished in 1 hour 23 minutes 31 seconds (6:22 / mile pace), but I was hoping to be 2 or 3 minutes faster. It was fun seeing so many friends on the course or volunteering. It was great seeing my wife (Jennifer) and sister (Jessica) at the finish and then walking over to the Pumpkin Festival afterwards. There were 131 finishers. I was 5th overall and 2nd in my age group.
I carpooled with my main running partner, Lauren. We warmed up together and it was fun seeing her during the race, as we crossed paths on the two out-and-backs.
Lauren and I met up with Jo and Joey.
There was a large contingent of Pacifica Runners, which is one of the running clubs that I'm a member of.
Soon enough, after warming up and using the porta-potty, we were off! it was fun seeing friends volunteering along the course, too. Some took photos of me during the race.
I met up with Mor and Mandy after the race:
Details:
- I woke up at 5am which was plenty of time to eat a light breakfast (English muffin and tea) and get to the start with time to pick up my bib and warm up. The race started at 7:15am.
- I didn't see the paid parking this year on Kelly Ave., but I found street parking on Kelly Ave.
- I drank two cups of sports drink during the race, once around mile 4 and again around mile 8.
- I had a bit of a hard time knowing my real pace because of a discrepancy between the mile markers and my GPS watch. Sometimes my watch would be reporting a slower pace, like 6:22, but then when I crossed a mile marker, the elapsed time from the previous mile marker would be like 6:08.
- Results
- Weight: 166.2 lbs
- I wore my Nike Alphafly road racing shoes. They did fine on the hard-packed dirt.
